CHANGING EQUATIONS: How Community Colleges Are Re-Thinking College Readiness in Math

8/13/2019 CHANGING EQUATIONS: How Community Colleges Are Re-Thinking College Readiness in Math

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+ Its the statistics

Overall low college completion rates

High proportion of community college students require remedial math

Low rates of success in remedial sequences

Math = Single greatest barrier to college completion?

WHY MATH?


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WHERE YOU LOOKDETERMINES WHAT YOU SEE . ..

ladys face or saxophone player?

unprepared students or

indefensible math requirements?


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RE-THINKING = FOUR KEY INSIGHTS

+ Math is a hurdle for the majority of community college students

+ Most students deemed unreadyin math will never graduate

+ Placement tests are weak predictors

+ Standard math sequence is irrelevant to most studentsaspirations for college

and career


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Colleges and practitioners are choosing reforms from one or more columns:

columns:

Math ReadinessReform Menu


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PromisingPreliminaryResults

Carnegie Foundations Statway

involves 43 colleges in 11

states.

Of students in Statway, 51 percent

completed college-level math intheir first year of college,

compared to just 6 percent in

the standard pathway.


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FOR MORE INFORMATION . . .

See Learning Works report:

Changing Equations:

How Community Colleges are

Re-Thinking College Readiness in Math

Contact:

Pamela [email protected]

www.LearningWorksCA.org


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INTRODUCING OUR GUESTSFor Path2Stats:

Myra Snell, Math Instructor, Los Medanos College, Path2Stats Founder,

California Acceleration Project Founder, [email protected]

For New Mathways Project:

Amy Getz, Manager of Community College Services, Charles A. Dana

Center, University of Texas at Austin


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California Acceleration Projecthttp://cap.3csn.org

Myra Snell

CAP Math Lead

Supporting Californias 112 Community Colleges

to redesign their English and Math Curriculaand Increase Student Completion
http://cap.3csn.org/http://cap.3csn.org/


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What is the California Acceleration Project?

CAP supports California community colleges in the

creation and implementation of accelerated

developmental pathways in math and English.

Faculty teams participate in 3 workshops (2-3 days

each) and receive ongoing coaching and support from alarge peer network.

In math, 21 CA community colleges have developed a

shortened Statistics pathway for students in majors that

are not math-intensive. CAP website 3csn.cap.org


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CAP Principles for Curricular Redesign Shorten and align:

Shorten the developmental pathway and align developmentalcourse work with students area of study. (For students in areas thatare not math-intensive, align pathway with general educationrequirements, such as Statistics.)

High-levels of challenge and high levels of support:Five key principles for the accelerated classroom:

Backward design from college-level courses

Relevant, thinking-oriented curriculum

Just-in-time remediation

Low-stakes, collaborative practice

Intentional support for students affective needs Rethink placement:

Reduce reliance on high-stakes placement tests thatdo not assess skills requisite for success in college workin the students area of study.


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Away from Toward Away from decontextualized algebra, mimicry of symbolic

procedures and template word problems

An apple falling from a tree is h feet above the ground t seconds after itbegins to fall, where h=64-16t^2. How long does it take the apple to hit theground?

Toward data analysis and decision-making in the face ofuncertainty

What factors correlate with low birth weights? Use graphs and conditionalpercentages to investigate the relationship between one of the factors inthe data set and low birth weight. Present your results in 500 words or less,include relevant graphs and calculations.

Data set: Birth weights and 6 qualitative factors from aMassachusetts study of 189 pregnant women.


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Results: Proof of Concept Promising preliminary results from some colleges

Completion rate: percent of students enrolled at first census in adevelopmental math course that complete a transfer-level mathcourse.

At both colleges most students enrolled in the Statistics pathway had aplacement level of 2 to 3 levels below transfer-level math (65% atCuyamaca and 73% at LMC). At both colleges the majority ofstudents were non-Asian students of color.

Third-party evaluation of the first year of implementationfor 8 colleges in CAPs first cohort due out in December.

Statistics Pathway

(1 year)

Traditional Pathway

(3 years)

Cuyamaca 50% (171) 23% (2315)

Los

Medanos

60% (119) 21%(1756)


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The NMP Model: Four Principles for Reform

Developmental and gateway mathematics should include:

1.Multiple pathways aligned to fields of study

2.Acceleration that allows students to complete a college-level

math course more quickly

3.Intentional use of strategies to help students develop skills

as learners

4.Curriculum design and pedagogy based on proven practice

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Dana Centers Role: State Level

Broadly support reform based on the four principles:

Work with TACC, state agencies, and two- and four-year

institutions to address policy obstacles

Leverage resources and build support through collaboration

with partners:

Other reform initiatives

Professional organizations

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Dana Centers Role: Institutional Level

Build tools and services that help colleges implement

systemic reform

Detailed implementation guide

Data templates

Tools and strategies to help train advisors and plan for

student recruitment

Services that support planning:

Data-Based Mobilization Workshop

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The NMP Courses

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Timeline for Development and Implementation

*A PDF version of the Frameworks course will be published for open use.

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Courses First

Implementation

Publically

Available

Frameworks for Mathematics and Collegiate

Learning*

Spring 2013 Fall 2013

Foundations of Mathematical Reasoning Fall 2013 Fall 2014

Statistical Reasoning Spring 2014 Spring 2015Quantitative Reasoning Spring 2015 Spring 2016

STEM-Prep and bridge course Spring 2016 Spring 2017


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Contact Information

General information about the Dana Center:

www.utdanacenter.org

Higher Education work:

www.utdanacenter.org/higher-education/

To receive monthly updates about the NMP, contact usat: [email protected]

Amy Getz (general project issues):

[email protected]

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CHANGING EQUATIONS: How Community Colleges Are Re-Thinking College Readiness in Math

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