Using WAMAP to Facilitate a Mastery Approach to Developmental Math

1. Using WAMAP to Facilitate a Mastery Approach to Developmental Math Mike Jenck, Matt Lewis, Ben Mayo Yakima Valley Community College

2. Problem • Rate of degree/certificate completion for students placement testing into developmental math is extremely low. • The sequence of developmental courses is very long. • At YVCC a student placing at the lowest math level will progress through one of the following sequences to get to the 100-level: • Math 49 – Math 50 – Math 75 – Math 85 – Math 95 • Math 49 – Math 50 – Math 75 – Math 84 – Math 91 – Math 94

3. Problem • Students who pass our developmental courses do not necessarily have the skills to be successful in subsequent courses. • As an example, consider the following test grades for an arithmetic student: • Whole Numbers Exam: 92% • Integers Exam: 90% • Fractions Exam: 45% • Decimal Exam: 85% • Final Exam: 74% • Grade: C

4. Addressing the Problem • A few department members showed interest in pursuing alternate ways of moving students through our developmental curriculum. • There would be two main changes to the traditional model. • Students move through the material at their own pace, rather than at the instructor’s. • Students must show mastery on a topic before being allowed to move on. • Our focus was initially on changing the delivery of Math 49 (Number Sense), Math 50 (Arithmetic), and Math 75 (Pre-algebra).

5. Advantages of Self-Pacing • The highly motivated student has the ability to accelerate. • A student may progress through up to three of our developmental classes in one quarter, and only pay for the highest class he or she completes. • Example: A student completing Math 49 and Math 50 in one quarter will only pay for Math 50. • In the winter 16% of our students who began in Math 49 were able to also pass Math 50 in the same quarter. • One student was able to complete the material for Math 49, Math 50, and Math 75 in the same quarter.

6. Advantages of Self-Pacing • Students may quickly show mastery over topics they know, leaving more time for topics they struggle with. • Example: Many successful students took only a week to complete their work in whole numbers, and then took up to 5 weeks on fractions. • Students who struggle on foundational topics (i.e. whole numbers) are not forced to go to the next topic after they fail a test.

7. Implementation of Self-Pacing • Students meet 5 hours per week in a large computer classroom. • The class capacity is 64 with two instructors per class. • Student learning is achieved… • through the text-book for the class. • through videos from the Internet vetted by department members. • through one-on-one interaction between the instructors and students. • through mini-lectures given to groups of students who are in the same place in the material.

9. Implementation of Self-Pacing • Assessment of student progress is done in three ways: • Section Diagnostics • A 10-15 question diagnostic quiz must be passed with at least 80% accuracy to complete a section. • Subsection Mini-Quizzes • Students may try to get 100% on 2-3 question mini-quizzes within subsections to “test out” of a particular problem type. • Subsection Practices • When a mini-quiz for a subsection is not passed, students complete practice assignments. Students must pass with 100% accuracy but have unlimited attempts on each problem. However, the numbers involved in the problem change with each attempt.

10. Implementation of Self-Pacing • At the end of each chapter students must take a test. • The test is completed on the computer, but the students must show all of their work on a designated test form. • Students must complete the tests with 75% accuracy to move on. • When a student earns a raw score less than 75%, the test is graded for partial credit. • When a test is attempted and not passed, an item analysis is conducted to determine which sections of that chapter need to be reset for the student.

11. Anatomy of Self-Pacing

12. Why WAMAP? • We use WAMAP (Washington Mathematics Assessment and Placement) as the platform for the class. • WAMAP allows us to write our own assessment questions or use problems already created by other instructors who use WAMAP. • WAMAP is free for the students and for the school. • We are able to easily share with others what we have created on WAMAP.

13. Administrative Logistics • We are currently offering two courses, Math 049C and Math 050C. • Both of these classes meet at the same time, in the same classroom. • Math 049C is for students who place into our Adult Basic Education program in math, but above this level in writing. • To pass Math 049C, a student must complete the curriculum on whole numbers and integers, as well as pass four timed skills tests. • Math 050C is for students who have passed Math 049C. • To pass Math 050C, a student must complete the curriculum on fractions and decimals, as well as pass a final exam over all arithmetic material.

14. Administrative Logistics • At this point, all students who place above adult basic education in math must take our lecture arithmetic course. • In the fall, we will be conducting an arithmetic class taught in a self-paced mode to these students so we can compare short-term and long-term success rates as compared with our lecture classes. • We do not have immediate plans to implement this modality for our pre-algebra courses, but we allow students who accelerate through the arithmetic material to attempt to pass pre-algebra by working through what we have created for that material on WAMAP.

15. Lessons Learned • Mini-lectures are an essential part of a self-paced class. • Students need as much well-defined structure as we can give them in this model. • Students are required to complete time-logs to record how much time they are spending working on math outside of class. • Students are given benchmark schedules to help keep them at a pace that will lead to success. • Strict attendance rules must be put in place to discourage absenteeism.