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ERIC Number: ED661709
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Jun
Pages: 36
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Preparatory Pathways and STEM Calculus Completion: Implications of the AB 1705 Standards. Updated
RP Group
Assembly Bill 1705 (AB 1705) seeks to strengthen students' completion of the first STEM Calculus course for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs across the California Community Colleges. The law sets new standards for students' placement and first math enrollment to ensure STEM students begin in transfer-level coursework that best positions them to complete calculus requirements for their programs. This legislation specifically calls for colleges to provide evidence that STEM students benefit from enrollment in transfer-level preparatory coursework (e.g., College Algebra, Trigonometry, Precalculus) before they attempt STEM Calculus. To support colleges with this validation process and to inform their local response, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office partnered with The RP Group's Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) to conduct statewide analyses that examine enrollments in the STEM Calculus pathway and subsequent persistence to and completion of calculus. MMAP examined a cohort of more than 37,000 STEM majors with a first math enrollment in the California Community Colleges between 2012-2013 and 2019-2020 to determine -- based on their high school math preparation or placement by the state's default precalculus placement rules -- the implications of the AB 1705 standards in practice. Analyses included a look at: (1) who was highly unlikely to succeed when enrolled directly in STEM Calculus 1, the first STEM calculus course?; (2) who was more likely to complete STEM Calculus 1 when they started in a transfer-level preparatory course?; and (3) who was more likely to persist to and complete STEM Calculus 2 when they started in a transfer-level preparatory course before completing STEM Calculus 1? This report contains descriptive analyses. A separate technical report provides multivariate logistic regression analysis responding to these same questions while controlling for factors such as time elapsed between high school and college math enrollment, prior use of placement testing, student demographics, and institutional characteristics. This update includes a new appendix, "Math Placement and Access to Calculus in the California Community Colleges."
RP Group. 369-B Third Street Suite 397, San Rafael, CA 94901. Tel: 510-527-8500; e-mail: info@rpgroup.org; Web site: https://rpgroup.org
Related Records: ED649523, ED649524, ED661708
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Numerical/Quantitative Data
Education Level: Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: RP Group; California Community Colleges, Chancellor's Office
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A