Math Pathways for College-bound High School Seniors Cyd Grua Julie Hartley

Why Metamajors? Julie Hartley

Any ideas why?

Many students take more credits than are needed for their certificate or degree.

Big Culprit: Math

USHE Gateway Courses: Math 64% of first-year students (both student right out of high school and returning adults) enroll in a math pathway 40.8% are taking remedial math classes 35.7% are taking a QL (Math 1030, 1040, 1050) or greater

USHE Gateway Courses: Math Pass rates: 54% who took a remedial course failed 40% of students who took College Algebra (1050) failed

One Problem: Wrong Math Pathway

USHE DFWI Study Study of undergraduate classes where a high number of students got D/F grades, withdrew, or got an incomplete. Some conclusions: Students who are advised into Math 1050 are at greater risk for failure, especially if calculus is not needed for their major. Putting students in the wrong math class = setting them up to drop out.

One QL Does NOT Fit All

USHE has 3 QLs

USU MATH Assessment Workshop Outcomes Campus-wide discussions to ID the right QL for different programs Most STEM degrees kept MATH 1050 (or higher) as QL and/or prerequisite option (when calculus is a degree requirement). Sixty-six programs in arts, humanities, social science, and teaching eliminated MATH 1050 as QL. They will substitute STAT 1040, STAT 1045 or another new program-specific QL course.

Advising Dilemma: What if students haven’t decided on a major?

Connect QLs with Meta-majors

Advising Dilemma: Default to Math 1050 to “keep options open“? No! One USHE 4-Year Institution looked at all degree-seeking enrollments since 2006. The majority of students complete within their initial college meta-major. Students are 3 ½ times more likely to transfer out of STEM than into it. Only 2.9% transferred into a STEM degree.

USHE HS Feedback Reports

A Big Culprit: Math Expiration Dates

H.S. Graduation Requirements Don’t Require 4th Year of Math

LDS Missions = possible 3 year gap

Solution: SB 196 CE Math Initiative passed 2015 Leg Session Challenge: Get more students to finish QL before HS graduation. Need to increase CE Math offerings; Pilot study will gather feedback on why students do/do not take CE QL classes.

CE needs to promote the 3 QLs 92% of CE students are NOT going into majors that require Calculus…

CE Exploratory Pathways Uses Holland Personality Codes taught in 8th Grade Concurrent Enrollment Math Pathways: https://stepuputah.com/files/2017USHEExploratoryMajorPathways.pdf

CE Exploratory Pathways Promotes 3 QLs

Very early results from SLCC Getting students into appropriate QL: 22% increase in math enrollments. 25% increase in the number students passing a QL course in a given semester (460 more students than in Fall 2015)

DFWI Study by Registration Status 10 biggest courses CE students have far lower DWFI rates. CE students also perform equal to or better in subsequent Math courses than campus students taking the same two classes.

Questions? StepUpUTAH.com – USHE website for students and parents UtahCE.org – fasttracks to the StepUp page with CE resources jhartley@ushe.edu cgrua@ushe.edu