An Evaluation of a Statewide Mathematics Corequisite Developmental Education Reform

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工作是由拥有副学士学位或其他副学士学位培训的工人担任的。社区学院在增加STEM劳动力多样性方面也发挥着核心作用，因为它们通常为参与STEM研究领域的人数不足的学生提供服务。不幸的是，大约四分之三的即将进入社区大学的学生被认为没有准备好在大学水平的数学上取得成功。从历史上看，这些学生不太可能完成STEM学位。传统上，被认为没有准备好学习大学数学的学生必须参加先决条件发展教育（DE），这要求学生在参加有学分的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，必要的DE是无效的，甚至可能有害。本项目考察了肯塔基社区和技术学院系统（KCTCS）在全州范围内的改革，该系统将传统的先决条件的DE替换为必要的DE。在这种日益流行的DE模式中，学术上准备不足的学生直接注册学分，大学水平的课程，并辅以发展支持。KCTCS改革有两个明显的特点。首先，它使具有更广泛初级数学技能的学生能够接触到大学数学课程；其次，它结合了高中成绩，而不仅仅是标准化考试成绩，作为决定学生是否有资格参加大学数学课程的额外指标。该研究将解决三个重要的知识缺口，这些知识缺口与共同必要的DE如何支持准备不足的学生有关：i)研究接近大学准备的学生，ii)比较共同必要的DE相对于没有DE，以及iii)通过使用高中成绩代替考试成绩来决定大学安置。主要研究样本由组成KCTCS的16个校区的学生组成。该项目将合并所有公立中学学生和州内高等教育机构学生的中学和高等教育记录。主要影响分析样本将包括所有在KCTCS学位课程注册的首次学生，他们最近有ACT成绩。将有五组一年级学生被跟踪三年。共同改革的目标是提高看门人数学课程的完成率。主要的衡量标准是学生是否在入学后一年内修完一门看门人数学课程。该项目还需要衡量关键成果的长期进展，如坚持到第二年入学、学分积累、在首次入学的三年内完成学位或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截分，以便进行回归不连续设计，比较刚刚超过DE分数线的学生和刚刚低于DE分数线的学生。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成本的了解。这一部分将从电话采访16所KCTCS学院的评估和安置主任开始。在管理员反馈的指导下，该项目下一步将调查那些在数学方面提供补充支持或大学水平教学的教师。具体而言，项目团队将从支持结构、教师分配和学生构成等方面调查实施属性和大学对共同必要改革的反应。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目支持积累有力的证据，为理解、构建理论进行解释提供依据，并提出干预和创新建议，以应对教育中持续存在的挑战。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.