Nineteen community colleges nationwide are participating in a cutting-edge program aimed at helping students complete remedial math courses in a fast, more efficient manner.
Currently, first-time college students who lack strong math skills are placed in remedial math to help guide them through their struggles. Some of these students tend to not complete their required courses or avoid it all together therefore, not completing their college degree.
Pierce College is one the 19 colleges chosen to participate in this two-year experiment. The college will participate in developing two new pathways that will help the student succeed, one of them being called the Statistics Pathway or Statway.
“I honestly think that this is a great idea. There are so many students who struggle in math and I think it’s a unique way in helping the student succeed,” said Gayane Gyurjyan, 18-year-old Pierce student.
Students struggle in certain subjects, often with mathematics being the central challenge. Five private foundations have already announced the names of these 19 community colleges and stated the two new courses they plan to try out. The project will be based on courses know as Statway and Mathway.
Currently, 90 percent of the students who are enrolled in remedial math courses usually come from low-income families or are considered minority students. In addition, about 70 percent of college students who are in developmental mathematics do not complete the required courses that either they repeat each semester or just simply drop out.
The Carnegie Foundation is developing two new pathways that will help a diverse group of students succeed. This means that instruction will be more personal, effective and more cost efficient so that the students don’t have to worry about anything else but to pass their courses.
Students who are placed in these developmental math programs are usually first year students who find themselves in a confusing maze. Mathway and Statway are designed to condense content, which is also referred to as “college knowledge.” Both of these will increase communication between the students and their math professors as well as making college support services much easier and visible.
This experiment will change the traditional, abstract way that math is taught and minimize the unnecessary algebraic topics for learning statistical concepts. Students will learn more statistics and make sense of math in the “real world.” With the main focus being to keep students learning through the entire academic year, Mathway and Statway classes will also help students do college level work and keep them motivated and persistent. Later on, learning college success work will help increase the graduation rate.
“Students will be able to apply the math they learn in the classroom to what they will need in their lives and their college career,” said Crystal Kiekel, associate dean of student success and basic skills development. “They will also be prepared for college course work that requires an understanding of statistics.”
Preparations for this study began in the Summer 2010 and it is said that an infrastructure will be built for the three courses that will be offered in Fall 2011. The course will allow science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors who place into Math 115 to complete a transfer-level statistics course in two semesters.
In these courses, students will be given “real world” problems to work on so they can develop algebraic and statistical concepts to be successful in a transfer-level statistic course. Students will get attention from faculty, tutors, and counselors to help them reach their goals.
The instructors who will teach the courses include Bob Martinez, Kathy Yoshiwara, and Cassie Cain while Kiekel and Carol Kozeracki will support the program. To ensure the greatest amount of success, students will need to know a few things before making their decision.
This is a two-semester course and students need to be strongly committed. No partial credit will be given if a student completes only one course. Faculty members are trained to help assist students to place back into traditional math sequence, so if they decide to change majors or drop out, they are required to let their instructor or counselor know first.
“This is definitely something new and exciting for students who need help in math. Maybe students will finally come to enjoy math and pursue it for their future career,” said Pierce student Roberto Gonzalez, 17, undecided.
The faculty at Pierce strongly approves for this experiment to be conducted. It is an exciting way for colleges to teach math in a way that makes more sense to students. This project may result in more students passing their transfer math requirements.
“In statistics, the real world examples made more sense to me. Applying
math to real life and my future career made it come alive for me,” said Kiekel. “I earned my first A in a math course, which gave me the confidence I needed to move on to four-year university and ultimately to undertake graduate level research. I hope to help Pierce students earn that same success in math.”
