Community colleges began as a way to offer higher education to those that wanted it but could not leave home to further their degree. As they evolved, they began allowing students to be admitted with very little admission requirements. The lack of admission requirements led to students being admitted into community colleges that were not prepared…

Mathematics anxiety is a major impediment to achievement in mathematics and science academic domains. Although important steps have been made in understanding the psychological processes of mathematics anxiety, as well as developing promising interventions, less is known about the relationship among mathematics anxiety, affective and biological…

Community colleges experience difficulties in effectively placing students in the first college-level, gateway mathematics course. The use of one standardized exam, such as the Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) has been proven ineffective. The effectiveness of using multiple measures is not known. This quantitative predictive…

Advisors use placement test scores as a means of predicting students' proficiency in mathematics; however, there is a debate about how accurately these scores predict students' success. This nonexperimental quantitative study focused on one test, the Texas Success Initiative (TSI). The purpose of the study was to determine whether the test is an…

Background/Context: Most community colleges across the country use a placement test to determine students' readiness for college-level coursework, yet these tests are admittedly imperfect instruments. Researchers have documented significant problems stemming from overreliance on placement testing, including placement error and misdiagnosis of…

Objective: Remedial mathematics courses are widely considered a barrier to student success in community college, and there has been a significant amount of work recently to reform them. Yet, there is little research that explicitly examines whether increasing learning in remedial classes improves grades or completion rates. This study examines the…

Recent studies suggest that using multiple measures can potentially reduce misplacement and improve student success in college (Bracco et al., 2014; Ngo, Kwon, Melguizo, Prather, & Bos, 2013; Scott-Clayton, 2012). Minimal research, however, describes the multiple-measures placement in community colleges, at the institutional level. An embedded…

This research provides new insight into stereotype threat by examining a real-world intervention in community college classrooms. Practitioners need information about which interventions work in authentic school settings to implement them and begin to bring educational equity to historically marginalized students. The experimental study examined…

Quantway is a Carnegie Math Pathways initiative which redesigns the content, pedagogy, and structure of traditional developmental math courses to simultaneously tackle traditional barriers of student success and support a broader range of developmental students in achieving their math potential. Specifically, Quantway is a quantitative reasoning…

A variety of computerized interactive learning platforms exist. Most include instructional supports in the form of problem sets. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially to fully worked examples. Behind-the-scenes design of such systems varies as well --from static dictionaries of…

This is an extended conference proceedings report [Long Paper] based on a shorter contributed report at the same conference. A variety of computerized learning platforms exist. In mathematics, most include sets of problems to complete. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially- to…

In this investigation, we examined the college readiness in math of Texas community college students using archival data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Data analyzed were the rate of all first-time in college (FTIC) developmental education students who scored below the Texas college readiness standards in math and the rates of…

Scores on state standards-based assessments are readily available and may be an appropriate alternative to traditional placement tests for assigning or accepting students into particular courses. Many community colleges do not require test scores for admissions purposes but do require some kind of placement scores for first-year English and math…

In a diverse classroom, there are students who are in need of both mathematics and English as a second language instruction. One of the challenges faced at Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWIT) was the development of a pathway for English language learners into core academic courses at the college. In addition, English language learners…

Web Based Homework (WBH) effectiveness in increasing learning outcomes in Elementary Algebra students is analyzed. The analysis is accomplished through a comparison of the student final exam scores between students who completed the course using paper and pencil homework (PPH) and those students using web based homework (WBH). The purpose of the…