Austin ISD awards Advanced Caminos contract to Texas State prof

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
June 2, 2014

The Austin Independent School District (AISD) has awarded Selina Mireles, professor in the Department of Mathematics at Texas State University, a contract to host the Advanced Caminos with FOCUS Elements project for Lanier High School students.

The Advanced Caminos camp will run June 8-28.

The Advanced Caminos project is a three-week summer program designed to offer 25 at-risk, high-performing Lanier high school students an intensive college experience through enrollment in an accelerated college algebra course. This project draws from the successes of various research-based models including the classic Caminos model developed by Jaime Chahin, dean of the College of Applied Arts at Texas State, the FOCUS model developed by Mireles, Tinto’s foundation for the Residential College, and Colorado College’s Block Program.

The $100,000 contract provides an optimal opportunity for academic success through rigorous coursework, academic support such as tutoring and learning support, as well as academic support services.

Beyond the classroom, Advanced Caminos students will engage in college going and success workshops as well as capitalize on essential college knowledge and resources including advising and mentoring. Moreover, the students will be afforded opportunities to experience real-world, contextualized mathematics by infusion of cultural relevancy and situated learning to name a few.

The program will be hosted by the Center for Mathematics Readiness under the direction of Mireles and facilitated by mathematics doctoral students Shawnda Smith and Christine Herrera, and curriculum and instruction doctoral student Darolyn Flaggs, and includes a prime research component. This innovative program targets high academic performance as well as a gateway to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields as overarching goals.

For more information, contact Mireles at (512) 245-8019 or via email at svmireles@txstate.edu.