Author(s):
The Direct Enrollment reforms at the Virginia Community College System eliminated the use of placement testing into college-level English and mathematics courses. Placement for recent high school graduates is now determined by high school GPA and coursework or standardized (SAT/ACT) test scores. These reforms also shortened pathways into credit-level coursework as well as shifting enrollment from prerequisite developmental into corequisite remediation courses taught in the same semester as paired credit-level gateway courses. Over the past year, the research team has been investigating these reforms in mathematics along three dimensions: (1) implementation of reforms across the 23 different VCCS colleges, (2) impact on student success outcomes utilizing quasi-experimental methods, and (3) instructional approaches in corequisite courses. This presentation will overview the goals of research, present a summary of quantitative findings from one large school, Northern Virginia Community College, and preview next directions for research.
Coauthors
Di Xu, UC-Irvine; Florence Ran, University of Delaware; Laura Desimone, University of Delaware; Catherine Finnegan, Virginia Community College System; Xunfei Li, UC-Irvine; Daman Chhikara, UC-Irvine
