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UW-Stout garners grant
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by Pamela Buechel
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
After being named the recipient of a federal grant earlier this month, the University of Wisconsin-Stout is working to expand its "innovative" approach to teaching algebra.
UW-Stout will receive a $450,000 grant over a period of three years from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
This is the first time that UW-Stout has received the award, and it was the only school in Wisconsin to receive the grant in 2006.
The money will be put toward the school's Math Teaching and Learning Center, which uses a combination of classroom lectures, online homework and learning aides to teach students.
"A study was conducted a few years ago to tell us what things were causing students to drop out of college after their first year, and the number one drop-out predictor was taking [and failing] a math class," said Jeanne Foley, Math TLC director. "Forty percent of incoming freshman take those classes, so we figured it was the best thing to improve upon."
According to FIPSE, the program, now in its third year, is proving to be a success for students.
The approach has achieved a 61 percent reduction and 23 percent reduction of failure and withdrawal rates in Beginning Algebra and Intermediate Algebra respectively, according to a FIPSE statement. The program's assessment is based on its long-term impact on course outcomes and school retention rates.
The technology-enhanced classroom is dedicated to students in introductory algebra classes. Teachers and students are available to tutor students who are struggling with the material, which increases the one-on-one time students can have with teachers.
Additionally, special software in the lab allows students to get immediate feedback from homework and online help for each problem 24 hours a day.
Foley said the grant was given to expand the innovative approach and to expand the program to other UW system campuses, including UW-Madison.
"[The money] will be used for running summer workshops for other schools in the UW System; this way other schools can get a similar program set up," Foley said.
UW-Madison sophomore Anne Kaar, who struggled with Calculus 221, said she thinks the added one-on-one time with instructors would be beneficial to students.
"The program sounds like it would be more helpful than what is offered now," Kaar said. "Here, there's not a lot of one-on-one time. We have two lectures and a discussion, so there's not much time to interact with teachers."
But UW mathematics professor Robert Wilson said launching the program at UW-Madison might not match the success seen at UW-Stout.
"The different UW campuses don't have the same courses because there are different emphases at different campuses — this affects what is taught at each of the campuses," Wilson said. "Just because it works at Stout doesn't mean it'll have the same effect in Madison."
Anonymous (November 8, 2006 @ 8:21pm):
Comment/clarification from Dr. Jeanne Foley, FIPSE grant project director at UW-Stout:
The statement attributed to me in this article stating that the grant would be used to "expand the program to other UW system campuses, including UW-Madison", is misleading as quoted. The grant will allow our UW-Stout staff to offer workshops to any UW system schools that are interested in setting up a program similar to ours. There is no obligation for any campus to participate. Dr. Wison from UW-Madison is entirely correct in noting that the UW-Madison student population is different from ours at UW-Stout, and that the courses offered and the numbers of students taking those courses vary between campuses. Our goal in carrying out the FIPSE grant project is to offer to those schools experiencing high failure and withdrawal rates in introductory algebra courses the opportunity to find out what we've done in the past two years on our campus to improve the success of students in these two courses.
