An analysis of the remedial /developmental mathematics program at the University of Nevada, 1998--2003

This study was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of a remedial/developmental mathematics course in preparing undergraduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno for 100 level mathematics courses from 1998 to 2003. The primary objective of this research was to determine whether students who chose to take Math 1, the remedial/developmental course, were more academically successful in their first college level mathematics course than students who chose not to take Math 1. Incoming students at UNR were required to submit standardized test scores, SAT I or ACT, and were advised to take Math 1 if their mathematics sub score was below 500 on the SAT I or 21 on the ACT. Only students whose mathematics sub scores were below these institutional cutoffs were considered in this study.;The findings of this study indicated that the mean grades received in subsequent college level mathematics courses by developmental students ( n = 744) was slightly lower than the mean grades received by the nondevelopmental group (n = 744). When these finding were separated out into three subgroups based on the subsequent mathematics course taken, the results showed no statistically significant differences in the sub-group mean grades for developmental and nondevelopmental students who went on to one of the three most commonly taken 100 level mathematics courses at UNR. These findings indicate the need for further institutional assessment of the developmental mathematics program, which should include the curricular alignment of Math 1 with subsequent 100 level required core classes, best practices in instructional methods for developmental students, and access to academic support services such as tutoring for developmental students at UNR.;The policy implications drawn from the results of this study suggest that the recent UCCSN decision to limit funding for remedial/developmental courses at the university level may be rather short sighted on the part of policymakers in Nevada's system of higher education. Given the increase in demand for developmental mathematics preparation by incoming students to UNR and the importance placed on postsecondary mathematics training for those entering today's workforce, further study of the ramifications of this decision is warranted.