Every few months for the past five years, Matt Smith would send another email to Tansheka Riggens: “Just checking in.” or “Hope your week is going well so far!” Sometimes he was more direct: “Are you having trouble figuring out how to juggle school, work and family life?” Most months, Riggens would send the email to her trash folder. She’d first enrolled at St. Petersburg College in 2003 .
Enrollment in the city’s network of public colleges had been in freefall since the start of the COVID pandemic, dropping 17%. Now it’s ticked up 2% year-over-year.
A blend of tutors and technology during the school day yielded results in ninth grade algebra equivalent to daily human tutoring alone at a lower cost.