Unprepared for college math? Business tries to fill niche

Unprepared for college math? Business tries to fill niche


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SALT LAKE CITY — A business is stepping up to fill a need on college campuses. It has to do with remedial math classes.

Educators have grown concerned about the number of high school graduates not prepared for college-level math.

Additionally, some people going back to school after years away find they have forgotten a lot. Other students put off taking math classes until almost the end of college. They all find themselves facing remedial math classes.

The Math Co. hopes to help all those who must take remedial math before college graduation. It offers classes, mainly college algebra, to cater to those students.

The company is new to Salt Lake City, after finding success in other college cities of Orem and Ogden.

"We view a lot of what we do as addressing a need that colleges really shouldn't have to address," said Lance Anderson, the company's president.

He said some students must take remedial math for three, four or five semesters, but The Math Co. can help them get it done in one semester.

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"We save students time, we save students money. For a lot of them, math just isn't their strong suit, so we save them the headache as well," Anderson said.

The tutoring service also helps students graduate sooner, Anderson added. "When it comes to the money issue, that's one thing that's a big deal is the opportunity they lose while they are in college when they could be out in their career earning money," he said.

The tutoring classes stay around seven or eight students each and are held close to the college campus.

Anderson said the company has been serving 500 to 600 students a year in its Orem office for about eight years and in Ogden for about six years. He said some faculty and staff at colleges in Utah are wary of what The Math Co. does. Others tell their students to definitely pay for the service. Its website lists the cost of instruction for a Math 1050 class as $599.

Educators said one of the reasons the Common Core was put into place was because colleges said too many students were unprepared for college-level math and were filling up remedial classes.

By 2011, Utah Valley University had doubled the faculty for remedial math. At Salt Lake Community College, a spokesman said 28 percent of the student body took remedial math classes. And Westminster College looked at starting pre-algebra classes — which are usually taught in junior high school.

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Mary Richards

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