Most Students Saw at Least a 10-Point Jump in Test Scores
Of the 65 students who began in Smart Path, 53 completed the full program. Fifty students retook the Accuplacer test after the two weeks of intensive study. Thirty-seven of the 50 students improved their scores by 10 points or more in at least one category. Required scores vary by test and by the MATC program the student is entering. But in many cases, a 10-point increase is enough to move a student from "conditionally admitted" status to being a "fully admitted" student, for example.

Cochran needed a significant increase in his mathematics score to reach "fully admitted" status. He dedicated himself to succeeding in the Smart Path mathematics class. "This was the first time I had to go to summer school in my life, but if that's what I needed to go to college, it was worth it," Cochran said.

Sometimes it's just one concept that holds a student back, Cochran said. "I couldn't figure out how to simplify fractions. I was making it more complicated than it had to be. Once the instructor went through and explained it to me the right way, I got it. It made sense." Upon retesting, Cochran's Accuplacer mathematics score more than doubled.

Now he's working on general course requirements while he is on the waiting list for entering the Computer Simulation and Gaming associate degree program.

English instructor Linda Presberry, who worked with students on sentence skills and reading comprehension, also found that certain concepts were holding her students back. "Those are smart young people," she said. "They just lacked middle-class business vocabulary. For instance, it never occurred to them that there might be multiple meanings for one word. This is nothing new. We've known since the ?60s that a lot of tests don't measure things fairly because vocabulary is different from culture to culture. So I worked with them on vocabulary."

Students Very Anxious to Learn
Presberry said that her students were eager to learn. "They're at a juncture in life when they're searching for something. Class didn't begin until 9 a.m., but I often?arrived on campus by 7:30 or 8 a.m. There was always a group of students waiting for me when I got to work. As soon as I'd unlock the door, they'd go to their computers and start working. Some students didn't have computers at home. Lack of access to resources holds inner city kids back."

After the two-week session, 22 students went on to participate in the "Earn and Learn" program financed by the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board (MAWIB). MAWIB paid those students to work the rest of the summer at a variety of jobs, as well as offering classes in "soft skills" related to preparing them for success in the workplace.

"The major goal of the Smart Path program is to get these students to be program ready at the time of admission, and to be more developed and ready for the workplace," said Brunnetta Soward, MATC director of recruiting. "To see the students' confidence increase and to see the serious attitudes about taking the Accuplacer test was wonderful. I heard students say they felt better prepared for college and knew what they needed to do to pursue an education that would lead to a successful career."

This was the first time Smart Path included so many hours of intensive studies. During the two prior summers, MPS and MATC held six-hour Smart Path sessions intended to teach the students how to use the computer to take the Accuplacer tests.

"For years, I'd heard counselors from MPS ask if there was something MATC could do to help their students," Soward said. "This was the plan we came up with and I believe it really worked. We're trying hard to get an earlier read on which students need extra help."

Another goal of the program was to give students the chance to be on a college campus, and to give them the feel of going on to school.

The program helped Cochran prepare for college as soon as he stepped on campus in June. "I felt like I was having a college experience," he said. "It felt good, and it wasn't a big, scary deal when I walked into college classes on the first day."