Student Learning: How Long Should It Take?

About SWTJC Large service area HSI – 3,715 FTE 11 Counties (16,769 square miles) Rural HSI – 3,715 FTE 70+% FTIC need remediation Achieving the Dream Developmental Education Gateway Courses Culture of Evidence Explain who we are, and ATD.

Audience Questions How many developmental students do you have? Where are they in the process? How are they doing today? Is your developmental education program working? What parts of your dev ed program are working, which aren’t?

Our Problem: Could Count but not Track Could count the number of students in dev ed but not track students Tracking process: manually review their individual degree plans – not feasible with a cohort of students Hard to get basic info from Datatel

Solution: Data Warehouse Above: data warehouse shows students in the 2004FA cohort and how many are enrolled in remedial math classes over a 3 year period. The data warehouse allows users to slice by demographic variables and course-taking patterns

Who is Developmental? Seems easy, but … Placement ranges hard to remember i.e. Accuplacer level 30-62 maps to Level 1 Multiple tests Accuplacer, state tests, ACT, etc Not fine-grained / diagnostic student at low end of scale grouped with students at high end

Who is Developmental? Seems easy, but … Students often don’t take placement tests Only take it at admissions time Who is developmental now? Students take classes out of order

Solution: Who is Developmental? Solution: New calculated score incorporating: Scores from different tests Where were they when they started? (i.e. placement scores) Where are they now? (i.e. grades)

Problem: Scores Not Fine-Grained Aaron Abel Accuplacer 63 (lower level 2) Susan Smith Accuplacer 78 (upper level 2) Although these students are both in Level 2, they are very different students

Solution: More Refined Levels Old Level New Level Aaron Abel Accuplacer 63 Level 2 Level 200 Susan Smith Accuplacer 78 Level 288 The new score reflects the fact that, while both were placed in level 2, Susan’s score was almost enough to place her into level 3 while Aaron just barely made it into Level 2

Solution: Placement Scores+ Course Completion Old Level New Level Aaron Abel Accuplacer 63 Passed Level 2 with a D Level 2 Level 300 Susan Smith Accuplacer 78 Passed Level 2 with a A Level 375 Just looking at Accuplacer scores, we would think both students are in Level 2, but since that test they have both completed Level 2. The score reflects their course-taking and illustrates the differences between them (Aaron barely made it out of Level 2 and Susan aced it)

Solution: At-a-Glance for Advisors Get Aaron or Susan here.

Dev Ed Pipeline Above: Shows which level of Math students started in on left (FTIC Math Level) versus where they are now on top (Latest Math Level). The highlighted cell shows that only 8.73% of students who started in Level 0 (in 2005 Fall) and who are still enrolled have made it past the gateway class. 13

More Questions How would you measure how long it takes a student to complete gateway courses? Why would you want to do that? Is it important?

Gateway Analysis Above: Shows the correlation between suspected gatekeeper classes and graduation. Within 4 terms of completing College Level math (in green) 30% of students have graduated (almost double that of the reading and writing gatekeepers!)

College Level Algebra

Ideal Curve

Where do we go from here?

More Questions Where does your data hit the road? How do you presently use data to affect student learning?

Comparing Grades and Assessment Results Use tracking levels “Do grades truly reflect student learning?” Fall 2008: pilot study to look at this question Pre- and post-assessment for College Algebra (MATH 1314) 300+ students took the assessment

Comparing Grades and Assessment Results

Using Data to Improve Student Learning Move the assessment results. Raise high end slightly.

Technical Information (aka: More than you want to know)

Initial Tracking Levels Based on Prorated Accuplacer Score Math Accuplacer Score Tracking Level 0-29 000-099 30-62 100-199 63-80 200-299 81-120 300-399 Example: Student scores 46 on Accuplacer.

Subsequent Tracking Levels Based on Prorated Accuplacer Score Math Course Grade Tracking Level By Grade Quartile D Base + 0 points C Base + 25 points B Base + 50 points A Base + 75 points Example: Student receives “B” in MATH 0302.

Using Tracking Levels for Course Placement Student Takes Gateway Status -1 (No Data) MATH 0301 Pre-Gateway 000-099 100-199 MATH 0302 200-299 MATH 0303 300-399 MATH 1314 Gateway (College Ready) 400-499 MATH 2xxx Post-Gateway Show example from Estudias Student Navigator.

Contact Information Blaine Bennett blaine.bennett@swtjc.edu (830) 591-7275 Dick Whipple rbwhipple@swtjc.edu (830) 591-7326 Michael Nguyen mnguyen@zogotech.com (214) 774-4780 x803 Michael Taft mtaft@zogotech.com (214) 774-4780 x801