What are College Focus Courses?
College Focus (COFO) courses prepare students who are on track to graduate from high school, but not with college ready scores, for college-level work in English and/or math. At the completion of the COFO course, students take the CUNY Assessment Tests (CAT) as a nal opportunity to qualify for college level work before graduation. Students who score at or above the college readiness benchmarks on the CUNY Assessment Tests are exempt from any remedial courses in CUNY.
Who Is Eligible for College Focus Courses?
COFO Math
- Seniors who scored a 70–79 on any math Regents or 65–69 on Common Core Algebra I Regents, and
- have already successfully completed their commencement level credit math sequence (core math sequence), and
- are on track to gradute with at least a 65 on ELA Regents (or ELA GPA 80), and
- have excellent attendance records.
- Juniors in their second semester who are enrolled in their sixth commencement level credit math course and who meet all of the above criteria.
COFO English
- seniors or juniors who scored a 65–74 on the ELA Regents, and
- have excellent attendance records.
COFO Summer Programs are open to RISING SENIORS only.
What Can Teachers Do?
As teachers, you play a vital role in ensuring that students in College Focus courses succeed. Here are some important steps you can take to give your students one more opportunity to become college-ready before they graduate:
- Schedule a College Focus presentation for your students and encourage eligible students to sign up for a College Focus course.
- Encourage participating students to take the course seriously by attending all class sessions and taking the CUNY Assessment Test (CAT) at the end of the course.
- Make sure that you and all COFO students know the date and place of the testing session.
- Address any testing anxiety students may have. Explain to them the importance of taking the test together as a class at the end of the course. They have a better chance of passing the test when the content is fresh in their minds than by testing on their own when they receive an invitation for testing from CUNY.
- Explain the options to retake the CUNY tests if they don’t pass:
- CUNY Summer Immersion
- CUNY Start
- short refresher workshops students can take before re-testing
- By scoring above the college-readiness benchmarks, students become eligible to participate in the College Now program and can earn FREE college credits before graduating high school— getting a real head start on college.
