College Of the Mainland receives $600,000 Gulf Coast PASS grant

The College of the Mainland has been awarded a $600,000 Gulf Coast PASS grant to create and implement new strategies to improve the success of enrolled students who are unprepared for college credit courses in math or English.

The grant, managed by the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin, is made possible by Houston Endowment, according to a press release.

"A large percentage of entering students are unprepared for college algebra, for example, and currently must take up to four noncredit developmental math courses before enrolling in algebra,” Dr. Larry Durrence, COM interim president, said in a press release. “This grant will, among other things, enable us to transform the way we teach math and enable students to accelerate through developmental math and reduce their time to complete a degree.”

The grant includes partners such as Hitchcock Independent School District, Houston A+ Challenge and the Institute for Evidence-Based Change. The grant will also assist the college in developing a more seamless K-12 to college transition, which will provide improved access to, and success in, college, according to the press release.