Will GED® intensive Math camps increase the number of GED®s?” BSCTC will share their plan for increasing GED®s by targeting students who need 1-2 tests (Math) to complete the GED®. BSCTC will share their plan including reaching out to targeted students, a refined curriculum, incentives, and a rigorous Math camp in hopes to increase their GED®s.
Product Overview
Due to limited time for the PLC product, the BSCTC PLC decided to target students who had completed most of their GED®. The majority of these students had not passed the Math portion so we decided to focus on Math and hold Math camps in each of our counties. Each county decided on the schedule for their math camp.
-
- Magoffin-evenings
- Johnson-2 evenings.
- Floyd-4 days w/morning hours (9-Noon).
- Pike-4 evenings of class time; testing on Friday. Then 2 weeks later, a Friday evening and Saturday daytime of class time.
- Virtual–2 evenings
Instructors created a math curriculum for the math camp, utilizing worksheets and IXL practice.
After completing math camp, students were to be Ready tested.
Mastery Moments
The focused Math curriculum and IXL practice curriculum was developed and used with students outside Math camp to reach GED® success and will be used in the future. Over 30 GED®s were achieved during the PLC process but we can’t say they were a direct result of the GED® Math camps. One successful student showed up because Saturday was his only available day to work on his GED® so we plan to offer more flexible schedules for such students. Students were excited about the incentives so we hope to offer similar incentives in the future.
Messy Moments
Student participation was the biggest problem we had. Even students who voiced interest did not show up for the camp. In the future, we plan to use the resources we created and work with individual students as their schedule allows, rather than schedule camps for larger groups of students. One county had to cancel camp due to Covid.
Evaluation
Using KAERS and GED® manager data, we noted the GED®s earned and noted the activity these students had completed. We had 37 GED®s from September through December, but only a few of these were related to the math camp. Several students who were already enrolled with us before the math camp have since completed the math portion and graduated.
- Floyd Co: Three students attended. One student was also regularly attending scheduled classes and completed her GED® credential as a result.
- Johnson Co: One student attended math camp, but was also regularly attending scheduled classes, completed her GED® credential. Another student attended math camp and completed her GED® credential as a result.
- Magoffin Co: Cancelled due to Covid-19.
- Virtual: Cancelled due to no enrollment.
- Pike Co: Three students participated in some way with the math camp. Two of them were already enrolled with us and were already attending day classes. Of those two, one successfully completed the math portion of the GED® test, but still has another section to complete before graduating.
During this project, we determined our students didn’t seem interested in math camp-style classes. Though they might be interested in alternative class schedules (evenings/weekends). Perhaps focusing on one subject and reaching out to students who still need that subject will get one or two students at a time to complete the program. But, overall, we feel our math camps were not a success.
Moving Forward
We hope to develop relationships with students in hopes to bring in more students. We plan to continue a fast track GED® learning plan, meeting the individual needs of students as they ready test. We will use the resources we gathered for this project such as the targeted curriculum, lesson plans and worksheets, We will use IXL practice, along with other programs We also plan to offer flexible scheduling, as needed by students.