Math courses serve as cornerstones to most, if not all, community college programs. Yet, these courses continue to be gatekeepers. Contextualization represents a promising venue through which instructors might break down math barriers for students. This study explores community college students' learning experiences in contextualized math classes,…

Community colleges have been under increasing pressure to devise alternate math pathways to the traditional sequence of developmental math classes. Considering the important role faculty play in student success, this qualitative study focuses on faculty perspectives regarding Quantway, a novel alternate pathway for community college students who…

The Evaluating the Quality of Instruction in Post-secondary Mathematics (EQIPM) is a 14-item instrument that uses videos of teaching to investigate the quality of instruction in college algebra courses taught at community colleges. We hypothesize that quality of instruction can be characterized along three distinct factors, the interactions…

Math anxiety is a debilitating problem that affects many community college students. Neuropsychological research suggests that negative rumination when anticipating math situations substantially exhausts working memory load, contributes to execution anxiety, which interferes with learning and performance. Studies have shown that improving the…

Poor completion outcomes in community colleges' developmental education programs have spurred reforms in developmental education policies and practices in order to increase students' chances of success. In the case of developmental math, the focus of this article, such changes include revisions to testing and placement policies, amendments to the…

In this study, we examined our understanding of the way our spiritual lens informed our practice as mathematics instructors. In this duoethnography, we conceptualize our work through a servant leadership model and employed it to understand our approach to our students, teaching, and classroom environment. The data for this study consisted of our…

Focusing on the Developmental Mathematics program installed by McHenry County College (MCC), this case study examines an integrative approach to reducing student dependency on developmental math. Facing the challenge of bridging the gap between K-12 and college readiness, MCC established a summer bridge program to help alleviate summer brain drain…

The effects of training in self-regulation on metacognition and math achievement were investigated. The participants were 116 community college students enrolled in developmental math courses. Students enrolled in 16 classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. Participants in the treatment group completed four…

This study describes student behavior through the actual assessment and placement (A&P) process. It then uses an alternative A&P policy that utilizes an additional measure that assesses prior math preparedness alongside subtest choice. Utilizing data from a community college that allows its' students to choose the assessment subtest used…

College algebra is a required course for most majors, but is viewed by many as a gatekeeper course for degree completion by students. With almost half a million students taking college algebra each year, faculty are experimenting with new course lengths of time that might result in higher success, completion, and retention rates for college…

This study focused on assessing the relationship of class scheduling with student outcomes in Intermediate Algebra, the prerequisite course for College Algebra. Numerous studies of information processing theory and the spacing effect on learning have been conducted; they have produced mixed findings. Relatively few studies have been conducted to…

Predicting student success has long been a question of interest for postsecondary admission counselors throughout the United States. Past research has examined the validity of several methods designed for predicting undergraduate success. High school record, standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, and combinations of all three have…

While community colleges serve as a postsecondary entry point for many "at-risk" students, not many who enroll will be ready or able to participate in college level courses on entry. Statistically, large numbers of community college students require college remediation, and only a handful are able to successfully emerge from the…

The research reported in this paper took place at an Hispanic-serving, public community college and examined the effects of alternative institutional placement policies on student academic success. Results showed that when placement methods considered multiple measures of academic preparedness, students were initially placed into higher level…