Math Course for Liberal Arts Majors: A Pilot with Embedded Remediation

• Main Authors: Eileen B. Perez, Hansun To, Mary Fowler, Linda Larrivee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Numeracy Network 2018-01-01
• Series: Numeracy
• Subjects: math; quantitative reasoning; remedial math; pilot
• Online Access: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/numeracy/vol11/iss1/art6/

This study was designed to determine if embedded remediation is significant in accelerating the pathway to completion of a college-level math course for students needing remediation. The project studied the impact on student success in a quantitative literacy course at a Massachusetts four-year state university with remedial material embedded. The course satisfies the university’s general education math requirement for students with liberal arts majors who are not required to complete college algebra or calculus-based courses. The paper begins with a presentation of the issues with remedial mathematics and its impact on students’ graduation and persistence. Next, the paper covers the design and implementation of the pilot program. In addition, the placement criteria and the pilot nature of the program are discussed, including attempts at the random assignment of students to regular or embedded-remediation course groups. A discussion of the findings follows including that students succeeded in the course with embedded remediation at 87% compared to 72% for those in the traditional version of the course though the differences are not statistically significant at the sample size. The paper concludes with lessons learned and next steps at this university for further study.