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Supplemental Instruction (SI) targets courses that are traditionally difficult and have high attrition. The emphasis in SI is on historically difficult courses (those classes with a 30% rate of grades of D, F, and Withdrawals) rather than on high-risk students. The program's goals are: (1) improvement of student course grades; (2) reduction of attrition rate in historically difficult college courses; and (3) student persistence toward graduation. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has designated Supplemental Instruction as an "Exemplary Educational Program" The DOE has claimed that students participating in SI within these "gate-keeper" or historically difficult courses: (1) earn higher mean final course grades, despite ethnicity and prior academic achievement; (2) succeed at a higher rate (withdraw at a lower rate and receive a lower percentage of D or F final course grades), despite ethnicity and prior academic achievement; and (3) persist at the institution (reenrolling and graduating) at higher rates than students who do not participate in SI.  

Supplemental Instruction involves an additional hour of class or lab time held directly after the scheduled weekly meetings for a given course. In this additional hour students meet with a peer leader who facilitates a discussion of the concepts introduced in the preceding class. The role of the SI student leader is to provide structure to the study session, not to re-lecture or introduce new material. The peer leader acts as "a model student" who demonstrates how successful students think critically about course content.  

Using the SI Program in place at the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) as a model, we propose to initiate a systematic approach to offering SI at the University of Houston-Downtown. In 1997 UH­Downtown piloted a program which offered SI for selected sections of Biology 1301, Chemistry 1307, Political Science 2303, and History 1306 for a total of five SI classes. During the 1999-2000 academic year, we assessed grade distribution in freshman core courses at UHD, and offered a limited number of SI sections for courses we identified as having a high "D, F, W" rate. A list of those courses is attached. Dr. Gillian Hanson and Robin Davidson are currently working with faculty and professional staff to increase the number of courses that will offer supplemental instruction in Fall, 2000.