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ATC gets $2M grant

• Albany Technical College will get $400,000 a year for five years to help students who underperform on entrance exams.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Albany Technical College students who do not score well on entrance exams for the college can get educational help thanks to a $2 million federal grant the college received recently.

The grant, which school officials were told late last week they had received, will provide ATC with $400,000 a year for the next five years for its Developing Reading, English and Math Skills (or DREAMS) program.

ATC spokeswoman Kathryn McPhail said the college had been planning to ramp up its learning support program before the grant’s approval because school officials had found that only about 20 percent of students enrolled in learning support programs graduated.

As part of its quality enhancement plan, the college had planned to hire part-time professors, but the grant’s approval “will allow us to do it on a bigger scale,” McPhail said.

“Over the next five years, we’re hoping to see the number of students progressing to graduation skyrocket,” she said. “That’s our ultimate goal.”

Much of the funding will go toward hiring three full-time professors to work with students who do not meet certain entrance exam levels in one-on-one settings and help pay for the construction and operation of a learning lab, McPhail said.

The learning support classes will be scheduled like regular classes, and students who do not meet the entrance exam levels will have to take those classes before moving on to regular coursework, she said.

“We just want to help them get past these areas and not (for them) to be sticking points,” she said.

ATC President Anthony Parker could not be reached Tuesday for comment but said in a news release he was pleased the college received the grant.

“We are so thankful for this grant and the opportunity it presents for our faculty, staff, students and community,” he said in the release.

The school applied for the grant earlier this year and was notified late last week it had been approved. Students will take the courses as part of their regular graduation requirements, McPhail said.

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