What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready? The Mathematics Required of First Year Community College Students
Author: National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE)
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Readiness,Career Readiness,Community Colleges,College Freshmen,Two Year College Students,College Mathematics,Algebra,Required Courses,Prerequisites,Alignment (Education),Textbooks,Mathematics Tests

In the fall of 2009, the National Center on Education and the Economy initiated a series of research programs designed to support the high school reform program, &quot;Excellence for All,&quot; based on more than 20 years of research on the school reform programs of the countries with the most successful education programs worldwide. Several states have adopted the position that, in the field of mathematics, it means that all high school students should be required to master Algebra II (Advanced Algebra) as a condition of getting a diploma. But is it true that students who do not take Algebra II will find themselves unable to succeed at either college or work? What is required to be successful in our nation's colleges and workplaces? This report answers these questions with new empirical data. NCEE collected course materials (syllabi, required texts, graded mid-term and final exams and, in some cases, graded assignments that count toward the final grade) from first-year courses at seven randomly selected community colleges in seven states that were interested in this work. These colleges are in Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico and New York. They serve a mix of rural, urban and suburban populations and their enrollments range from 3,000 to 30,000. The study focused on nine of the most popular and diverse programs in these colleges -- Accounting, Automotive Technology, Biotech/Electrical Technology, Business, Computer Programming, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Education, Information Technology, Nursing -- and the General Track. Data was collected on the mathematics that are actually taught in the initial credit bearing courses in those programs, and in the initial mathematics courses these programs require students to take. This was done by analyzing the textbooks and exams and other work assignments used in these courses. It was found that: (1) Many community college career programs demand little or no use of mathematics; (2) Whatever students did to pass mathematics courses in middle school, it does not appear to require learning the concepts in any durable way; (3) It makes no sense to rush through the middle school mathematics curriculum in order to get to advanced algebra as rapidly as possible; (4) Mastery of Algebra II is widely thought to be a prerequisite for success in college and careers; (5) Many of the most popular community college programs leading to well-paying careers require mathematics that is not now included in the mainstream high school mathematics program, including mathematical modeling (how to frame a real-world problem in mathematical terms), statistics and probability; (6) There is a major gap in the alignment between the mathematics courses taught in the mathematics departments in our community colleges and the mathematics actually needed to be successful in the applied programs students are taking; (7) Students do not need to be proficient in most of the topics typically associated with Algebra II and much of Geometry to be successful in most programs offered by the community colleges; (8) While the textbooks in the introductory program courses were often impressive in their demand for mathematical thinking, the tests were a different story; and (9) What is tested by community college instructors typically falls far short of what is contained in the texts those teachers assign to their students. [For &quot;What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready? The English Literacy Required of First Year Community College Students,&quot; see ED598413. For &quot;What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready? The Mathematics and English Literacy Required of First Year Community College Students. Executive Summary,&quot; see ED598415.]