It’s Not Just the Curriculum:Developing Pathways for Student Success in Community CollegesBernadine Chuck Fong, Senior Managing Partner

Karon Klipple, Director of Statway™ Rachel Mudge, Faculty in Residence

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Carnegie Dev Math Pathways Initiative

• Target: double the number of dev math students to and through a college level math course through a one year sequence

• Statway™: dev math students to and through college level statistics in one year

• Quantway™: dev math students to and through college level quantitative literacy course in one year

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What Makes Us Different

• Combining the worlds of research and practice in cognitive science, psychology, mathematics education, pedagogy

• Working with members of the professional math/stat societies: AMA, AMATYC, ASA, CAUSE, MAA

• Focus on continuous improvement science• Building an ongoing networked improvement

community focused on a high leverage problem: development math

• Changed role of faculty

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Changed Role of Faculty

• Co-developers of materials• Research partners• Lesson study for curriculum and

professional development• Continuous improvement in a networked

community

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It’s Not Just the Curriculum

• Unique Pedagogy – focused on active student engagement

• Productive persistence (student tenacity and good strategies)

• Attention to Language and literacy• Common assessments to measure

improvement (“You can’t improve what you can’t measure”)

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Foundation of the Networked Improvement Community began in 2010 (proof of concept)

• Founding members of the Pathways Collaboratories– 19 community colleges and 3 universities for Statway™

• In California, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, and Washington

– 8 community colleges for Quantway™ • In Georgia, Ohio, and New York

• Participated in materials co-development• Launched first pilot in Statway™ in August 2011 and

Quantway™ in January 2012• Currently involved in ongoing improvement

activities

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Statway and Quantway Learning Outcomes

Developmental Mathematics Learning Outcomes• Numeracy

– Facility working with rational numbers: computation, rounding, estimation

• Proportional Reasoning• Comparing relationships such as difference vs. relative difference; working with

percentages and proportions

• Algebraic Reasoning• Using variables to represent unknown• Representing real world relationships with expressions, equations, inequalities, graphs and

tables

• Functions• Modeling situations with linear, quadratic and exponential functions, inequalities and

equations• Describe functions verbally, graphically, algebraically and with a table of values

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Statway™ – Statistics Learning Outcomes• Students will understand the data analysis process

and the well-designed statistical studies

• Students will demonstrate the use of distributional thinking to reason about data in order to describe trends and patterns, judge a fit of a model to distribution, and describe similarities and differences in comparing distributions.

• Students will demonstrate an ability to use appropriate statistical evidence to reason about population characteristics an experimental treatment effects.

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Quantway™ – Quantitative Literacy Outcomes• Students will demonstrate quantitative reasoning to

analyze problems, critique arguments, and draw and justify conclusions

• Communicate quantitative results both in writing and orally using appropriate language, symbolism, data and graphs

• Use technology appropriately as a tool

• Exhibit confidence in quantitative reasoning through perseverance and ability to transfer prior knowledge in unfamiliar contexts

Learning Theory Principles

• Rich task or overarching question motivates the development of concepts

• Students bring their own experience and reasoning to solve problems

• Focus on fewer topics in greater depth• Stress conceptual understanding over procedural

fluency• Built upon work of Jim Stigler and Karen Givven at

UCLA http://vimeo.com/19769755

TIMMS – video survey of 8 countries• Random sample of video of 8th grade math class• Teaching is a cultural activity: huge variability across countries, very little variability

within countries• What do we see in high achieving countries like Japan that is different from what we

see in the US?– What do you want your students to get out of this lesson:– Typical US: ‘I want them to be able to do…’– Typical Japan: ‘I want them to understand that…’– Typical US: hw review, see one – do one– Typical Japan: posed a rich task or broad question and then students are allowed to struggle with it. After 10-15

minutes discuss the solutions among the class, some right some wrong. Since never told how to do it – they came up with some creative solutions. Then go back and teach the concepts and layer the conceptual understanding to support that task.

– US: We’re uncomfortable with that. Unfair. You haven’t taught us that yet.

• THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO TEACH EFFECTIVELY.- Huge variability among high achieving countries – no magic bullet – group work via lecture, etc

THE UNDERLYING SIMILARITY:Quality/authentic learning opportunity provided for students-wrestling with concepts

on their own and then being guided in making connections

Making Connections 24:00-28:00

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Productive Persistence =Tenacity + Good Strategies

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Fixed Mindset: “Being a 'math person' or not is something about you that you really can't change. Some people are good at math and other people aren't."

Agree Disagree0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

87%

10%

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Productive Persistence:Scope of Work

Practical Theory

Practical Measures

Improvable “Starter

Package”• Centered on a

problem of practice• Co-developed with

practitioners and students

• Tested with academicexperts

• Brief and practical• Face-valid for

practitioners• Recognizable to

researchers• Designed to inform

improvements• “Can’t improve what

you can’t measure”

• Initial set of activities• Systems for collecting

data• Strategies for

improvement• Field tests that inform

practice and theories

Aim: Doubling the

number of students that successfully

complete college-level mathematics

Losing students at the transitions

Course material not seen as interesting or useful

Students don’t see themselves as math learners

Students need skills and habits required for college success

Students have weak ties to peers, faculty and course of study

Productive Persistence – Primary Drivers (6/10/11)

Indicators:AttendanceTime-on-taskPost-failure effortEffective strategyHelp-seekingRevising workChallenge-seeking

Drivers of the Problem

Some faculty lack skills/beliefs to promote productive persistence

and conceptual understanding

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Productive Persistence Starter PackageDay 1• Getting to know you activity

(10 - 15 min.) • Forming Groups (2 min.) • Language Script (2 min.)• Contract Activity (15 - 20 min.) • Syllabus activity (15 - 20 min.)

Day 2• Working in Groups - roles and

responsibilities (5 min.) • Script for Engaging in Productive

Struggle (5 min.)

• Why study mathematics?(5 min.)• Lesson 1.1.1

Day 3• Lesson 1.1.1 - Finish• Intro to MyStatway™ and SRL

(20 min)

 Day 4• Growth mindset activity (30 min.) • Lesson 1.1.2 - Question 1

Day 5• Finish Lesson 1.1.2 

Day 6• Lesson 1.1.3

Day 7 • Lesson 1.1.4

Day 8• Syllabus review with grade check (20

min.)

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2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

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Fixed Mindset About Math

(1 item)

First Day of Class 3+ Weeks Later

ES = .38*

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2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

Interest / Relevance(3 items)

2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

Anxiety(3 items)

ES = .17*

* P < .001

ES = .28*

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Stereotype Threat

(1 item)

ES = .10*

The Statway™ Data Speak…

ES = Effect size in SD units

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Initial Results• NIC-wide ending enrollment compared to beginning enrollment:

84%– Based on data from 53 classes at 21reporting colleges as of January 17th,

2012

• NIC-wide pass rate– 78% of STATWAY™ students received a grade of C or better

• Based on data from 23 classes at 15 reporting colleges

• NIC-wide assessment results for developmental students in statistics– Mean mid-term exam score: 62%

• Based on goals set by 43 classes reporting, range 51% to 72%• Compare with field test of college statistics students’ score of 68%

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“ I praise the fact that someone finally had enough sense to realize that a great deal of students have been kept from furthering their education due to this overpowering wall, and now there is hope for alot of us, not only to pursue higher education but to learn something that would really apply to our everyday life.  ”

What Statway™ Students Are Saying

“I feel that if one person put in the work to really understand the concepts they can pass. I was never a "math person" but coming into Statway has completely made a 360 degree turn about how i feel about math. It is great!”

“I panic alot when I hear anything to do with testing”

Math and test anxiety

A growth mindset

Course relevance

What it means to be a member of the Carnegie Pathways Networked Improvement Community?• NIC as a cooperative: focused on

improvement science of an instructional system for developmental mathematics education

• Cooperative operates as collective body with joint decision-making

• Shareholders of the cooperative operate as equal partners

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What it means to be a member of the Carnegie Pathways Networked Improvement Community?• The Statway™ and Quantway™ lessons are

open educational resource materials, however,

• The Cooperative owns the instructional system and the work of the Pathways which is trademarked and owned by members of the cooperative with the Carnegie Foundation as the steward

• Participating colleges share Carnegie affiliation

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What it means to be a member of the Carnegie Pathways Networked Improvement Community?• This Carnegie instructional system includes:

– Lessons (also available through OER)– Out of class materials equivalent to an online textbook and

other supporting materials– Online platform for student access to materials and student

surveys– Psychometrically developed assessments and scoring– Scientifically developed student and faculty surveys– Professionally developed Lesson Study protocol to improve

materials and pedagogy– Ongoing Advancing Teaching program to support faculty– Analytics on student background and performance data– Continuous feedback on student performance and pedagogy

effectiveness through online forums

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What it means to be a member of the Carnegie Pathways Networked Improvement Community?• Benefits

– Networked community of community college faculty, institutional researchers and administrators sharing common language, strategies, tools and resources to address a common problem

– Taking advantage of the wisdom and power of “crowds”– Building a systemic and more comprehensive approach

to solving the developmental math problem– Using research and analytical work to develop a deeper

understanding of the problem and the corresponding interventions to address the problem

– Being part of the conversation on what it means to be “math literate” or “GE certified in math”

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What is the college’s commitment?• Identify college team of three math faculty members, an IR member,

and administrator eager to commit to the principle, philosophy of the pathways and ready to implement teaching in Fall 2013

• Team will participate in monthly conference calls with other teams• Team is able to attend the initiation Summer Institute as part of the

National Forum at Stanford, CA (where Carnegie is located)• Travel funds for the above plus one regional meeting in January• Faculty members will participate in Advancing Teaching (online

program) in preparation for teaching QW or SW• College will collect data as per a data sharing agreement• College will commit to the Cooperative $25K for first year and $20K for

second year to share costs in building the Networked Improvement Community, including analytics and professional development support

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How You Can Get InvolvedSubmit letter of interest with evidence of college’s culture of evidence, including:

– demonstration of institutional research capacity and expertise;

– evidence of the math department’s interest in committing to a common curriculum and assessments, and

– focus on conceptual understanding, student engagement and language;

– and an overall institutional commitment to continuous improvement

• pathways@carnegiefoundation.org

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Partners: Funding