Johanna Macias is on the road to college, but her road isn't straight, and it's not exactly the road less traveled. In fact, it's one that Johanna, a 17-year-old high school senior, traverses over and over again, thanks to a recurrent roadblock: mathematics. Fortunately, Johanna has a good guide - math teacher Carol Bitter. And Bitter, backed by nothing less than the entire California State University system, does all she can to help Johanna reach her destination.
For Johanna, the journey starts at Kerman High School, a group of low-slung cinder-block and pre-fabricated buildings on a dusty campus 18 miles west of Fresno in California's Central Valley. The Valley is all about agriculture: acre after green acre of cotton and grape fields, orange trees and almond groves.
The rhythms of nature support Kerman's 11,200 residents, and they rule the lives of those who harvest, process and transport the Valley's crops. It's a cycle of back-breaking labor and poverty - one that is all too often repeated one generation after the next. If that cycle is to be halted, it will start with fathers such as Delfino Macias, an unschooled mechanic who has instilled in his daughter an unwavering belief that she will be the first in her family to graduate from high school and also the first to earn a college degree.
Through an innovative initiative known as the Early Assessment Program (EAP), the California State University system is playing a huge role in helping Delfino Macias realize that dream for his children. And it began with a test Johanna took during her third year at Kerman High School.
 | Johanna Macias |
The 15-question test, called the STAR exam, is given on a voluntary basis to every high school junior in the state as part of the mandatory California Standards Exam. The STAR test is a key component of the EAP because it helps gauge students' readiness for college-level math and language arts. If students intent on continuing their education exhibit weaknesses in those areas, the EAP kicks in during the senior year with special classes, software and tutoring.
"The whole point is that seniors know when they come back to school in August what they need to do by May to get ready for college," explains Esmeralda Ortiz, co-coordinator of the program at California State University, Fresno. That early-warning system can go a long way toward eliminating the need for remediation during the freshman and sophomore years at college.
The system is by no means fully adopted in California. For one thing, the EAP score is not factored into the admission process at Cal State's 23 colleges and universities. What's more, neither the University of California (UC) system nor the state's community colleges are participating in EAP. The program, now in its third year, is an outgrowth of a statewide initiative aimed at eliminating remediation by 2007. That goal won't be fully reached until the community colleges and the UC system embrace the effort. Nevertheless, EAP is expected to have a huge and positive impact on the state's public higher education institutions and the students they serve.
By resolving problem areas while in high school, students can avoid spending valuable time and tuition dollars on remedial courses. And less remediation means colleges and universities can speed students' paths to graduation, a cost savings for the institutions as well.
