The Relationship Between Accelerated Dev-Ed Coursework and Early College Milestones: Examining College Momentum in a Reformed Mathematics Pathway

Abstract

More than half of community college students fail to meet college-readiness standards in math. Developmental education (dev-ed) aims to help students acquire the knowledge and skills to succeed in college-level math but is plagued with low rates of advancement. We examined the impact of a model that accelerates developmental math coursework so that students can complete dev-ed and college math courses in their programs of study within 1 year. Using data from Texas and a propensity score matching approach, we tested the impact of the model on several college milestones. Results suggest that students in the accelerated model were more likely to persist and accumulate college-level credits during the 1st year than those in traditional dev-ed math. After 3 years, there was a strong positive relationship between participation in the accelerated model and important college milestones, like college math course completion and total accumulated college-level credits.

Heterogeneity in the Returns to Credits for Public Two-Year College Entrants

“…It is possible that we capture the influence of math pathways reforms to developmental math that occurred during our cohort's educational trajectory, given our timeframe of 2011-2018. Many colleges participated in collaborative efforts for math pathways-run by the Dana Center and Carnegie-by 2013 and 2014, though some incorporated homegrown efforts for math pathways prior to that (see Schudde & Keisler, 2019). It would be useful to see additional studies replicating these analyses to better understand the returns to different types of credits and how they may vary over time and context.…”

“…Developmental English classes aim to improve English language proficiency and communication skills, which could improve labor market opportunities (McCabe, 2000); and some evidence suggests that dev-ed English credits boost individuals' earnings (Hodara & Xu, 2016). Improving students' basic numeracy skills could also theoretically improve employability and wages (McIntosh & Vignoles, 2001), but research suggests that dev-ed math may not produce those effects (Hodara & Xu, 2016), perhaps because of insufficiencies in how traditional developmental math pathways prepare students for math skills required in real-world jobs (Logue et al, 2016;Schudde & Keisler, 2019).…”

Diverging Paths: Exploring the Association Between Initial Math Pathways and College Students’ Subsequent Math Performance

“…One limitation of this approach is that there still may be some remaining differences on unobservable characteristics such as student motivation; however, when randomized trials are infeasible matching can be used to balance samples on observable characteristics to allow for more rigorous inferences compared to other statistical methods (Reyonds & DesJardins, 2010). This type of approach has been used in other studies examining the impact of math pathways on postsecondary outcomes when random assignment was not possible (e.g., Huang & Yamada, 2017;Schudde & Keisler, 2019;Yamada et al, 2018).…”

“You Shall Not Pass”: Predicting Attrition and Completion of an Iraqi Academic Preparatory Program

“…Because one of the challenges of providing developmental education in undergraduate coursework is students' frustration with the amount of time they must spend in developmental courses, which are not credited toward their respective degrees (Eberly, 2018;Park & Ngo, 2021;Rutschow & Schneider, 2011), some scholars have argued for accelerating developmental education sequences to increase students' academic momentum (e.g., Daugherty et al, 2019;Hodara & Smith Jaggars, 2014). Schudde and Keisler (2019) and Boatman (2021), for example, both found a strong relationship between participating in accelerated developmental education and key indicators of academic momentum, including completing college-level math courses and total credit accumulation. However, gains in movement out of developmental coursework and into regular college-level coursework may be offset by declines in student performance in those collegelevel courses (Hodara & Smith Jaggars, 2014), and the benefits of accelerated developmental education may not be realized for those students who are least prepared for college-level coursework (Boatman, 2021).…”