BCC Granted $88K To Improve STEM Education
 Berkshire Community College is using grants from the state's Performance Incentive Fund to improve student achievement and professional development. |
The college was one of 15 state community colleges to receive a portion of $4 million in grants announced Tuesday by the Patrick administration. At BCC, the money will go toward increasing student access to services via technology, revamping and creating math classes specifically for liberal arts and science students and implementing pilot programs.
"It's both curriculum development and improving student services," Director of Grant Development Gina Stec said on Tuesday. "Ultimately the goal is to improve student success rates."
The new or revamped classes are expected to include an increased focus on service learning, job training and civic engagement as well as increased partnerships with local organizations, Stec said, and will include professional development for professors. The grant is aimed to increase science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) pathways.
"By partnering with our community colleges and strengthening their ties to businesses and career training, we will help close the skills gap facing many industries," Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray said in a statement. "Ensuring more students and those seeking work are trained in science, technology, engineering and math is a major component of our efforts to increase skill training and support job creation and professional growth."
The funding is from the state's Performance Incentive Fund, established in 2011. In the fund's first round, BCC received $138,000, which was used for data analysis, professional development, course development and program analysis. The school received $86,000 more recently to continue that work.
"A stronger community college system is good for students, employers and the whole commonwealth," Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement. "These additional resources will further accelerate this transformation and help get people to work."
A total of $2.9 million is going to the 15 schools for their own projects, $500,000 is being awarded for projects in their second year and $400,000 will be used to implement a systemwide credit transfer system. Another $1 million was allocated in the state budget and will be awarded later in the year.
"We look forward to seeing these grants applied to advancing the skills of our workforce," Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne F. Goldstein said in a press release. "Current and diverse career training curriculum is essential to re-employment and to help incumbent workers move forward. Our state’s career centers are already engaged with the community college system and businesses, and we will continue to foster collaborations to help our talented labor pool succeed in today’s developing marketplace."
Tags: BCC, community college, grants, STEM,
