We have received a new three-year $550,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to study the leaky pipeline from community college enrollment to bachelor’s degree receipt for students whose academic interests are in the humanities. More information about this grant can be found at https://bit.ly/2l7LGZ7
The first three Pathways Scholars (ASAP graduates transferring from CUNY community to bachelor’s-degree colleges) have received their scholarships. All net royalties received from sales of “Pathways to Reform: Credits and Conflict at The City University of New York” by A. W. Logue are being used to establish these scholarships. ASAP (Accelerated Study in Associate Programs) is a CUNY program that doubles associate-degree graduation rates.
Please join Dan Douglas, Mari Watanabe-Rose, & me for an 8/30/18, 2 pm Eastern, free webinar (offered by Complete College America), during which we will bust myths about coreq math remediation using the 3-yr follow-up data from our randomized controlled trial (original study: https://bit.ly/2kB9bbH). Please register at https://bit.ly/2nhDPrm .
It is a great pleasure to announce that CUNY (Principal Investigator Alexandra W. Logue and co-Principal Investigator Colin Chellman), partnering with MDRC (co-Principal Investigator Rekha Balu), has been awarded a new 4-yr $1.39 million research grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to study the leaks in the community college to bachelor’s degree transfer pipeline. Our name for this work is TOP (the Transfer Opportunity Project). Nationally, over 80% of new community college freshmen enter college with the goal of a bachelor’s degree. Six years later, 17% have received one. We will study the four major leakage points in the pipeline: lack of application to transfer, admission to a bachelor’s-degree program but no enrollment (transfer melt), lack of or delay in credit transfer, and transfer shock (the often temporary decrease in GPA seen in transfer students). We will be seeking the malleable factors that contribute to pipeline leaks, particularly at these four pipeline points.
The What Works Clearinghouse, of the federal Institute of Education Sciences, has issued a new report stating that our randomized controlled trial, showing success of corequisite math remediation/mainstreaming, meets the What Works Clearinghouse standards without reservation. The headline of the WWC announcement is: “WWC Single Study Review Finds Rigorous Evidence for Mainstreaming College Students in Mathematics Courses.”
In March 2018 The Chronicle of Higher Education published my commentary on how data can be useful when engaging in curriculum reform. This commentary makes the point that rigorous evidence regarding what works is growing in higher ed, and that we should make use of it.
The newest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Teaching Newsletter contains information about math reform and our CUNY project, funded by the Teagle Foundation, known as PRIME (Project for Relevant and Improved Mathematics Education). The goal of PRIME is to streamline and align the quantitative curricula at three CUNY community colleges (BMCC, GCC, and HCC), from remedial math through and including introductory college-level courses that require quantitative skills. Please see: http://bit.ly/2smEuNu.
My article with Mari Watanabe-Rose and Daniel Douglas on how to help students assessed as needing math remediation was named one of Education Next‘s top 20 articles for 2017.
Three-year follow-up data from our randomized controlled trial show that students assessed as needing remedial math but assigned to college-level statistics instead (with extra support) graduate at a higher rate (25%) than students who take traditional remedial math (17%), as reported at the ASHE 2017 conference and in the dy/dan (Dan Meyer’s) blog. The results do not differ in accordance with students’ race/ethnicity.
Inside Higher Ed has published an article on Minnesota’s challenges in facilitating credit transfer among its higher ed institutions, with several quotes from me based on my experience with the Pathways initiative at The City University of New York.