Adding components of discipline and accountability to a developmental mathematics program to raise student success

Success rates in mathematics at California community colleges are the lowest among eight of the largest disciplines. At El Camino Community College where this research took place, the Division of Mathematical Sciences in the 1999--2000 academic year had the lowest student success rate of all nine academic divisions at just over 47 percent, almost 12 percent below the next lowest division. This low student success rate is a serious problem for three reasons. First, it causes an incalculable toll of frustration, disappointment, failed goal achievement and missed opportunity. Second, failed classes equate to a major waste of public tax dollars in the hundreds of millions nationwide each year. Third, students repeating failed courses are competing for classroom seats and instructors that are becoming scarce as the new "Tidal Wave II" of students enter higher education. The hypothesis of this research is that if more emphasis were placed on student discipline and accountability, student success in mathematics courses would be significantly improved. To that end, 24 remedial-level and 12 college-level mathematics students who were attempting a failed course for at least the third time were entered into a test group and given simple disciplinary procedures to follow. These procedures involved a 6-point contract and biweekly office meetings where completed homework and test scores were monitored. Accountability was provided through an understanding that this was the last chance for these students. Results showed that at alpha equal to 0.05, the success rate of the 36 test group students was significantly higher than the success rates of mathematics students in the previous two academic terms. When the college-level and remedial-level students of the test group were compared separately, only the college-level student success rate showed significant improvement at alpha equal to 0.05. When the remedial-level student success rate was compared to the success rate of the combined remedial-level student success rate from the last two academic terms, an alpha equal to 0.10 produced improvement that was significant. Recommendations include directions for continuing research, and criteria for creating a discipline-based intervention plan.