By Taylor James Staff Writer
East Central College is introducing a different type of tutoring this year and bringing in more success coaches from a Title III grant.
This new form of tutoring is called Supplemental Instruction (S.I.)and it is brand new to ECC. The goal of SI is to help students who are taking high risk courses and they put a former student who did well in that class previously. SI is part of ECC’s Title III grant whose goal is to increase retention and student success overall. One of the biggest benefits of SI is that for SI supported courses, if a student attends four to five sessions over the semester, they’ll get a half a letter grade or a full letter grade better in that course.
According to Cassidy Litle, ECC’s SI Coordinator, ”SI benefits everyone, sometimes academic support gets this bad rap, if a student feels like they’re not doing well and in trouble and they get told to utilize them. SI is different, it’s there from day one and it’s for everybody because all students can benefit.” Litle states that a high performing student can benefit from SI just as much as someone who is struggling with that course. So how does SI work? The former student gets hired by Litle and he trains them to put on voluntary study sessions where students can collaborate and learn from each other.
Another part of ECC’s Title III grant was bringing in more success coaches. A success coach is a coach that helps a student strive to reach their goals while at ECC. Retention Coordinator Lindsay Riegel has an extensive background in education and wanted to bring in more success coaches to help the student success rate at ECC. She really believes in what ECC’s success coaches can do for the students whether it’s planning for the future or finding a job after graduation. If a student is struggling academically they can come talk to their success coach and their coach will help guide them on the right path. Riegel is also very excited about having SI at ECC because she believes this will also enhance student success. This isn’t the first year of success coaches at ECC; the Title III grant was made to get extra help for ECC students.
SI is an academic support system that benefits everyone. It doesn’t matter what level someone is in their class, they can take advantage of this opportunity. Litle’s hope is that SI will be introduced to more classes to benefit even more students. Riegel feels similar to Litle about having more success coaches benefit even more students.
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