SHORELINE - It’s always impressive when students work hard and excel in their studies.  Recently, Shoreline Community College business students went beyond stellar grades, and won a number of awards at an international career development conference.  On top of that, two SCC business professors also won awards. 

Members and advisors of Shoreline Community College Delta Epsilon Chi (DECA) attended the 2008 International Career Development Conference April 12 – 15, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia.  The students participated in leadership and professional development activities and competed within various events related to marketing and management.  DECA is an international organization for college students focused on business careers. 

Students Sandra Metz and Cassie Zieglar were National Finalists in the Sports & Entertainment Marketing event; Binh Nguyen placed second in the Design Presentation event; and David Lim and Alex Chan paired up for a third place finish in the International Marketing Event.  Amanuel Yihdego earned a Certificate of Proficiency in the Entrepreneurship event and   Yin Xu competed in the Marketing Management competition.

College DEC advisors were also recognized at the conference.  Dr. Laura Portolese Dias received the Advisor of the Year award.  Portolese Dias has served on the National Post-Secondary Council for the past two years, served as Washington’s Fall Leadership Conference coordinator for several years and has published two textbooks.  David Starr was awarded the Honorary Life Member award.  This award is the highest award that DECA/DEC bestows upon its members.  Starr has been active within DECA/DEC for over 25 years and has served in leadership roles at the local, state and national levels.

For information about the business program at Shoreline Community College, please check out the web site at http://www.shoreline.edu/busad/.

A number of studies have found that high school students across the country rank low in international math knowledge.  In fact, the National Assessment of Educational Progress finds that more than a third of those tested possess below basic math aptitude.  More than 20 percent of college freshmen were found to require remedial mathematics coursework, and 46 percent of high school graduates who enter Washington's two-year colleges directly after high school need to take pre-college math before they are ready for credit math courses.  Even more alarming, a student who passes the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) does not necessarily have the skills needed to handle college level math courses. 

The national Transition Mathematics Project (TMP) was designed to help students gain the knowledge and skills needed to move successfully from high school to college math coursework and ultimately into the global workforce. 

In 2006, Shoreline Community College and the Shoreline School District received a one-year Transition Math Project grant  from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is renewable for up to three years to help high school students move successfully from high school to college math coursework. 

The grant provides for the coordination of SCC’s developmental math courses and the high school math courses with the new state readiness standards. 

SCC math instructor, Nirmala Savage and Shorecrest High School teacher, Marilyn Leverson are co-directors of the Shoreline Transition Math Project.  Now in the second year of the grant, the team is working to compare high school and college courses with the College Readiness Standards so that the gaps can be addressed and transitions can be smoother.

The grant also provided funding for the Social and Economic Science Research Center at Washington State University to track how well high school students from the Shoreline School District transitioned to college coursework at Shoreline.  They looked at the relationship between high school math courses taken and grades received, and how well students performed on college math placement tests and subsequent classes at Shoreline. 

Findings will be available early in 2008 and once the analysis is studied, the issues will be addressed.  These findings will be posted online at  www.transitionmathproject.org/standards.  Ultimately, the study’s impact will be to improve preparation for college-level work.  The desired results are still several years out as new curricula are designed, put into place, and completed by students who then graduate from high school with increased skills.   

A team of mathematics instructors at Shoreline have already developed a new course for students at SCC, called Mathematics Success Strategies, Math 081, which students take concurrently with beginning algebra.    The class is available fall, winter and spring quarters. 

At Shorecrest High School, teachers are teaching related units as modules in their regular math classes.  Shoreline faculty and Shorecrest teachers worked together to identify the important elements of Mathematics Success Strategies.

Other activities of Shoreline’s Transition Math Project grant include student outreach efforts and the use of Agile Mind software in Shorecrest math classes.