[ Log in ]
Home ›

College Readiness Program Description

The LSU College Readiness Program offers participating high schools access to several types of online courses designed to help students be better prepared for success in college.  They are 1) dual enrollment courses, 2) pre-college courses, and 3) ACT and CLEP preparation courses.

1) The College Readiness Program offers a dual enrollment (DE) opportunity for high school students to earn credit for both an LSU course and a high school course at the same time while remaining on the high school campus.  The following LSU math courses are offered for dual credit to qualifying high school students:

  • Math 1021 College Algebra paired with the first half of high school Advanced Math 
  • Math 1022 Trigonometry paired with the second half of high school Advanced Math
  • Math 1431 Business Calculus paired with a high school math elective
  • Math 1029 Contemporary Math paired with high school Discrete Math
  • Math 1550 Calculus I paired with high school Calculus or AP Calculus 

In order for a high school to offer this DE opportunity, the teacher assigned to teach the high school course must participate in an initial professional development workshop.  This workshop includes two four-day summer sessions at LSU and at least 20 additional hours of independent work between the two four-day workshop sessions.  There is no fee for participation in the workshop for DE teachers.  One-day follow-up DE workshops at LSU are held at the beginning of each fall and spring semester thereafter. 

The trained high school College Readiness Program DE teacher serves as the classroom facilitator in the high school setting.  The Instructor of Record is an LSU math department faculty member who oversees all aspects of the course.  Students use the online environment of MyMathLab to do the same Homework, Quizzes, Tests, and Final Exam as the matriculating college students enrolled in the same course.  Students also have access to the same online videos, learning aids, and class notes that on-campus students have. 

LSU tuition for DE is $100 per credit hour for each course per student per semester. 

2) The College Readiness Program also has pre-college courses available to participating high schools.  Non-DE teachers are offered the opportunity to attend the same workshop as the DE teachers.  This professional development is available at no charge for all other high school math faculty at schools participating in dual enrollment within the LSU College Readiness Program  These non-DE teachers can choose to specialize in any one of the following MyMathLab courses at the workshop:  Calculus, Advanced Math, Algebra II, Geometry, and Algebra I. 

In order to see the learning objectives within each of the College Readiness MyMathLab online courses, the number of exercises for each objective, and the Louisiana Mathematics Standards correlation to each (for Alg I, Geometry, and Alg II), select the Course Profiles tab in the left menu.  At the end of the Alg I, Geometry, and Alg II profiles, there is a list of the standards not covered within each course with some suggestions about covering these standards.

3) The College Readiness Program offers participanting schools access to an ACT prep course for just math and a second course that addresses all four ACT content areas.  In order to prepare students who plan to take the CLEP test for College Algebra, the Advanced Math course includes additional exercises on the topics covered on the College Algebra CLEP test which are not covered in a traditional Advanced Math course. 

At the workshop, DE and non-DE teachers … 

    • are taught how to appropriately use web-based technology to redesign course delivery and improve student learning outcomes 
    • are taught how to effectively use the online learning system MyMathLab at an advanced level 
    • have an opportunity to observe LSU math classes and observe students in the LSU Math Lab
    • must complete with 100% accuracy all of the student homework required for the specific course within the time-span of the workshop and earn a score of at least 90% on the course final exam
    • become "certified" by the LSU College Readiness Program after completing all of the workshop requirements
    • establish a positive working relationship with the LSU math faculty members who serve as the DE Instructors of Record for the DE courses 
    • network with other high school teachers already certified or becoming certified in the LSU College Readiness Program  

Individual schools or districts will be responsible for providing hardware for their students to access the web and for purchasing MyMathLab access codes for their DE and non-DE students using the content from these courses.  A one-year access code for the MyMathLab online learning system used to deliver the content must be purchased for each student at $40 per student per year.   

For additional information contact Phoebe Rouse at prouse@lsu.edu or Frank Neubrander at neubrand@math.lsu.edu.