IRVING, Texas (July 20, 2020) – Irving Independent School District faced COVID-19 disruption head on with the launch of Texas College Bridge, a personalized online learning system to help high school seniors prepare for college success. More than 114 graduated seniors from the Class of 2020 signed up for free, online college prep courses with almost 100 students successfully completing the coursework and testing.
“These are unprecedented times. The COVID-19 crisis has been a disruptive force in education, changing how we work and teach,” said Dr. Tracey Brown, Director of Guidance, Counseling, and College and Career Readiness for Irving ISD. “Texas College Bridge allowed us to transition college preparation online. To have this program in place to help our students continue their journey has been a game changer.”
COVID-19 created several obstacles for graduating seniors this year. Not only were ACT, SAT and TSIA tests not available for students, existing college prep courses were limited in their ability to deliver remote instruction. Texas Education Agency rolled out the Texas College Bridge program as a COVID-19 response to help Texas school districts support the 149,000 graduating seniors who had not met CCMR benchmarks in English or math. Irving ISD was a pilot district for the program.
In May, graduated seniors from Irving High School, MacArthur High School, Singley Academy, and Nimitz High School were invited to register for Texas College Bridge, allowing them to take free, online college prep courses with a teacher facilitator. Students completed a preassessment that individualized the course content for them. They worked at their own pace in completing the identified college-readiness skills; and upon successful completion, earned credit for the course as well as a TSI exemption, a CCMR benchmark.
Texas College Bridge leverages The NROC Project’s EdReady platform, a math and English readiness system, to provide personalized study paths to help students efficiently reach their goals. Students self-assess for college math and English readiness, view study options, and follow a personalized study path to fill gaps in knowledge. The platform’s dashboard allows educators to monitor a student’s progress on each skill and use the data to guide students to success, improve retention and lay a solid foundation for college completion.
In addition to covering both English and math, including math in Spanish, NROC’s platform is fully online and compliant with diverse learners and security requirements. The platform also offers mapping of math performance to high-demand industry certificates, a requirement it has offered for Governors of other states to ensure that students graduate high school college ready and also earn an industry-based certificate aligned to the job market prior to high school graduation.
With the success of Texas College Bridge, Irving ISD plans to offer the program free to its Class of 2021 seniors. Texas College Bridge is available to all Texas school districts, offering high school seniors multiple opportunities throughout the school year to take free, online college prep courses in English and math.
