Making It Through: Interim Findings on Developmental Students’ Progress to College Math with the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways
By Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow | July 2018
Many students enter community college underprepared in math and must take multiple semesters of developmental (remedial) classes. Far too few of these students ever in enroll in—let alone pass—an introductory college-level math course. And yet, without those credits, they cannot graduate.
Math pathways, which accelerate developmental math and diversify students’ math course options to align with their career interests, is a popular reform intended to improve student success. This brief provides a preliminary look at the experimental results of one such model, Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP), developed by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Researchers found that program students made strides enrolling in and passing college-level math during their second and third semesters, indicating that the DCMP is helping students reach a critical college milestone.
Full results from the study will be published in 2019. The report will include a full year of quantitative data for all four cohorts; examine colleges’ implementation of the DCMP model; and analyze the cost effectiveness of the program.
Key Findings
Students who entered DCMP classes in fall 2015 and spring 2016 passed developmental math at rates more than 7 percentage points higher than students in traditional courses.
After three semesters, 25 percent of students in DCMP courses passed college-level math, compared with 17 percent of students in traditional courses.
Students who participated in DCMP reported being more engaged in class and viewing math in a more positive light than students who were not in the program.
Colleges in the Study
Looking at Early Outcomes
DCMP is helping students reach a critical college milestone: making it to and through a college-level math course.
DCMP is helping students reach a critical college milestone: making it to and through a college-level math course.