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QEP updates students with information on SACS

Grambling State University will be considered for re-accreditation during April of this year. As part of the process, professors and students formed the QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) team. This year’s topic is “The Improvement of Mathematical Skills and Knowledge.”

The team’s purpose is to spread awareness about and revamp the university’s math curriculum.

Academicians representing the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will focus on students’ understanding of QEP as part of their consideration process.

The QEP’s math focus is the result of “inadequate performance” on the Rising Junior Exam, according to the Quality Enhancement Plan newsletter.

The plan is a five-year measurement, said Student Government Association president and QEP team member Steven Jackson.
Another student government representative works with the team.

“I am using my position as SGA vice president to ask students what they don’t know and telling them what they should know,” said Student Government Vice President Lamark Hughes.

Hughes said that team members were selected based upon their levels on activity on campus.

Team representatives were interviewed for the position, said Hughes.
The goal is for mathematics to be integrated in daily life, Jackson said.

But students shouldn’t be afraid of SACS representatives, Jackson added.
They will be easily identified on campus and will most likely ask broad questions, the SGA president said.

“We’re going to change the way we teach mathematics,” said QEP Director Michelle Young.

Basic knowledge about QEP is among the goals, she said.
Students will be encouraged to “think more quantitatively,” Young said.

Although several students are afraid of math, the university is working to improve scores and learning, she said.

“(We want them to) be more comfortable with numbers,” said Young.

She also said that the team wanted to move students past the “quantitative literacy” of the past, to mathematical applications including but not limited to expressions.

The GSU QEP will affect nearly half of the general education curriculum. It will add a more quantitative approach to Grambling State’s science courses.

In addition to the QEP, schools must meet SACS standards, engage in self-assessment, document improved results, and complete an assessment report no less than six weeks before the Quality Assurance Review and consequently apply the Quality Assurance Review Team’s suggestions.