Mathematics Pathways and Re-Design Resources

In 2018, the Florida Student Success Center established three inter-connected workgroups to identify current challenges in mathematics pathways and develop policy and practice recommendations to improve student achievement across Florida's education systems. The charge of the Florida Mathematics Re-Design workgroups was to explore complex issues surrounding mathematics pathways to prepare high school students for transition into Florida College System institutions and Florida College System students for transition into four-year universities. More than 90 mathematics faculty, administrators and key stakeholders from Florida's K-12 system, the Florida College System and the State University System served as members of the workgroups in 2018-19. The recommendations presented in the report below reflect a synthesis of the policy and practice recommendations that emerged.

Dana Center Mathematics Pathways Implementation Guide: An interactive resource that applies the guided pathways work to implementing and scaling mathematics pathways based on the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways model. The guide walks faculty and staff through the four stages of implementation from getting started, planning, implementing and continuous improvement.

Dana Center Mathematics Pathways - Strategies and Considerations for Co-requisite Supports: This resource outlines considerations for discussion among mathematics faculty, advisors, administrators, and financial aid staff as institutions design co-requisite model(s) that best serve their institution and its students.

Cuyumaca College's Leading the Way on Transforming Remediation: This report highlights Cuyumaca College’s efforts to address issues with remediation since 2010. Three changes frame the college’s work including recognizing students’ high school work in course placement, replacing one-size-fits-all remedial courses with math pathways and teaching math through active strategies.

Complete College America - Co-Requisite Remediation: Spanning the Completion Divide: A 2016 Complete College America report highlighting the impact of co-requisite remediation work on student success in Georgia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, and Colorado. The report also provides a blueprint for colleges to build their own co-requisite remediation program based on six identified pillars.

Center for Postsecondary Success-Mathematics Pathways in the Florida College System: A recent Center for Postsecondary Success report (February 2018) investigated math pathways by examining Associate in Arts (AA) students’ course taking behavior and success in Intermediate Algebra (MAT1033) and College Algebra (MAC1105), as well as their degree completion in the Florida College System. The report did not find evidence that taking MAT1033 as a prerequisite to MAC1105 increased the likelihood of passing the gateway course (MAC1105), and for some students taking MAT1033 as a prerequisite may actually decrease the likelihood of passing the gateway course. Further, the report found that enrolling in MAT1033 was associated with a lower likelihood of earning a degree within two years, a result of additional coursework beyond the minimum AA requirements.

Florida College System Mathematics Workgroups: The role of the Florida Student Success Center is to support institutional initiatives that improve college completion rates and promote student success. Mathematics pathways redesign and content alignment is a primary initiative in 2018-2019. The mathematics workgroups resource provides a framework of the three inter-connected workgroups who will focus on 1) high school to postsecondary mathematics alignment, 2) Florida College System mathematics alignment and 3) Florida College System to university mathematics alignment. The workgroups will collaborate to identify current challenges in mathematics pathways and develop policy and practice recommendations to improve student achievement across education systems.