Community colleges try new formula for remedial classes

ANNANDALE, Va. — Shayla Dinh learned two key things about math this spring.

One: She can do it.

Two: She likes doing it.

"I love math. I never thought I'd say that," says Dinh, 34, who recently passed the first math class she has taken in more than a decade. It was a remedial course, taught here on the main campus of Northern Virginia Community College (known locally as NOVA), and it was her first big hurdle toward getting a bachelor's degree in communications.

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Dinh credits professor Alison Thimblin for breaking down math concepts in a way she could understand. But Thimblin says other factors played a role, too.
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The course was part of what educators call a learning community; students who enrolled in her math class also were required to take a course called College Success Skills, covering topics such as note-taking, time management and test anxiety. Counselor Ray Jones taught that course. But he and Thimblin coordinated efforts, and much of their emphasis was on helping students help one another and themselves.

"The students have a common goal: to get through math," Jones says. "What's really special is watching the bonds form."

Learning communities represent one of several ideas being tried nationwide as educators search for better ways to help more students succeed in college. The strategy also reflects a shift in the conversation about whom should be held responsible when a student struggles.

"It is not just the individual student rising or falling on his or her merits," says John Dever, NOVA's executive vice president for academic and student affairs. "If large numbers of students aren't making it through, it's a question of, is the program structure successful?"

Lofty goals for student success

NOVA officials hope learning communities and like-minded strategies will help it boost by 20% the number of students who complete remedial (also known as developmental) requirements by 2015. The state's 23-college system for two-year schools has similar aspirations. It is one of 15 states where community colleges are participating in Achieving the Dream, aninitiative supported by a partnership of non-profits that seeks to improve student success rates, particularly for minority and low-income students.

Remedial math has emerged as an important place to focus attention: Achieving the Dream data show that, among more than 250,000 students who required the most math remediation, only 16% completed those requirements in three years, and fewer than 10% of those passed a college-level math course within that period.

There's promising news, too: Once students get over the remedial-math hump, they are more likely to persist to the next year, even compared with students who didn't require remediation (80% vs. 54%).

Yet in many cases, students who need help may not get it. Slightly more than half of states require placement testing to determine whether students are prepared for college-level math, and even some of those don't require low scorers to get remediation. Even among states that require testing, "there is substantial evidence that colleges informally exempt students," according to a 2007 report by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College.

Progress limited but encouraging

Researchers are grappling with how state policy might foster more effective remediation. Meanwhile, campus officials and classroom instructors continue to look for ways to improve their success rates.

At NOVA, the picture is mixed but not altogether discouraging. Of 145 students who participated in remedial-math learning communities last fall, 49% passed. That was slightly above the 44% pass rate for remedial-math students who did not participate in a learning community, but below the 62% campus officials had hoped for. (Thimblin's class this spring had similar rates: Of 23 students enrolled, 10 passed; two withdrew.)

On the other hand, 83% of the students in learning communities last fall returned to campus the next semester, compared with 72% of the other developmental math students.

"That's a measure of success," Thimblin says, and campus officials are looking at how to build on it. No one says it will be easy, at NOVA or beyond.

"It's challenging to get such students through introductory courses," says Kati Haycock, president of Education Trust, which advocates for low-income and minority students. "But we can't really stop trying until we figure this out."