BSU seeks $5 million for 20 classrooms

MUNCIE —  Ball State University's budget request to state legislators includes a one-time line item of $5 million for 20 new interactive classrooms that have been shown by a pilot project to curtail failing grades in math.

Interim BSU President Terry King cited the school's math emporium as an example of "these interactive learning spaces" that restructure classroom space, add technology and change the method and practice of teaching.

The cost is $250,000 per classroom.

"These are courses that typically have high rates of withdrawals, D's and F's, and we use it primarily for intermediate algebra, pre-calculus … courses," King told the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee in Indianapolis on Wednesday. "We piloted this in 2015 and it's now up and running full time. The success is pretty obvious."

The project increased the passing rate for intermediate algebra by 13 percent, and similar increases have been seen in the passing rates for pre-calculus and algebra.

"Probably the most important factor is in standardized testing of these courses we've seen a 41-percent increase in students receiving B's and A's, and that's important because these are the foundational classes students need to be successful in subsequent areas," King said. "This is a line item to remove those roadblocks to graduation."

Ball State plans to match the proposed line item with $2.5 million for a total of 30 new classrooms for $7.5 million.

To teach in one of the new spaces, faculty members must receive special training that reflects best practices in instruction. The initiative promotes a team environment, mirroring how people have to work in the real word.

"We've already demonstrated the techniques work," King said. "This will help improve graduation rates, on-time graduation. It's probably one of the biggest innovations we have employed on campus for student success in the classroom certainly in the last number of years I have been associated (with Ball State: a decade)."

The proposed line item is a one-time addition to the $2.5 million entrepreneurial university line item Ball State is again asking for from the state.

Holli Sullivan, R-Evansville, who chairs the higher education subcommittee, spent several hours at Ball State last summer learning about the math emporium, which she called an "innovative approach."

Sullivan will ask Ball State to work with the state to help implement interactive classrooms in K-12 schools "so we can remedy these kinds of issues in our state prior to them coming to Ball State University."

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.