| Damian Betebenner
University of Colorado, Boulder
Readiness for college level mathematics
FINAL REPORT:
The current study investigates how well students are prepared for college level mathematics. A large amount of research beginning with A Nation at Risk has focused attention on economic competitiveness of a nation and the math preparation of students. For example, most newly created jobs today require greater than a high school level of mathematics education (Riley, 1998). The research question guiding this study is to determine how well students immediately leaving high school and entering college are prepared for college level mathematics at a variety of levels. To answer this question, longitudinal data compiled by the NSF was employed (Miller, Kimmel, Hoffer, & Nelson, 1999). Using a logistic regression model, student math scale scores and the grades students received in a freshman level math class were used to derive a cutscore that was then applied to the entire sample of students in order to determine what proportion of the students would be deemed ready for that level of college mathematics. Further, various demographic subgroups including gender, socio-economic status, and ethnicity were examined to determine whether there was differential readiness for college level mathematics. A thorough examination of coursetaking from the 7th grade through the freshman year was conducted to determine how coursetaking affected student readiness for college level math and to determine whether differences found within the demographic categories could be explained based upon course taking. The following were the results of the study:
-Overall, the population of high school graduates in the United States are marginally prepared for courses at approximately the college algebra level.
-Within the demographic categories examined, males were better prepared for college level math than females, whites and Asians were better prepared than were African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans, and readiness for college level math increased uniformly as one passes from the iowest socio-economic quartile to the highest socio-economic quartile.
-Students, predictably, who took college preparatory mathematics courses in high school were much better prepared than their counterparts who didn't. Coursetaking was the most prominent factor associated with college math readiness.
-Student course placement in 9th, and in some cases 7th grade, provided excellent predictions of what their later chances of success were in college level mathematics.
-Course tracking has a large impact upon students later chances of success in college level math.
-Holding coursetaking fixed, the only demographic subgroups still showing differential readiness are those based on ethnicity.
The conclusion of this study substantiate what is already known or strongly suspected: Ethnic minorities have lesser chances of success in college level math than do their white counterpart, even when coursetaking is held constant. This suggests that the courses taken by these students are inferior to those enrolled in by white students. Coursetaking is the most important factor impacting readiness for college level math. Many students, however, never enroll in the courses necessary to give them a chance of success. Much of this appears due to course tracking and substantiates a hypothesis based upon the TIMSS study (Schmidt, McKnight, Cogan, Jakwerth, & Houang,1999), course tracking has a deleterious effect upon student mathematics achievement, particularly later in secondary school. This in turn minimizes these students chances of success in mathematics at the postsecondary level.
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