Various studies about Developmental Mathematics have echoed trends of the original 1990 study. The results in 1990 showed that students participating in EOF and ESSP developmental programs did move, in sizeable proportions, into mainstream courses and did persist to complete bachelor's degrees. Since 1990, the performance and persistence of ESSP students has declined somewhat, due to diminished services possible with available funding. In the 1997-1998 academic years, we have worked to restore some of the positive aspects of the ESSP program based on the results of our studies. As expected, developmental mathematics works less successfully for students in the Calculus sequence than in the Finite Mathematics sequence. Findings of the most recent, 1996, study which Dr. Russave identified are as follows:
An average of approximately 27% of incoming freshmen from Fall 1990-1995 were required to take a develop-mental mathematics course.
An average of about 23% of the freshmen enrolled in MA 001 needed to repeat it to achieve successful completion (16% twice, 7% more than twice). Meanwhile, 6% of MA 021 students took it twice and 1% more than twice.
Performance in developmental courses strongly correlates with the successful completion of core curriculum mathematics courses, as the following table shows:
Developmental Course Grade |
% Freshmen Completing Core |
4.0 (highest) |
53% |
3.0 or 3.5 |
44% |
2.0 or 2.5 |
36% |
1.0 or 1.5 |
26% |
0.0 |
3% |
WA/WD/IC* |
2% |
No developmental course |
60% |
(* Withdrawal for Absence/Withdrawal/ Incomplete) |
Approximately 55% of entering freshmen completed the core mathematics requirement within two years of entrance.
For the cohorts studied, 86% of those who completed the core mathematics requirement are continuing or have graduated by the end of the Fall 1995 term.
EOF students, a small group of 50-55 students, who receive remedial mathematics in the summer before college, and continue....
