Lessons Learned in Community College Math Remediation

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Lessons Learned in Community College Math
Remediation

• ATD MetLife
• Initiatives at
• Northampton Community
• College

Elizabeth Bugaighis, Ph.D. Jeffrey W. Focht March
18, 2009
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History and Scope of ATD

• Started in 2004
• Northampton joined in 2006
• Currently colleges in 15 states participating
• Other PA community colleges
• Community College of Alleghany
• Community College of Beaver County
• Delaware County Community College
• Montgomery County Community College
• Community College of Philadelphia
• Westmoreland County Community College

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ATD Goals The Big Picture

• Initiate change at community colleges
• Strategies to improve student success
• Data-driving decision-making
• Influence policy

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ATD Goals Retention Completion

• Help students
• successfully complete the courses they take
• advance from developmental/remedial to
  college-level courses
• enroll in and successfully complete gatekeeper
  courses
• enroll from one semester to the next
• earn degrees and/or certificates. 

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ATD Goals Retention Completion

• Focus on groups that traditionally face
  significant barriers to success, including
  students of color and low-income students.
• Reduce gaps in performance among groups of
  students.

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NCC Retention

• 69 Retained Fall to Spring
• 50 Retained Fall to Fall
• Students of color - lower retention rate
• Low-income students receiving Pell grants -
  higher retention rate

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NCC Graduation Rates

• 3 year graduation rates, 2004 cohort
• First time/Full time freshman 18.3
• First time/Part time freshman 6.5

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NCC Remediation/Developmental

• 31 test into developmental English
• 83 test into Math remediation

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NCC Efforts

• Developmental Math English
• Math initiatives
• English initiatives
• Gatekeeper courses
• Counseling 150 course
• Policy changes

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Achieving the DreamSupplemental Instruction

• First Year of Implementation

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MATH 022 Variables

• Supplemental Instruction in MATH 022 (Elementary
  Algebra), 4 sections.
• Smaller Class Size 24 vs. 35.
• New Math Placement Test (Accuplacer) adopted.

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Some Overall Results

• In Fall, no increase in success rate of students
  in MATH 022 despite reducing class size from 35
  to 24 in all sections. However, in Spring the
  success rate (C or better) jumped to 62.

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Fall SI Results

• 30 participation rate.
• 100 of the students who attended 10 or more SI
  sections received a C or better final grade.
  The success rate for those who participated in
  less than 10 sessions was only 48.

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Spring SI Results

• 38 participation rate.
• 80 success rate of those who participated in SI
  34 for those who did not.
• Mean final course grade of those who participated
  was 2.31, for those who did not, 1.09.
• Withdrawal rate for SI participants was 8 as
  compared to 48 of those who did not participate.

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MetLife Foundation Grant
Pilot Program Summer 2008
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Developmental Math Challenge

• Students who place into MATH 020 (PreAlgebra)
  must take three developmental math courses prior
  to MATH 140 (College Algebra).

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18 Month Grant Objectives

• Work with BASD NASD Math Departments.
• Methodology Pretest students (Accuplacer)
  wanting to enroll at NCC who place into upper
  end of MATH 020.
• Teach an intensified summer version of MATH 020
  and post-test to see if students can bypass a
  developmental course within the Math sequence.

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Results from Summer 2008

• Upon class completion post-test
• 10 of 11 students placed into college level math
  MATH 118 119 (Foundations I II) MATH 150
  (Statistics).
• All 10 placed into MATH 026 (Intermediate
  Algebra), bypassing MATH 022 (Elementary Algebra).

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Next Steps

• Post-test a traditional 15 week MATH 020 section
  and assess results.
• Determine if the intensified version is most
  effective and consider offering the class each
  Summer.
• Increase school district participation.