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Highlands Today

Going Back To College

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

From left: Freshman Joe Delisle solves percentage problems on a math lab as his teacher, Kellie Zimmer, helps him and his classmate, Ben Farris, during their Pre-Algebra class at South Florida Community College on Tuesday in Avon Park.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: October 1, 2008

AVON PARK - Here's the problem: you're buying a $1,200 refrigerator. It's 20 percent off. So what's the real price?

The sales tax is 7.5 percent. Do you apply the tax to the $1,200, or the 20 percent off price?

You're writing a check. How much should you pay?

If your final answer isn't $1,032, consider a developmental math course.

"A lot of people didn't get it in high school," said Kellie Zimmer, one of three developmental education instructors at South Florida Community College.

At the center table in Room 209 at the University Center are three freshmen who didn't get it in high school, for three different reasons.

Derek Gorman, from Avon Park, says the FCAT got teachers and students off track. "We weren't learning what we needed to know."

Ben Farris, from Sebring, feels capable of learning math skills. But some teachers are better at teaching, he said, and pointed to Zimmer.

Joe Delisle of Orlando admitted to not paying enough attention in high school. Even today, he's having the most fun in his group of three, which has been working together on the same problem. They asked Zimmer a question about converting percentages to decimals, and realized they'd arrived at the right answer.

"We did it," Delisle pumped two fists in the air, and started singing. "We are the champions."

So here they are, in Zimmer's preparatory mathematics class, at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Right now, they're learning percentages and decimals. Later, it'll be introductory algebra. Both are non-credit courses.

Zimmer, who has been teaching developmental courses for five years, has seen a 50 percent dropout rate. Either students get too discouraged, or they find another reason not to finish the course.

How many take developmental - it used to be called remedial - level courses, and then earn college degrees? That number isn't easy to come by, but don't miss the point. Without these courses, some students wouldn't even come back to college.

To pass her course, students need three basic things, Zimmer says: ability, time and motivation.

Tashara Negron was asked some simple math questions.

What's four plus four? Eight, she replied. She either memorized or added the numbers in her head. Eight times eight? Sixty-four. So she has the ability, Zimmer said.

"I've been out of school 10 years," said Negron. "I have a lot of catching up to do."

At that point, Beth Andrews came in. She teaches developmental English. Her students lack in sentence level skills. What does that mean?

"They have the ability to communicate, orally, very well," Andrews said. "And they text each other, and e-mail."

The difference seems to be that students with good e-mail and texting skills emulate each other.

So the students without good sentence skills?

"There is a strong connection between reading and writing," Andrews said.

See where this is going? It's what educators and parents always known. Students who read a lot write well. And when parents read to their children, they're more successful in school.

What about math, Zimmer was asked. Do the students whose parents helped their kids with math do better?

Yes, she answered. However, some parents are afraid to help their children.

"But it's the number one thing you can do to make child successful," Zimmer added.

That includes non-English speaking parents, Andrews said. Reading to children in a second language helps them learn English.

In this class, the students are in their teens and 20s. In the evening classes, students tend to be older, Zimmer said. But there's no need for students of any age to be embarrassed about developmental classes.

"I was a developmental student myself," said Andrews, now a middle-aged woman. "When I returned to college at the age of 25, my mathematics skills were not good enough for me to enter college algebra. Instead, I was placed into preparatory algebra, which gave me the skills to ultimately earn by bachelor's degree."

And now, she's teaching.

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

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