Evaluating the implementation of mathematics pathways

Abstract

Developmental education has long served as a barrier between students and degree attainment (Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010; Okimoto & Heck, 2015). Specifically, developmental mathematics (DM) sequences have had notoriously low success rates and students who are referred to them persist to completion of a gateway mathematics course at alarmingly low rates as only 31% of students referred to a DM mathematics course three-levels below College Algebra ever even enroll in the course (Bailey; 2009).

The purpose of the current study was to examine the implications of the implementation of corequisite developmental mathematics courses with College Algebra/Precalculus, by evaluating course success rates in multiple ways.

This study examined Midwestern Community College's (MCC) redesign of its DM policies. MCC changed its DM sequence from a three-course model to one with two courses. The redesigned two-course sequence leads to multiple gateway courses with corequisite support instead of requiring all students to take College Algebra. The researcher analyzed student success data from the two years pre- and two years post-policy implementation.

The major findings of the study include; 1) the proportion of first-time enrolling students who completed a gateway mathematics course within one fall and one spring of enrollment increased significantly, 2) the success rates of students in College Algebra/Precalculus 1 did not significantly change pre- to post-policy implementation, 3) students in the corequisite support course succeed in Precalculus 1 at the same rate as students only enrolled in the Precalculus 1 course.

The findings of this study can be used by community college mathematics faculty to advocate for the adoption of corequisite support and multiple gateway mathematics courses.