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Reforming Math Pathways in California’s Community Colleges
Olga Rodriguez, Hans Johnson, Marisol Cuellar Mejia, and Bonnie Brooks
Supported with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the College Futures Foundation, and the Sutton Family Fund
October 24, 2017
Developmental math is an obstacle for community college students
2
The California Community Colleges (CCC) system is large and diverse– Educates almost half of the state’s undergraduates– High numbers of historically underrepresented students enroll– Critical to the production of bachelor’s degrees
Equity is a major concern in developmental (remedial) math– 65% of incoming students enroll but few complete transfer-level math—49%
of students one level below transfer and only 8% of those four levels below– Historically underrepresented students are disproportionately represented
Community colleges are experimenting with alternative pathways to transfer-level math, as well as other reforms
– Revising assessment and placement procedures – Exploring alternative curricular approaches
Two key reforms aim to shorten the path to transfer-level math
Statistics pathway– Provides accelerated pathway to transfer level math for students in liberal arts
and humanities majors– Aims to better align with transfer-level statistics
Compressed math pathway– Accelerates pathway to transfer math by combines two developmental math
courses into a single course– Aims to streamline content by reducing time spent on review and eliminating
redundancy
Reforms only reach a small share of students
Comparing traditional math and statistics pathways
Students in statistics pathways are much more likely to complete a transfer-level course
5
75 67
49
26
100
64
4438
2216 13
0102030405060708090
100
Enrolled Completed Enrolled Completed Enrolled Completed Earned adegree,
certificate,
Beginning algebra orpre-statisics
Intermediate algebra Transfer-level math or transferred
Shar
e of
stu
dent
s (%
)
Statistics pathwayTraditional math pathway
Outcomes improve for a broad range of students, but equity gaps remain
6
1216
20 18 16 1814
19
33
4751
58
4955
45
53
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
AfricanAmerican
Latino AsianAmerican
White Low-income Notlow-income
Male Female
Shar
e of
stu
dent
s co
mpl
etin
g tr
ansf
er-le
vel m
ath
(%)
Traditional math pathway
Statistics pathway
Comparing traditional and compressed math pathways
The compressed algebra pathway has a modest impact
8
100
66
43
28
15
5951
38
2015 13 0
102030405060708090
100
Enrolled Completed Enrolled Completed Enrolled Completed Earned adegree,
certificate,
Beginning algebra orcompressed algebra
Intermediate algebra Transfer-level math or transferred
Shar
e of
stu
dent
s pr
ogre
ssin
g (%
)
Compressed algebra pathwayTraditional math pathway
Outcomes improve for a broad range of students, but equity gaps have not narrowed
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69
12 10 1014
9 1013
2025
17 18
28
1823
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
AfricanAmerican
Latino AsianAmerican
White Male Female Low-income Notlow-income
Shar
e of
stu
dent
s co
mpl
etin
g tr
ansf
er-le
vel m
ath
(%)
Traditional math pathway
Compressed algebra pathway
Students in compressed arithmetic and pre-algebra pathways have poor outcomes
10
100
178 5 5
0102030405060708090
100
Start in traditional orcompressed math
Completeddevelopmental math
Enrolled intransfer math
Completedtransfer math
Earned a degree,certificate, ortransferred
Shar
e of
stu
dent
s pr
ogre
ssin
g (%
)
Traditional math pathway
Compressed arithmetic-pre-algebra pathway
Developmental math reforms improve overall outcomes but have not closed gaps between student groups
11
Longstanding gaps between students overall and students in underrepresented groups have not narrowed – Race/ethnicity, gender, and low-income status
Community colleges have begun to consider the equity implications of developmental education– Partly in response to student equity funding
Colleges have begun to address equity gaps– Integrating student supports– Professional development– Reforming assessment and placement
Policy recommendations
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Expand access to statistics and compressed algebra pathways
Consider curricular reform in compressed algebra
Consider eliminating lowest developmental math levels
Integrate developmental math reforms and guided pathways to support student success beyond developmental education
Encourage innovations and monitor their impact– Evaluate outcomes as colleges implement and expand math reforms– Assess whether interventions help to close equity gaps
Reforming Math Pathways in California’s Community Colleges
Olga Rodriguez, Hans Johnson, Marisol Cuellar Mejia, and Bonnie Brooks
Supported with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the College Futures Foundation, and the Sutton Family Fund
October 24, 2017
Notes on the use of these slides
14
These slides were created to accompany a presentation. They do not include full documentation of sources, data samples, methods, and interpretations. To avoid misinterpretations, please contact:
Olga Rodriguez ([email protected]; 415-291-4457)
Thank you for your interest in this work.
