Streamlining the First Year: Developmental Math Reform

Project Sponsor

• Nikos Varelas, VPUA

Project Team

• Martina Bode
• Dave Marker
• Brooke Shipley

Project Lead

• Jenny Ross

Project Objectives

The Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science is proposing and implementing a number of revisions to the developmental and precalculus mathematics courses.  This project aims at the following objectives:

• Improving student success rates in these courses;
• Making sure that students passing a prerequisite course are well prepared for the following course;
• Reducing the number of semesters students spend taking non-credit bearing courses.

Based on the review of the current courses, data from previous years, and current best practices throughout the state, we plan on adding a College Algebra course, allowing many students that currently place into a noncredit-bearing Intermediate Algebra course to begin in a credit-bearing course.  The addition of this course will allow a restructure of the Intermediate Algebra course to spend the time needed on fundamentals to help ensure student success.

The project team also plans on adding a one-credit hour co-requisite course to our Intermediate Algebra for those students that would currently place into the Beginning Algebra, allowing all Beginning Algebra students to bypass this course. This co-requisite course would allow students to remove 3 hours and up to one semester in noncredit-bearing coursework.