New Life Project (AMATYC, et al)

A plan for … fewer developmental courses, fewer enrollments in developmental courses, and higher success rates in developmental courses (all without losing mathematical rigor or preparation). The goals … students get better preparation for all of their courses, experience appropriate mathematics, and spend less time in non-credit courses.

Since 2009, AMATYC’s Developmental Mathematics Committee has been working (along with other professionals) on a complete reformation of the developmental mathematics curriculum. This work was not done in isolation; the group based its work on the professional expertise of dozens of faculty. One notable source of information was the MAA “CRAFTY” reports; other sources included the AMS report on client disciplines, the Numeracy Network, and (centrally) “Beyond Crossroads” (the professional standards for mathematics in the first two years of college).

See the Beyond Crossroads professional standards at http://beyondcrossroads.amatyc.org/

KEY FEATURES:

A “Mathematical Literacy for College Students” (MLCS) course provides the powerful tools that students need in their preparation for basic science, technology, and even college mathematics classes. The MLCS course is visualized as being at the same level as ‘beginning algebra’, though this is an incomplete visualization. Some students could take MLCS who are ‘not ready’ for beginning algebra, as the procedural load is lighter in MLCS … the work in MLCS is more conceptual (still some procedures).

Many students would only need that one course … MLCS, which saves one or even two courses for a large portion of our population. Primarily, it is those students who need a traditional college-level math course (college algebra, pre-calculus, etc) who would need more developmental work than that found in MLCS.

For those who need a second developmental course, the model describes an “Algebraic Literacy” course. This represents a modern view of a course at the level of intermediate algebra. By building on the powerful ideas in MLCS, the Algebraic Literacy course adds other ideas and also develops the sets of skills identified as being critical for the college-math courses.

Within this framework, the model also calls for us to modernize our instruction and assessment by integrated a variety of teaching methods, using diverse technology, and assessing student learning in deeper ways. Changing the content is not enough, just like changing the methodology is not enough.

The Instant Presentations page has a number of presentations dealing with the New Life model; take a look!!

$New Math Pathways General Vision 2 5 16$

Here are some additional resources

Math Literacy course outcomes: MLCS Goals and Outcomes Oct2013 cross referenced

Algebraic Literacy course outcomes: Algebraic Literacy Goals and Outcomes Oct2013 cross referenced

For more info on Algebraic Literacy, including sample lessons, see the page: Algebraic Literacy (A Bridge to Somewhere)

Article about the New Life Project:

Inside New Life 2013MayMAE An overview with lots of detail

Video: Reform Dev Math

Video: Math Lit Overview

Video: Algebraic Lit Overview

Here is a set of videos (from 2009) describing specific elements of the “New Life” vision. NOTE: Mathematical Literacy was originally known as “FML” (Foundations of Mathematical Literacy), and Algebraic Literacy was originally known as “Transitions”. Some other terminology changes have been made, though relatively minor.

The original work of the New Life project contributed to the Carnegie Foundation Pathways (Quantway and Statway), and the Dana Center Mathways; for more information see those pages.

Introduction to the New Life model
Why New Life
Mission of the New Life model
Too Many Courses! (before)
Vision of New Life curriculum
Math Literacy (“FML”)
Transitions (Algebraic Literacy)
Arithmetic in the New Life curriculum
Is this really NEW?
Teaching & Learning in “New Life”
New Help for Old Cynics

admin | March 12, 2011 7:09 pm

7 Comments

By Louise Huriwtz, June 8, 2011 @ 7:23 pm

Hello,

I just found your blog yesterday, as I was searching for good blogs to add as a feed to my blog. I have added your blog as a feed to mine and hope that my subscribers look at it. I think it would be great if they looked at the model you describe in this post.

If you have a chance, please take a look at my blog and please consider adding it as a feed to yours.

Thanks for providing me with such useful content about dev. math
By Jack Rotman, June 9, 2011 @ 1:00 pm

I did take a look at your blog … you are doing some good work!! And, I appreciate you linking my blog into yours.
At this point, however, I am not ‘feeding’ anything in to my blog. It’s not that the material is not worthy; the problem is that there are many sites that are pretty good — too many. I may eventually link some into my blog, but I am currently thinking it’s best for this blog to not have this.
Thanks!
By Jack Rotman, December 3, 2011 @ 3:43 pm

Louise:
Thanks for your support of my blog, and I think it is a great service that you are ‘feeding’ my blog into yours.
I’ve had several requests like this … and I am generally taking a ‘no’ approach; it’s not that the other blogs are not good enough — yours is very nice. My blog’s goal is more specific than most; I am not just sharing ideas to improve everybody’s developmental math classes as they are … I am trying to get more people to look at a basic redesign to create courses that would replace the traditional ‘algebra’ oriented courses. Because of this, I am thinking that it would work better to just include feeds for blogs that have a similar goal.
Again, thanks for the note … and keep up the good work on your blog!
Jack
By Larry Stone, April 6, 2018 @ 3:32 pm

Can you give me an example of a STEM but non-calculus-based major? I was thinking STEM and calculus always went together — certainly for the EM part of STEM

I ask because I’ve been trying to justify (philosophically) the existence of college algebra, which I see from your diagram feeds “STEM non-calculus based” courses. Is college algebra, interpreted as precalc without trig, really “just the thing” that a lot of people need? Or should it go away and be replaced by such courses as Quantitative Reasoning (still offering precalc to those who really need it)?
By Jack Rotman, April 7, 2018 @ 4:20 pm

The non-calculus STEM majors involve S (Science) in the context of your question. Biology, in particular, has majors which do not require a traditional calculus class. I suspect that there are quite a few T (Technology) majors which also don’t require calculus, though they often don’t require a course at the college algebra level.
I am not a fan on the ‘college algebra’ label, and I find myself writing posts on that problem routinely. For some of our colleges, “college algebra” is the first pre-calculus course (followed by trig); for others, “college algebra’ serves a different purpose — more of a general education function. My curricular maps usually reflect this confusion by showing two locations (though I don’t repeat the phrase ‘college algebra’ for the pre-calculus function).
And, no … I don’t think the non-calc ‘college algebra’ should go away. A better name like “functions and models” might help, while still including enough symbolic work to support students in natural and social science academic stuff (including classes and research).
By Eric Neumann, August 1, 2018 @ 4:52 pm

As of yesterday, Wikispaces is no longer operating! [https://site-closed.wikispaces.com/]

Have the New Life Community resources migrated elsewhere? have greatly valued those links, presentations, and files. Please tell me they are not lost!
By Jack Rotman, August 2, 2018 @ 12:39 pm

Eric:
The New Life community wiki is gone, since the host site (wikispaces) has closed down. Your comment will prompt me to write a post on this …
Briefly, the DM-Live site was a key tool in our work within the AMATYC New Life project. That work has evolved, with the creation of a new group on ‘pathways’ in AMATYC to include math intensive and statistics work. I have been maintaining both my blog and the DM-Live resources for the entire time, with limited assistance from others. When I learned that Wikispaces was closing down, I knew that I did not have the resources to migrate the material to a new wiki site. My plan is to make some of the material available within my blog, as I have time.

Developmental Mathematics Revival!

Bringing a new vitality to college mathematics 2011 to 2019