New tutoring program at CSUSB Palm Desert Campus gets local high school students ready for college

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PALM DESERT, Calif. - Cal State San Bernardino's Palm Desert Campus has introduced a new tutoring program to help raise English and math skills of bilingual Coachella Valley high school students.

The program is designed to help students entering the College of the Desert to be qualified to enroll in courses transferable to the California State University system.

The STRIDE program - Students Tutored Readily into Direct Entrance - uses tutoring and exposure to the Accuplacer Test, which is used as the primary placement tool at College of the Desert, the community college located in Palm Desert. The test measures a high school senior's math, reading and comprehension skills.

Students desiring to enter the PDC nursing program complete their general education classes at College of the Desert. Unless the students are able to pass English and math placement exams, they may be required to enroll in several remediation classes. This can extend their time to transfer as much as a year. This innovative program, sponsored by California Wellness, has the objective to graduate more nurses in a shorter time.

STRIDE was designed to help by offering tutoring in small groups and exposure to the Accuplacer Test in order to improve the performance of students on the test and thus shorten the time they will spend at the community college level prior to transferring to a CSU.

The program will first target 27 seniors at Cathedral City High School interested in pursuing careers in nursing. The students will then be assessed to determine their individual learning styles and whether a tutoring program is necessary.

Professional Tutors of America, Inc. will do the tutoring. The goal is to increase the number of students as the program grows.

"The work being done at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus in recruitment, tutoring and remediation efforts for nursing students has been extremely valuable to our students at Cathedral City High School this year," said guidance counselor Ruth Kwake. "I foresee many more opportunities for collaboration in the future as our high school and college programs work to address some of the obstacles facing students making the transition from high school to college."

The test will be offered through the tutoring program to show students a broad assessment of their skills and knowledge, as well as the progressive analysis of their skills to emphasize the importance of preparation for the Accuplacer Test.

"The STRIDE project would provide COD with valuable information as to which models might be most effective in helping local high school students to prepare for the placement exam," said Adrian Gonzales, dean of student support programs and services at College of the Desert.

Some preliminary results show that after receiving even a minimal amount of tutoring, students' test scores have improved.

Costs for the STRIDE tutoring program will be paid for by a grant from The California Wellness Foundation awarded to the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus.

For more information about the STRIDE program, contact Karina Quintanilla at (760) 341-2883, ext. 78135 or kquintan@csusb.edu.

For more information on Cal State San Bernardino's Palm Desert Campus, contact Mike Singer at (760) 341-2883, ext. 78107 and visit the campus Web site at pdc.csusb.edu.

Cal State San Bernardino's Palm Desert Campus has introduced a new tutoring program to help raise English and math skills of bilingual Coachella Valley high school students.