Karen Eliot

Early Support Helps Local Students Get into College

Long-distance remedial program achieves 90 percent success rate
!
Hugo Arias sat at his kitchen counter staring at his junior year SAT scores - 914 out of

2400. His grades in school were not much better. Arias, who grew up in Colombia and moved to

South Carolina when he was 13 years old, gave up on the dream of going to college.

“Nobody else in my family had ever gone to college,” Arias said. “I wanted to be the

first, but I knew the SAT would be difficult because English is not my first language. When I got

back my scores, I gave up.”

In the spring after Arias took his first SAT, the South Carolina Educational Research

Foundation launched the pilot study of Early Support, a long-distance remedial education

program. The state awarded grants to five state colleges for their participation and partnered each

college with a local high school. One year later, the program helped 90 high school seniors

improve their SAT scores and set them on a path toward college.

“When my guidance counselor approached me about a program that could help me

improve my grades, increase my SAT scores and get into college, I was super excited,” Arias

said. “The professors cared about us and worked with us to make sure we got results.”

One year later, as a high school senior, Arias took the SAT again and scored 1553 out of

2400. He also received four college acceptance letters and committed to Central College, Class

of 2021, where he will study computer science.

“Early Support was everything Hugo needed. It was such an incredible opportunity,” said

Claudia Arias, Arias’s mother. “He is so excited and we could not be more proud of him. You

should have seen his face opening his first college acceptance letter.”
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Arias was one of 100 high school seniors chosen from Spring Valley, Lexington,

Newberry, Beaufort, and Westside high schools. Students were chosen by a team of counselors

based on SAT scores and need for academic improvement. For nearly a quarter of participating

students, English was their second language. The chosen students attended classes taught by

faculty from five South Carolina colleges.

The average SAT scores of students in the program increased by 200 points over their

previous scores. The greatest increases were in reading comprehension and writing skills, but this

is believed to be the basis for increase in other areas. Such dramatic improvements allowed 85 of

the seniors in the program to be accepted by at least one of the participating colleges. Five other

students opted to remain in high school for another year to further improve their skills and

abilities.

“This was an amazing program and opportunity for our students,” said Jeff Temoney,

principal of Spring Valley High School. “We are so grateful to the state research foundation for

selecting our school and to the college faculty who worked so hard to solve problems and

educate our students.”

Central College, the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, the College of

Charleston, and Costal Carolina University were selected to write the curriculum for and teach

several courses in the remedial program via interactive classrooms set up at each college and

participating high school. Central College provided teaching faculty from its English,

Communication and Computer Science departments.

“It’s the best feeling,” said Professor Cassondra Kinnucane, who holds a doctorate in

English and has taught professional writing at Central College for five years. “Knowing that the
 Karen Eliot

classes we taught and the curriculum we wrote actually worked and helped the students is just

amazing.”

Based on the success of the pilot study, the universities and high schools are eager to

repeat the program. The South Carolina Educational Research Foundation hopes to include

additional high schools if funding can be secured.