How Long Island colleges are helping struggling students

The State University of New York is revamping introductory classes in math, writing and other skills and providing more one-on-one guidance as research shows a growing number of students nationwide are struggling to meet the standards of higher education.

SUNY is launching new and redesigned entry-level classes this fall that include extra classroom time, more engaging material and individual help from faculty, staff and student tutors. It also is working with students to create “degree maps” that keep them on track to graduate.

The goal is to make sure “every student who begins at SUNY sees a clear path to completing a degree and gets all the support they need to get there,” SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said in his State of the University Address last month.

SUNY schools are not the only institutions overhauling introductory classes and advisory programs. On Long Island and across the country, public and private colleges say they are working to help students whose middle and high school years were affected by COVID-19 shutdowns and the increasing presence of distracting digital devices and artificial intelligence in classrooms and homes, as well as by some high schools’ shortages of college preparatory coursework.

On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as The Nation’s Report Card, 12th graders in 2024 earned their lowest math and reading marks in more than 20 years. Island educators say students are entering college with poorly developed study habits. Students are more anxious than ever about learning, they say, and need help with basic academic skills like time management.

Even some of the nation’s most elite schools are seeing the impacts. Harvard University in 2024 launched a new introductory math class that includes algebra, and the University of California, San Diego released a report last year warning of a “steep decline” in students’ math and writing skills.

Genie Giaimo, an associate professor and director of the Hofstra University Writing Center, says students have a desire to learn, but often they have trouble overcoming their anxiety and doing the deep thinking that college coursework requires. 

“They want to do it, they want to get it right, but they sometimes are running so quickly ahead that they can't get out of their own way," Giaimo said.

Improving 'academic momentum'

From 2013 to 2024, 78% of SUNY students who signed up for entry-level English classes completed them with passing grades, and 75% passed introductory math classes, a SUNY report shows.

Now, SUNY — which aims to increase pass rates to at least 83% for English and 78% for math — has directed all 64 campuses in its system to create plans to improve student retention and graduation rates, in what is known as the Academic Momentum Campaign. The plans vary depending on schools’ needs, but they can include individual tutoring, small-group instruction and extra classroom time in English and math, as well as beefed-up advisory services to improve student retention and graduation rates, SUNY said.

Nearly two dozen SUNY schools, including SUNY Old Westbury and Suffolk County Community College, are getting extra professional development to overhaul their introductory math and writing classes.

The program also aims to improve the rates at which students stay in school and earn their degrees without lengthy delays.

Slightly more than 67% of SUNY students earned their bachelor’s degree within six years, and SUNY aims to increase that to 74% for this fall’s first-year students. The national average is 63.3%, a SUNY report shows.

At community colleges, SUNY aims to increase the share of students who earn their associate’s degrees within three years to 38%, up from the historical average of 29.5%. The national average is 31.4%, SUNY reported.

The changes build on services in SUNY’s Advancing Success in Associate Pathways and Advancing Completion through Engagement programs, which provide academic, financial and other support for students who qualify for federal or state financial aid to help them stay in school and graduate, according to SUNY.

“We've taken what we know works from ASAP and ACE, and we're expanding it across the SUNY system,” King said in his address.

More support for students 

Across the country, higher education institutions are shifting away from noncredit remedial classes, said Rita Karam, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Students who take such classes tend to have higher dropout rates, in part because it takes them longer to get to their required college-level classes, she said. By contrast, providing structured academic support as a part of college-level coursework tends to have better outcomes, she said.

That’s what Suffolk County Community College is doing, said Patty Munsch, vice president for student affairs at the college.

“We're not eliminating any courses, nor are we changing the learning outcomes for a course. We're simply saying … the students will also get this additional embedded support from our tutors or from the instructor,” Munsch said.

In addition to providing professional development, SUNY also named 24 Academic Momentum Campaign fellows who will advise other educators on helping students succeed in college.

One of the fellows is Nicole Simon, professor of engineering, physics and technology at Nassau Community College, where Simon said there has been a “substantial” increase in students receiving extra help.

It’s crucial to help students thrive in their first courses, Simon said. Entry-level classes “serve as important academic foundations, but students who struggle on these early courses may lose credits, delay progress, or leave college before completing a degree,” Simon said in a text message. 

'Learning to learn'

Long Island’s private colleges say they, too, have seen an increase in students’ need to brush up on fundamental math, English and study skills, and they are working to help them.

“Many students now are telling me they didn't have to study much in high school, if at all,” said Lawrence Hobbie, a biology professor at Adelphi University in Garden City. “Whereas in many college classes, that's not how it is, right? The instructor … expects the students to really learn independently outside of class.”

Hobbie said a new, two-and-a-half-hour “Learning How to Learn” session in the introductory biology class gives students an opportunity to analyze research on the most effective study strategies, such as quizzing oneself and engaging in study sessions over multiple days, rather than cramming for hours right before a test.

“We have the students analyze some of the experimental results themselves, so we're not just telling them, we're getting them involved in understanding them,” he said. Students also create their own study plans, he said.

High levels of student anxiety are another challenge, said Giaimo, of the Hofstra University Writing Center. 

In some cases, the solution is “slow learning” that allows students to think more deeply, Giaimo said. “We do workshops that are literally just about, like, cultivating confidence in the age of AI,” Giaimo said. During finals, “everyone comes in, and they get cookies and they get some coffee and they sit down. They write in community.”

At New York Institute of Technology, first-year students take an online summer course in study skills and time management, and every incoming student is assigned a “peer success guide” who can offer academic advice as well as social support, said Tadiyos Gebre, director of academic success and enrichment at NYIT. The program launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you are an architecture student, for example, you will get an upperclassman architecture PSG that will contact you starting in August, and they will say, ‘Hey, you know, this is who I am. You know I'm here to support you in any way that I can,’ ” he said. Students, he said, “might come to me or to their professor for certain things, but there are a lot of things where they may feel more comfortable reaching out to a peer.”

One of the peer success guides is Keerthi Kapavarapu, 21, a computer science master's student who earned her bachelor's degree from the school in May.

Kapavarapu said when she was growing up in Kuwait, students were discouraged from admitting they needed help. She recalled feeling shaken when a teacher once told her, “Science may not be your cup of tea.”

By contrast, she said, an NYIT professor named Barrie Balter worked patiently with her to develop her research writing skills in her first year. Now that Kapavarapu is a peer tutor and peer success guide herself, she said, she aims to bring that same approach to her fellow students.

One first-year student who sought help from her when he was “really scared” about taking calculus is now a peer success guide himself, she said: “I used to teach him, and now he has become somebody that, we teach together.”