An Evaluation of a Statewide Mathematics Corequisite Developmental Education Reform

全州数学必修发展教育改革的评估

• 批准号: 2200895
• 负责人: Zeyu Xu
• 金额: $ 159.89万
• 依托单位: American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-15 至 2027-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2200895&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evaluation; Statewide; Mathematics; Corequisite; Developmental

America’s community colleges play a vital role in strengthening the country’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. More than one-quarter of all STEM jobs are held by workers with either an associate’s degree or some other sub-baccalaureate training. Community colleges also play a central role in increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce, as they often serve students from populations underrepresented in their participation in STEM fields of study. Unfortunately, approximately three quarters of incoming community college students are considered not ready to succeed in college-level mathematics. Historically, such students have been unlikely to ever complete a STEM degree. Traditionally, students deemed not ready for college mathematics must enroll in prerequisite developmental education (DE), which requires students to pay for and complete a sequence of noncredit-bearing courses before enrolling in credit-bearing college courses. Mounting evidence suggests that prerequisite DE is ineffective and could even be harmful. This project examines a statewide reform in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), which replaced traditional prerequisite DE with co-requisite DE. In this increasingly popular DE model academically under-prepared students enroll directly in a credit-bearing, college-level course paired with developmental support. The KCTCS reform has two distinct features. First, it makes college mathematics courses accessible to students with a wider range of initial mathematics skills; and second, it incorporates high school grades, instead of just standardized test results, as an additional indicator determining whether a student is eligible to enroll in college mathematics. The study will address three important knowledge gaps related to how co-requisite DE supports under-prepared students by: i) studying students close to being college ready, ii) comparing co-requisite DE relative to no DE, and iii) through using high school grades in place of test scores for determining college placement.The primary study sample consists of students who attend the 16 campuses that constitute KCTCS. The project will merge secondary and postsecondary records from all students in public secondary schools and all students in in-state postsecondary institutions. The primary impact analysis sample will include all first-time students enrolled in a KCTCS degree program who have recent ACT scores. There will be five cohorts of first year students followed for three years. The goal of the co-requisite reform is to increase the completion rate of gatekeeper mathematics courses. The primary measure will be whether a student completes a gatekeeper mathematics course within one year of initial enrollment. The project also entails measuring longer-term progress towards key outcomes such as persisting to a second year of enrollment, credit accumulation, and degree completion or successful transfer to a four-year institution within three years of initial enrollment. The primary method of analysis will be using cut scores of both ACT mathematics scores and high school grades in order to conduct regression discontinuity designs that compare students who are just above the DE placement thresholds to those are just below. In addition to the analysis of administrative data, the project will feature original data collection in order to bolster knowledge of how the reform has been implemented and its associated costs. This component will begin with telephone interviews with assessment and placement directors in each of the 16 KCTCS colleges. Guided by administrator responses, the project will next survey instructors who provided supplemental support or college-level instruction in mathematics. Specifically, the project team will investigate implementation attributes and college responses to the co-requisite reform along dimensions such as support structure, instructor assignment, and student composition.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国的社区学院在加强国家的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）劳动力方面发挥着至关重要的作用。超过四分之一的STEM工作由拥有副学士学位或其他亚学士学位培训的工人担任。社区学院在增加STEM劳动力的多样性方面也发挥着核心作用，因为它们通常为那些在STEM研究领域参与不足的学生提供服务。不幸的是，大约四分之三的社区大学新生被认为没有准备好在大学数学方面取得成功。从历史上看，这样的学生不太可能完成STEM学位。传统上，被认为没有准备好大学数学的学生必须参加先决条件发展教育（DE），这要求学生在参加学分大学课程之前支付并完成一系列非学分课程。越来越多的证据表明，先决条件的DE是无效的，甚至可能是有害的。这个项目探讨了一个全州范围内的改革在肯塔基州社区和技术学院系统（KCTCS），取代了传统的先决条件DE与共同必要的DE。在这种日益流行的DE模式中，学术准备不足的学生直接参加学分制的大学水平课程，并提供发展支持。KCTCS改革有两个明显的特点。首先，它使大学数学课程可以为具有更广泛的初始数学技能的学生所用;其次，它将高中成绩而不仅仅是标准化考试成绩作为确定学生是否有资格参加大学数学的额外指标。这项研究将解决三个重要的知识差距有关的共同必要DE如何支持准备不足的学生：一）研究学生接近大学准备，二）比较共同必要DE相对于没有DE，和iii）通过使用高中成绩代替考试成绩来确定大学安置。主要研究样本包括参加构成KCTCS的16个校区的学生。该项目将合并公立中学所有学生和州立中学后教育机构所有学生的中学和中学后教育记录。主要影响分析样本将包括所有首次参加KCTCS学位课程的学生，他们最近有ACT成绩。将有五组一年级学生随访三年。选修课改革的目标是提高数学课程的完成率。主要的衡量标准将是学生是否在最初入学的一年内完成守门数学课程。该项目还需要衡量实现关键成果的长期进展，例如坚持到入学的第二年，学分积累，完成学位或在最初入学的三年内成功转入四年制大学。分析的主要方法将是使用ACT数学成绩和高中成绩的分数，以进行回归不连续设计，比较谁是刚刚高于DE安置阈值的学生，那些是刚刚低于。除了分析行政数据外，该项目还将收集原始数据，以加强对改革实施情况及其相关费用的了解。这一部分将开始与评估和安置主任在16个KCTCS学院的每一个电话采访。在管理员反馈的指导下，该项目下一步将调查提供补充支持或大学数学指导的教师。具体而言，本项目将沿着支持结构、教师分配、学生构成等方面调查实施属性和高校对共修改革的反应。本项目得到了NSF的EHR核心研究（ECR）项目的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，产生该领域的基础知识。投资是在关键领域是必不可少的，广泛的和持久的：干学习和干学习环境，扩大参与干，干劳动力发展。该计划支持积累强有力的证据，为理解、建立理论解释、提出干预和创新建议以应对教育中持续存在的挑战提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。