HOUSTON (Feb. 29, 2012) – Lone Star College System has been awarded the Gulf Coast Partners Achieving Student Success grant for $1,175,000 over the next three years to aid in college awareness, readiness and education initiatives.
The grant is aimed at helping prepare high school students heading to college and accelerating the progress of college students through the developmental, pre-college level math and English.
The LSCS effort as part of the grant, the LSCS College Awareness Readiness and Education Initiative (CARE), will be led by LSC-CyFair and LSC-North Harris along with the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District and Spring Independent School District.
The CARE initiative will use a variety of strategies to help high school students avoid having to take developmental study classes while in college and in turn, help raise the students’ achievement level.
“Lone Star College System is committed to student success,” said Dr. Steve Head, president of LSC-North Harris. “We are excited to partner with our ISDs to make sure students graduate from high school college-ready. “
LSCS has identified several ways to achieve the goals in the grant by addressing both the instructional and student support needs for students. The partnering ISDs will add support from their level for both students and parents – to build college knowledge and understanding about the expectations of college.
Lone Star College will create courses to help first year college students accelerate their completion of developmental coursework to reach college level classes faster.
“Right now, some students spend too much time trying to get up to speed at how to be a college student,” said Head. “LSCS wants to work with the school districts to find out how we can better prepare high students for the shift from high school to college level classes that may cause them trouble – primarily in mathematics and English.”
The grant, awarded by the Community College Leadership Program at The University of Texas at Austin, has been made possible by Houston Endowment.
With 75,000 students in credit classes, and a total enrollment of more than 90,000, Lone Star College System is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, and the fastest-growing community college system in Texas. Dr. Richard Carpenter is the chancellor of LSCS, which consists of six colleges including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, LSC-Tomball and LSC-University Park, five centers, LSC-University Center at Montgomery, LSC-University Center at University Park, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. To learn more visit LoneStar.edu.