Under Olivares' guidance, Fast Forward reaches deep into surrounding high schools in myriad ways, starting with professional development that shows teachers how to help students rise to the challenge of college-level work. Fast Forward also offers in-school classes and after-school primers to prepare students for college and for life on campus. Students who pass the in-school class automatically earn three college credits if they enroll at Fresno State.
Once Fast Forward students arrive at Fresno State, they get more information about college success in courses that include the bonus of a free laptop computer. In exchange for Fast Forward's efforts on their behalf, students in the program must fulfill a community-service requirement and write a report about the experience.
It's a small price to pay, says Fresno State freshman Adan Herrera, who enrolled in the Fast Forward course as a senior at Firebaugh High School, 45 minutes north of Fresno, and continued in the program after enrolling in college.
"It made us aware of the environment, what it's like to go to college, how classes are set up, how to manage our time, study and increase our study habits," recalls Adan, the youngest of five siblings. His parents are both Mexican immigrants with a third-grade education, yet - surprisingly - all five of the Herrera children attended college.
Adan, 17, insists that Fast Forward students "are not as 'lost' as most freshmen who might have come to a campus only once. I know it put me in a very good spot. I'm familiar with the campus, I know where to find what I need, the counselors and tutoring labs, and I know what I need to do to succeed."
Officials say that, without the foundation established in the high schools, Fast Forward and EAP cannot succeed at the college level. An important key is to help teachers align high school lessons with on-campus realities.
 | Victor Olivares, director of the Fast Forward to Academic Success program at Fresno State, and Esmeralda Ortiz, Early Awareness Program at the university, have seen early-intervention efforts pay off on their campus. |
"There is a gap between what is expected of a high school student and what is expected of a college student," says Ortiz, Fresno State's EAP co-coordinator. "Our goal is to give the students and the high schools an idea of what is expected in college."
Although EAP has been in place only three years, Olivares is already seeing the gap narrow at Fresno State, especially in math scores. Prior to EAP and Fast Forward, he says, between 80 percent and 90 percent of low-income Fresno State freshmen from certain high schools were failing math. That figure has now dropped below 50 percent. Olivares insists that progress is a direct result of the decision to combine EAP with Fast Forward, a concept that other Cal State schools are thinking about implementing on their campuses.
"We can observe every student profile and status," he points out. "We can tell where they need help. And we're not taking a shotgun approach to addressing the problems anymore. We can tell teachers: 'Don't worry about six areas; worry about these three specific areas.'"
Though still in its formative stages, the Early Assessment Program gets cautious praise from California's secondary school community. The first students to take the STAR exam and follow through with EAP courses as high school seniors are now college sophomores. Time and completion rates will demonstrate whether the program is truly effective.
Right now, there are not enough data to truly prove the program's effectiveness, and, according to Rebecca Sanchez, learning director at Kerman High School, it "does not seem to be a predictor" of how well students will do in college.
Bitter points out, however, that exposing seniors to college-quality work gives them a glimpse of their potential for success in higher education. "It's a push sometimes to get them to learn more about the material, but knowing they can do it here is an extra little carrot to make them work harder," she said.
Johanna Macias wasn't always happy about grinding through the same geometric equations until she got them right. But, midway through her senior year at Kerman High, she came to appreciate the lessons delivered by Bitter and perfected by a Fast Forward software program that - just like her teacher - refuses to accept an incorrect answer.
Come June, the first phase of Johanna's journey, the one that runs through Mrs. Bitter's classroom, will end. And she'll embark on another journey, this time on a road not taken by anyone in her family - the trip across the stage to receive a high school diploma. Two months later, Johanna plans to be at Fresno State, where a new path - even multiple paths - will stretch before her, leading to a world of potential.
