COMPARISON OF THREE METHODS OF PLACEMENT AND ADVISEMENT INTO FRESHMEN MATHEMATICS COURSES AND THE EF

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COMPARISON OF THREE METHODS OF PLACEMENT AND
ADVISEMENT INTO FRESHMEN MATHEMATICS COURSES AND
THE EFFECT ON EVENTUAL DEGREE COMPLETION

• ACMS Meeting
• February 1, 2007
• Walter Cotter

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Institutional Experiences
Pre Entry Attributes
Goals Commitments
Integration
Goals Commitments
Outcome
Academic Systems
Academic Integration
Family Background
Intentions
Intentions
Skills and Abilities
Departure Decision
Goals Institutional Commitments
Goal Institutional Commitments
Prior Schooling
Social Integration
External Commitments
External Commitments
Social Systems
TIME
Tintos Model Of Institutional Departure
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Institutional Experiences
Pre Entry Attributes
Goals Commitments
Integration
Goals Commitments
Outcome
Academic Systems
Formal
Academic Performance
Academic Integration
Family Background
Intentions
Intentions
Faculty/Staff Interactions
Informal
Skills and Abilities
Departure Decision
Goals Institutional Commitments
Goal Institutional Commitments
Formal
Extracurricular Activities
Prior Schooling
Social Integration
External Commitments
External Commitments
Peer-Group Interactions
Intervening Variables
Informal
Social Systems
TIME
Tintos Model Of Institutional Departure
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Study Design
Tertiary Measure
Primary Measure
Secondary Measure
Treatment
Group
Status Spring 2004 Dropout/Graduate Persist
1998 Control
Quality Points Spring 1999
Grade 1st Math Course
2001 COMPASS Advice
Grade 1st Math Course
Quality Points Spring 2002
Status Spring 2005 Dropout/Graduate Persist
X
2002 COMPASS Prescribe
Quality Points Spring 2003
Status Spring 2005 Dropout/Graduate Persist
Grade 1st Math Course
Y
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Data Collection

• January 5, 2006 all the data was collected and
  scrubbed.
• Office of the Dean of the College of Education
  provided a database with every individual who was
  active from fall of 1998 2005.
• Over 100,000 students.
• Over 1.7 million grades.
• Subjects were selected from this pool.
• First time freshmen enrolled in a math course
  their first semester.

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Table 2 Page 70 SAT Verbal and SAT Mathematics
Means and Standard Deviations for 1998 2002
Difference is about 20 of a SD
Part of a state and national trend
532.97 518.06 14.91
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Research Questions

• What is the relationship between COMPASS score
  and grade in the initial, freshman math class?
• Is there a link between performance in the first
  two terms as measured by quality points and
  eventual degree completion?
• Does placement treatment have an effect on the
  odds of degree completion?
• What effect do other intervening variables have
  that may contribute to our understanding of this
  problem?

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Findings Research Question 1

• What is the relationship between COMPASS score
  and grade in the initial, freshman math class?

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Math Modeling 1101

• Cut Score 30 on Algebra subtest
• 545 71 474

What actually happened.
Advised to take 1101.
Advised not to take 1101.
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Table 5 page 73
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Math 1111

• Cut Score 40 on Algebra subtest
• 535 57 478

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Table 7 page 75
The odds of success are 3.15 times greater for
those who scored above 40.
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(No Transcript)
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Conclusion about COMPASS

• What is the relationship between COMPASS score
  and grade in the initial, freshman math class?
• Odds tables suggest COMPASS can predict.
• Logistic regression shows how weak the
  relationship is.
• High School GPA is a much better predictor.

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Findings Research Question 2

• Is there a link between performance in the first
  two terms as measured by quality points and
  eventual degree completion?

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1998 All Classes Graduation Count vs. Quality
Points
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1998 All ClassesQuality Point vs. Graduation
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Table 15 page 82
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Conclusions about Quality Points

• This result suggests that for each one unit
  increase in the quality points earned by the end
  of the first year the odds of graduation are
  1.042 times better.
• 66.5 quality points will serve as the threshold
  for a 50 chance of graduation.
• 76.5 quality points was determined to be the
  threshold for a 60 chance of graduation.

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Findings Research Question 3

• Does placement treatment have an effect on the
  odds of degree completion?

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Table 20 page 85
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Table 22 page 87
The odds of success are 1.48 times greater for
those who received Treatment 1.
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Tables 25 26 page 89
Negative association contradicts odds.
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Conclusions about Treatments

• Mixed results
• Ambiguity resolved with Question 4.

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Findings Research Question 4

• What effect do other intervening variables have
  that may contribute to our understanding of this
  problem?
• GSU 1010
• Math 1101
• Learning Communities

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Table 28 page 90
Stepwise forward Wald procedure for entering
variables.
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Negative Association

• Treatment 1, Treatment 2 and GSU 1010 have a
  negative association when controlling for the
  rest of the variables in the model.
• The ambiguity seen for the treatments in question
  3 are the result of Math 1101.

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Math 1101
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Grade in 1st Math Class

• The effect of the Math 1101 is in turn dwarfed by
  the effect of the students performance in the
  initial math class.
• For every letter grade increase in the initial
  collegiate math class the odds of earning 66.5
  quality points increases by a factor of 2.275.
• Simply stated the better the student does in the
  initial math class the better the student does in
  their first year.

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Conclusions about Intervening Variables

• Treatments appear to have a negative effect on
  success.
• Math 1101 has a strong positive effect on
  success.
• Learning Communities are associated with success
  but only about 20 of the class participates.

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Implications

• Put every resource available into the first math
  class.
• Tutoring
• Supplemental Instruction
• Identify successful instructors
• Criterion based placement instrument.
• Communicate the importance of the 1st college
  math class to high school seniors.

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Conclusions

• COMPASS does predict, but not very well. High
  school GPA does much better.
• For each one unit increase in the quality points
  earned the by the end of the first year the odds
  of graduation are 1.042 times better.
• COMPASS/Advise and COMPASS/Prescribe are not very
  useful.
• Math 1101 has had a strong positive effect on the
  success of freshmen.