Descriptive Studies

Far too many students in the United States start their postsecondary education without being able to demonstrate the skills and knowledge deemed necessary to succeed in college-level math. Colleges and universities have traditionally dealt with this problem by placing students in full-semester developmental courses for which they must pay full tuition but do not receive college credit. It has become clear, however, that this approach has serious drawbacks, as students who start out in remediation are far less likely to attain a degree.

The Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation has released a new report to shed light on how institutions of higher education can make sustainable improvements in who can learn what they learn by the time they graduate. This report details thr learnings from studying a series of initiatives at the University System of Maryland (USM) to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of selected courses.  These redesigns incorporated a variety of learning-centered practices, that is, teaching practices that were chosen and applied using evidence of student learning.