Community Outreach for Math and Science

What

Many high school students in Oakland and in the neighboring communities are ready to take college level courses. Some do not have this possibility because of the dearth of AP courses at their school. Others have AP courses available to them, but these courses are often taught by people who are not well-trained in the subject matter and are not very adept at teaching it. This is particularly true in mathematics and computer science---in the AP Calculus and Java or C+ courses.

Proposal

We could start a program that enabled high school women to take courses at Mills for college credit. In the past we have such high school students taking, say, calculus courses, and they did exceptionally well.

Benefits

It might be that some of the students who participated in the proposed outreach program would eventually apply for admission to Mills, but even if few of them did apply to Mills, such a program would provide a tremendous benefit to the community. And the program would cost no additional FTE, at least in mathematics and computer science---and perhaps also in the other sciences. One stumbling block to a program like this is an organized system of transportation from the high school to Mills, but perhaps this could be worked out in conjunction with the School Districts involved.