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Helping community college students succeed in developmental mathematics is a major priority of the Carnegie Foundation. This is because currently up to 60 percent of community college students who take the placement exam learn they must take at least one remedial course (also called developmental education) to build their basic academic skills. The vast majority of community college students referred to developmental mathematics do not successfully complete the current sequence of required courses and many leave college for good.
Improving Developmental Math in Community Colleges
Recognizing the grave consequences for individual opportunity and more generally for our economy and society, the Carnegie Statway ™and Quantway ™Networked Improvement Communities have embraced an audacious goal—to increase from 5 percent to 50 percent the percentage of students who achieve college math credit within one year of continuous enrollment.
Reports from the field
We are well on our way to achieving our goal. The initiative is vital out in the field. Statway™ went live in classrooms this past August and Quantway™ achieved this milestone in January. We now have 30 colleges participating in our two Networked Improvement Communities—22 in Statway™ and eight in Quantway™. This past August 2011, 1,195 students enrolled in 58 sections of Statway™, and in January 2012, 440 students enrolled in 27 sections of Quantway™. Over 80 faculty are now network members.
With our partner colleges and Foundation fellows and their affiliated institutions, we have:
Co-developed Instructional Systems in statistics and quantitative reasoning that foster deeper learning in the math for students and accelerates their progress toward either transfer to a baccalaureate institution or workforce programs of study;
Adapted Productive Persistence interventions for developmental math students and demonstrated through their initial use that it is possible to change students’ beliefs about their ability to learn math and succeed in college;
In eight states, broke open decades old articulation agreements between community college and universities that barred community college faculty from innovating in developmental math; and
Initiated a sea change in faculty culture by creating communities of faculty working together — Networked Improvement Communities — to prioritize student success, teaching within common instructional systems, and using common data to guide improvements in their teaching.
The Pathways
Statway™ is a year-long pathway to and through college statistics that takes students from developmental math through a college credit course in mathematics in one-year and serves as a gateway to further academic study.
- Learn more about the Carnegie Statway NIC »
Quantway™ is a one semester developmental mathematics course, focused on developing mathematical literacy and quantitative reasoning skills. Quantway replaces elementary and intermediate algebra. This course helps students develop 21st Century skills applying mathematics to personally and professionally relevant contexts found in finance, health and wellness and civic issues.
- Learn more about the Carnegie Quantway NIC »
The Instructional System
Version 1.0 of the Statway™ and Quantway™ lessons were created by The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin under sponsorship of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and are copyrighted by both organizations. Participants in both Carnegie’s Statway™ and Quantway™ Networked Improvement Communities are not using Version 1.0, but instead are using Version 1.5 of the lessons, which have been co-developed and improved by the Network.
These materials are part of an Instructional System that includes:
- Ambitious learning goals leading to deep and long lasting understanding;
- Lessons and out-of-class materials to advance these goals;
- Formative and summative assessments, including end of module and end of course assessments;
- Productive Persistence — an evidence-based package of practical student activities and faculty actions integrated throughout the instructional system to increase student motivation, tenacity and skills for success;
- Language and literacy component which interweaves necessary supports in instructional materials and classroom activities so that learning is accessible to all;
- Advancing teaching component to provide instructors with the knowledge, skills and habits necessary to experience efficacy in initial use and develop increasing expertise over time. This dimension is essential in seeking to reduce the variability in outcomes;
- Analytics to support the continuous improvement of teaching and of the materials.
Use of Materials
Statway™ and Quantway™ are trademarks of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that Carnegie secured as the steward of the Networked Improvement Communities to provide quality assurance to its members. To maintain the NIC's quality standards, however, it is essential that the NIC control the use of these brand names. Thus, the Statway™ or Quantway™ name would not apply to any third party derivatives of this work.
