NSF Award
1928368
With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, this Track 2 project aims to enhance student success in mathematics by developing a year-long dual-credit College Algebra/College Readiness Skills course. More than half of the students entering Central New Mexico Community College place into developmental mathematics courses, which can set STEM majors back in their degree progression by up to two years. The College Algebra/College Readiness Skills Course will be designed to support student success in Algebra, enabling students to enter calculus, a required course for many STEM majors. The College Algebra/College Readiness Skills Course will be designed by a professional learning community that includes high school and college mathematics faculty. The Course will be offered to high school seniors and to Central New Mexico Community College students, with the aim of enhancing student success in the transition to college-level mathematics course work. By participating in the professional learning community, college faculty will also gain insight about how to provide a better learning experience for first-year students. By better preparing students for success in college algebra courses, the project has the potential to support an increase in the number of students who successfully pursue STEM degrees.<br/><br/>The project seeks to enhance college readiness and completion of college algebra. This goal will be accomplished through collaborative development of a contextualized College Algebra/College Readiness Skills Course by mathematics faculty at Central New Mexico Community College, Albuquerque High School, and South Valley Academy High School. The faculty will identify how to improve students' mastery of mathematics and increase students' development of the skills needed to be successful in college STEM courses. By building on the knowledge of high school and college mathematics teachers, the Course may better equip students for successful transfer into the community college, as well as provide a novel link between the collaborating institutions. The project will investigate the following research questions: (1) How does the Professional Learning Community affect teaching practices? (2) In what ways does curricular inclusion of college readiness and a contextualized approach to mathematics prepare students to succeed in subsequent college-level STEM courses? and (3) Does the College Algebra/College Readiness Course improve student success in first-year college STEM and mathematics courses? To address these questions, the project will use quantitative and qualitative data, including student academic performance in mathematics and other STEM courses, and data from focus groups. The cross-institutional professional learning community infrastructure may be a replicable model for other institutions that seek to enhance the transition of students in the first year of college mathematics and other STEM courses. Project outcomes will be shared both regionally and nationally through conference presentations, and the curricula will be shared through an open-access, online platform. The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
