Great Basin College
Institutional Research and Effectiveness – Report 2011-1
Class Success Rates for Students in Remedial Math and English Classes
Compared to College-level Classes, Fall Semesters 2007-2010
Question: Would limiting total enrollment to less than full-time for students in remedial math and English classes help them to be more successful? How do class success rates for students enrolled in remedial education classes compare to those enrolled in only college-level classes?
Results: In all cases, full-time students are more successful in their classes than part-time students and students in only college-level classes are more successful than students enrolled in remedial education classes, although further analyses need to be run to see if this is a statistically significant difference. For full-time, degree-seeking students, there is no apparent difference in class success rates between new and continuing students, while continuing, part-time students are more successful in all their classes when compared to new, part-time students.
Recommendations: 1) Conduct further analyses disaggregating the data by sex, race/ethnicity, and age and include tests of significance; 2) consider mandatory advising for all (full-time and part-time) new, degree-seeking students at the beginning of their first semester to discuss the amount of time needed to study per class outside of class time and the impact of the number of hours worked on that time, among other things; 3) explore a web-based tool for all students to use to calculate time needed for each additional class.
Methodology: Students enrolled in credit courses during fall semesters from 2007 to 2010 were identified as enrolled in remedial math (Math 091, 095, 096, 097) or English (English 074, 085, 095) courses or college-level courses (all other credit courses, including the COT 060 series). Final grades were classifed as successful (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, or Passing) and unsuccessfull (D+, D, D-, F, or Withdrawal) for each enrolled student and those with incomplete, audit, or missing grades were removed from the analysis. Data were pulled from end-of-term STAT files and did not include any subsequent grade changes. Students were classified as part-time (less than 12 credits) or full-time (12 credits or more) based on the number of credits enrolled at the end of the semester, including those they had withdrawn from. Students were classified as Degree-seeking or Non-degree seeking based upon the educational goal indicated on admission – students who are undecided are classified as non-degree seeking. New students include any student whose first enrollment at GBC is that semester – this includes, high school students, first-time freshmen, and new transfer students. Enrollments for four semesters were combined to smooth any systematic grading changes that have happened over the years.
Remedial education students and their class success rates in both remedial education classes and in college-level classes were plotted against students in all college-level classes and their success rates. Student success rates were compared based on whether they were new or continuing (prior), degree-seeking or not (including undecided students), and part-time or full-time. Data and recommendations were discussed with Mike McFarlane, Lynn Mahlberg, Julie Byrnes, Lori Aurthur, and Cathy Fulkerson.