San Antonio Colleges Aim To Increase Hispanic Math Proficiency

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — A pair of San Antonio colleges have secured a $3.7 million grant aimed at narrowing the educational achievement gap among Hispanic students, officials recently announced.

The U.S. Department of Education grant via the agency's Hispanic-Serving Institutions Cooperative Program was awarded to Northwest Vista College and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Officials at the former college will utilize the grant to create enhanced pathways for academic success with an innovative, community centered approach to teaching math skills designed to better prepare under-served Hispanic students pursuing careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

The need for such enhanced outreach is illustrated in academic studies, including one that shows only 29 percent of Hispanic college graduates are meeting college-level readiness for math. Such low math mastery data among Hispanics is alarming, Northwest Vista College officials said, particularly given that math is interconnected and intertwined in every STEM course and career option.

The absence of a solid mathematics foundation results in lost educational and career opportunities in STEM and other math-intensive career fields, particularly for Hispanics who form part of a traditionally under-served community, officials noted.

To mitigate the low-achievement trend, the project will focus on teaching prospective teachers at both institutions myriad mindset skills to help them exponentially enhance their own math proficiency, while concurrently enabling them to better understand the dynamics behind their target student population.

Dubbed "math fellows, these teacher-students will then be poised to provide one-on-one math education to parents in selected community centers throughout under-served parts of the city. The goal is to create a community of parents who will help their children be successful in math.

The program is tightly focused on parent-community engagement, officials noted. Working at community centers located in under-served neighborhoods will help prospective teachers (those so-called "math fellows") better understand the complex issues unique to under-served populations — poverty and social inequity to name two challenges — while engaging families as stakeholders in the success of their children.

Dr. Ric Basar, president of Northwest Vista College (NVC), said the program is an offshoot of years-long efforts at the school to make positive and long-lasting impacts in the community. "Several years ago, NVC began a journey to change the way we teach and offer out students math, which we know is a major barrier for many students," Basar said. "This grant will also allow us to take our innovative approach to math into the communities and have a greater impact on incoming college students."

For her part, Silbia Esparza of San Antonio Time Dollar — a A 14-member group of church and community leaders actively involved in effecting neighborhood improvements — noted the personal empowerment that results among parents undergoing the training. She specifically cited the example of Ignacia Cruz, a community math teacher who went through the program.

"Once they [parents] discovered they could learn math, their level of confidence sky-rocketed, and they felt empowered," Esparza said. "They were taught to, in turn, teach their children. We began to see how their children's math skills improved significantly."

The project was originally started ten years ago by a student teacher working on her thesis at Stanford University, officials noted. While teaching math skills at a local community center in San Antonio, she noticed that when mothers learned basic math and algebra skills, their children’s math skills improved significantly. As a result, mothers were taught various ways to teach their children with unique cultural sensitivities taken into account.

The method proved highly successful, and teachers began to see these student’s math grades improve. University officials plan to implement the program's objectives toward producing positive and long-term results for the city's under-served communities, officials said. The hope is to impact the public education cycle breadth, from pre-K through college, according to Northwest Vista officials.

The grant covers costs related to personnel training, maintenance of the program and upgrade of technology in community centers participating in the program, officials added.

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>>> Photos of campus provided by Northwest Vista College