Corequisite mathematics education at Missouri community colleges

Abstract

In an effort to raise graduation rates, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development directed public institutions to establish policies and create corequisite support structures to allow some underprepared students to take entry-level mathematics courses without first completing non-credit remedial courses. The present study explored the variety and effectiveness of corequisite structures implemented at 12 independent public community colleges in Missouri. Using a pragmatic parallel mixed method research design, this study used highly structured interviews and data from the Enhanced Missouri Student Achievement Study to address the research question: Which corequisite structures and policies have produced significant increases in persistence rates and completion rates of entry-level mathematics courses at community colleges in Missouri? This study described the unique structures and policies implemented at the colleges and using a chi-square test for homogeneity, compared the statewide and college persistence rates and completion rates of entry-level mathematics courses for students beginning in Fall 2014 and Fall 2018. The findings indicated that the statewide persistence rates increased but the increase was neither widespread nor consistent amongst the 12 individual colleges in the study; however, the increase in completion rates of entry-level mathematics courses was widespread and consistent with 11 of the 12 colleges seeing statistically significant increases. The study identified four conceptualizations of corequisite supports and noted that colleges allowing underprepared students greater access to non-STEM pathway courses with corequisite support saw the highest completion rates of entry-level mathematics courses.