I discovered a wealth of information regarding adult learners on the completion by design website. The link below provides information specifically about remedial and developmental math policy papers, best practices, and models of compressing and even resequencing developmental math courses in Community Colleges. I think there are implications for adult education and our learners as we look for models that will work with preparing them to meet the increased rigor required by HSE exams. The Ready for College program working with out-of-school youth in Colorado had amazing results in just 8-weeks! From the description, "This evaluation examines the efficacy of an eight-week, accelerated college connections program designed to prepare out-of-school youth for entry to community college. Program participants received support from coaches in core subject areas including math, English, reading, career exploration, academic advising, and college success. The program showed positive impacts on participants, with more than 80% enrolling in credit-bearing college courses." I would be interested in knowing how many successfully completed those credit-bearing college courses, perhaps someone from Colorado knows?
http://knowledgecenter.completionbydesign.org/binder/41/compressed-developmental-math-coursework
Comments
Michelle -
I went to the link you provided and read through the report. It was about FastTrack, a developmental math course at the Community College of Denver. The Ready for College program is the next iteration of FastTrack (as I read the next report:
http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/CCD_Scale-up_2011.1.5_final%5B1%5D.pdf )
You asked for someone from Colorado to respond. Here I am, with boots on the ground. I have taught similar "compressed" math courses at CCD's sister school, Front Range Community College (Westminster campus). The course numbering system is the same throughout the state, so I am familiar with the content of those courses. Like CCD, Front Range - Westminster has a diverse student population.
I went to the link you provided and read through the report. The outcomes are different for math than for English. I'll mention the English briefly: after 24 months or 36 months, 76% had completed the gatekeeper (i.e., for graduation credit) English class.
The numbers for math look much different.
1) Of those students starting at the lowest level MAT 030-060 (basic math: whole numbers, fractions, decimal AND pre-algebra), only 11.3% has passed the "gatekeeper" math class in 24 months, and 21.5% had passed after 36 months.
2) Successful completion of the FastStart sequence decreases as the courses are more rigorous:
MAT 30-60 (basic and pre-algebra) 73.2%
MAT 60-90 (pre-algebra and Algebra 1) 69.8%
MAT 90-99 (Algebra 1 and Algebra 2) 58.8%
3) Even among the most-advanced cohort, where 84.6% passed all developmental math, only 46.2% passed the gatekeeper course (the “for transfer credit” course). [This may be College Algebra, Statistics, or Math for Liberal Arts.]
Then there is this comment from the Introduction of the report:
"Further, this study presents descriptive results and does not include comparison groups." (I added the bold.)
In addition, not just anyone was accepted into the FastTrack program:
Formal assessments supplemented by locally developed diagnostics identify students who can benefit from the program. (The comment is in bold in the report.)
One thing the report does not mention is the amount of time a student is expected to spend on math in order to succeed at these courses. The college-level rule applies: For every hour of class, a minimum of two hours of homework.
The MAT 030-060 combination is 5 class instruction hours a week; That means one math class is going to take 15-20 hours of a student's life per week in order for the student to be successful. In addition, the FastTrack people had a "student success" course attached to their math class. That is an additional hour or two of class and twice that much more homework/study time expected.
MAT 060-090 is 3 credits plus 4 credits per week and twice that in homework: at least 21 hours.
MAT 090-099 is 4 credits plus 4 credits per week and twice that in homework: at least 24 hours.
Question: Do our adult ed students have that kind of time to commit to one class?
Question: Do all adult ed sites have teachers prepared to teach math to that level?
Last but not least, these reports are 3 years old (2010). In the meantime, all of this has gone away and the entire Colorado Community College System is transitioning to new developmental courses. The premise (and good intention) behind the new system is to get students through the developmental classes sooner so they will be more likely to graduate.
In math, the lowest-level new course begins about where pre-Algebra ends. Students are expected to come in fluent with fractions and decimals.
I told this to my current class of students (who are finishing a compressed basic/pre-algebra course). Their reaction: They are glad they took this course when they did because they would not have made it into the new course.
So that is the situation in Colorado. Community college developmental math (and English) programs are no longer serving students at the lowest levels. They will be showing up in adult ed classrooms. And this in the only state in the nation whose state legislature (to this point) has never appropriated one dollar to support adult education. There is a small amount of AEFLA money. Local school districts can support adult ed if they choose (guess what got cut first when the recession hit?). Otherwise it is applying for grants and fundraising.
A lengthy response, but now you have a more complete picture of the impressive success rate in the report.
Dorothea Steinke, math instructor
Front Range Community College - Westminster, CO
Hello Dorothea and Michelle,
We are looking at redesigning our developmental math courses (gateway courses) to a more condensed version on the college side. We have discussed combining two levels of remediation into one 16 week course that is 5 credit hours face-to-face with students studying a minimum of 10 hours outside of class. There has even been discussion about raising our COMPASS (college-placement score) and moving learners who aren't ready for this gateway course into our adult education program. The problem is exactly what Dorothea asked:
1. Do our adult ed students have that kind of time to commit to one class?
2. Do all adult ed sites have teachers prepared to teach math to that level?
3. Do adult ed programs have the resources to fund this type of instruction?
Their data is impressive but I am not sure we have the resources necessary to accommodate this level or volume of learner. I would be curious what other states do, if they have some developemental education learners in their programs and how they help them transition? How are the courses set-up and etc.?
Brooke Istas, SME
Math and Numeracy
... often the states doing this with great results have screened out the folks who scored lower on the assessments.
... we have not -- yet -- gone the "compression" route. We do have a section of compressed basic & intermediate algebra, but students must qualify for it. Our big shift has been to completely re-design the developmental math courses for the students going into non-STEMmy kinds of things. See http://dm-live.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.devmathrevival.net/ for informatin about the general direction. Since I just tutor the folks, I don't know how closely related these ideas are -- I k now our faculty did a *lot* of the actual course design here, including the 'text' (which is a computer printout).
Brooke,
Is the 10 hours per week or over the life of the course? Also, regarding your questions, I wonder if you could reach out to Rosemary Lischka, with Kansas City Kansas Community College Adult Education program, I believe that they have had students who are scoring at below the college level math and reading scores on the COMPASS (may be ACCUPlacer) referred for enrollment to the adult education program. Perhaps she could comment here and provide some insight into how it is working with her college. I believe, this is at least a year or two old policy at their institution.
Michelle
One more note on the success of compressed courses. Where I have been teaching, the decision was made about 3 semesters ago to offer a compressed basic math (normally 2 credit hours) and pre-algebra (normally 3 credit hours) in a 4-credit/contact hours-per-week course. Students who could not keep up the pace would drop that compressed course and take the basic math course by itself. I had some of those students. They succeeded wonderfully in the slower pace. When the background is not there, speeding things up does not work for many students.
I recall reading that the human brain can absorb one or two new concepts in a day and then the brain needs time (sleep) to digest those new ideas. In the compressed course (which I taught this semester that is ending), there might be 3 or 4 new concepts in a 2-hour class. That is not good pedagogy. That is setting our students up for failure in math - once again.
Dorothea Steinke
I agree that speeding up math is not always the best thing to do for learners. One of the major problems we run into is with retention of learners who do successful complete the development math course. Several do not re-enroll into the next level, so they may never get to College Algebra. Our college is thinking about doing a College Algebra with Review so that students will get College Algebra credit if they are successful. It is a 5-credit hour course. It is based off the findings of the "Remdediation: Higher Education's Bridge to Nowhere" study. There has been two pilots already here but the numbers of this cohort are too small to make any conclusions yet on the success or failure of this new design.
Brooke
Some of the article below from the Workforce3One site is not relevant for adult ed per se, but the research base for math pathways, math content changes and the idea of co-requisites is interesting. Anyone in the LINCS Community from Ivy Tech and involved in the Technical Math course content? This course curriculum would definitely have application with the adult education career pathways and CCR standards.
Interested in your thoughts...
Ivy Tech Community College Program Aims to Increase College Completion in Shorter Time
Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana has long been an innovation leader in curriculum development and implementing new concepts such as prior learning assessments. This post is taken from staff reports in the Kokomo Tribune and feaures a new first-of-its kind Math Pathways program to help students graduate sooner.
Ivy Tech Community College has created a first-of-its-kind Math Pathways program within its curriculum to help students graduate sooner and meet their future college or career goals.
Math courses now will be based on one of three pathways specific to the type of math skills students will need in their future careers or continuing education. Ivy Tech also has introduced the concept of “co-requisites,” which allows students to take remedial and credit-bearing courses in the same semester.
“The primary objectives for the changes are to provide a supportive, accelerated math experience for students who are not quite ready for college-level math, and to provide relevant math curriculum aligned with the needs of workforce,” said Mary Ostrye, provost and senior vice president at Ivy Tech. “We believe that implementing these three math pathways are important steps toward reaching these goals.”
The first new pathway, Applied Tech Career Pathway, was designed for the School of Technology programs and will be rolled out statewide in January. A new course, technical mathematics, with an emphasis on real-life math applications, was created for this pathway.
The second option is the Applied and non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Transfer Pathway. Ivy Tech created a quantitative reasoning course for this pathway, which was designed to support all non-transfer Associate of Applied Science degrees, Associate of Arts and other transfer programs in the public and social service fields and most health programs.
The third pathway is the STEM/Algebra-Calculus Transfer Pathway. This pathway begins with college algebra and is intended for STEM majors in the School of Applied Science/Engineering Technology; science, math, and social science majors in liberal arts; and for business and a select few health programs. Ivy Tech will start fully implementing Math Pathways and the co-requisite model in fall 2014.
“Ivy Tech really is on the cutting edge of redesigning math nationally,” said Kim King, vice chancellor of academic affairs at Ivy Tech’s Kokomo location. “The whole idea behind it is you give students the math required for their career path. It’s a way to increase student success.”
The new pathways are changing the curriculum in several ways, including the elimination of courses and changing course requirements for some majors. The goal is for students to complete degree requirements and graduate college in less time.
“It really is not dumbing down the math,” Cain said. “It’s actually teaching more effectively because it’s more focused and with more support.”
Ivy Tech’s partnership with the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin led to the Math Pathways approach. With a mission of eliminating the one-size-fits-all approach to math, the Dana Center supported Ivy Tech is collecting data to determine the math concepts students need to be successful.
Several states are using this PATHWAYS idea. Colorado is one of them. In the new developmental math program, there are just two courses:
1) One is for students who do not need College Algebra for their 4-year degree. This includes auto tech and teaching, among others. (It sounds like Indiana has two courses to cover technical class students and other, non-STEM students.) The first course starts at percents and ratios. There is no place in the new Colorado community college developmental math sequence for students who are not already flluent in fractions and decimals (read: many or most of the students in adult education, and many students who graduated high school and who used to have an entry-level math course at Colorado community colleges so they could pick up what they had forgotten or never learned). Students who do not qualify for the second course may take this course, and then the new second-level developmental math course.
2) The more advanced course is for students who are at almost the Algebra 2 level but did not score high enough on the placement exam to go directly into College Algebra. These students will go on to more math (i.e., Calculus) that is required for their 4-year degree.
There is a lot more of this going on all around the country than the article you cite makes it appear.
Dorothea Steinke
Lafayette, Colorado