The guided pathways model, comprising 14 different practices, is a framework for comprehensive, whole-college reform undertaken by community colleges to help all students choose, enter, progress through, and complete a program of study that enables them to secure sustaining-wage employment or transfer with junior standing in a major. Since its…

Throughout the 21st century, the discipline of developmental education has come under fire for low success rates and has created a great deal of controversy. This has especially been the case for developmental math. Over the years, there have been many initiatives to improve student success and completion in developmental math. Some have succeeded…

An important step to achieving a sustainable department culture that encourages innovation in teaching is the alleviation of the isolation that teaching faculty experience. Decreasing this isolation should be accomplished in a manner that respects all instructors' classroom practices while simultaneously exposing faculty to new ideas. In this…

We share our experience and lessons learned from using Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations (SIMIODE) modeling scenarios in our Differential Equations I class at Middle Tennessee State University. Specific projects with Python codes are presented. Discussions are brought forth on how to…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the differences in the academic outcomes of first-year academically underprepared TN Promise-eligible college freshmen who participated in a college bridge program. A comparative research design was applied to existing data, including first-semester GPA, first-semester credit completion rate,…

Many states are redesigning their college remediation policies to increase postsecondary degree completion. In 2012, Tennessee began waiving college math remediation for high school students who completed a computer-based remedial math course (SAILS) during their senior year. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the high school…

The Board on Science Education and the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the Workshop on Increasing Student Success in Developmental Mathematics on March 18-19, 2019. The Workshop explored how to best support all students in postsecondary mathematics, with…

This year's "Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book" consists of four sections and an appendix of additional resources and terminology. The four main sections of the report provide data on Student Participation, Student Success, Academic and Fiscal Trends, and Outcomes-Based Funding. New this year, the report includes additional detail on…

As part of Middle Tennessee State University's (MTSU's) initiative to improve retention of at-risk STEM majors, they recruit first-time, full-time freshman STEM majors with mathematics ACT scores of 19 to 23 to participate in MTSU's "Mathematics as a FirstSTEP to Success in STEM" project (FirstSTEP). This article overviews MTSU's…

This paper contends that, although there is much to commend in the remediation reform movement, it is unlikely to attain its goals. These goals include the Lumina Foundation's target of having 60% of Americans attain a degree or certificate, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's goal of doubling the number of low income students who earn a…

In this article, we share a model of flipped instruction that allowed us to gain a window into our students' mathematical thinking. We depict how that increased awareness of student thinking shaped our mathematics instruction in productive ways. Drawing on our experiences with students in our own classrooms, we show how flipped instruction can be…

Higher education often operates under old rules -- rules that continue despite an increasingly diverse student population and improved understanding of human behavior and choice. Under these old rules, fewer than half of students graduate on time, if at all, and troubling equity gaps exist based on income, race, and ethnicity. It is time for new…

Research suggests it is difficult to learn mathematics in the fully asynchronous online (FAO) instructional modality, yet little is known about associated teaching and assessment practices. In this study, we investigate FAO mathematics assessment and feedback practices in particular consideration of both claims and findings that these practices…

Researchers have confirmed that students' motivation is one of the most important factors educators can target to improve learning (Williams & Williams, 2011). This study explored the role which student's motivation played in the retention of first-time, full-time freshman (FTFTF) STEM majors at University (U) (blinded). Student motivational…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…