Colorado Gets it Right with New Life

The New Life Project seeks to make basic improvements in math courses for college students — to provide them with modern courses, focusing on sound mathematical content, designed to serve the real needs of college students. Although the New Life courses (Mathematical Literacy, Algebraic Literacy) can exist side-by-side with the traditional courses, my hope is that the new courses will replace the old courses.

Colorado has done that. Effective this fall, the community colleges of Colorado are replacing their old developmental courses with a combination of Mathematical Literacy (Mat050) and Algebraic Literacy (Mat055). The course titles vary from community college to community college, and colleges offer a co-requisite course for Algebraic Literacy (Mat025) which enables more students to begin with the second course.

For examples of the Colorado design, take a look at:

Pike’s Peak Community College http://www.ppcc.edu/app/catalog/current/mat-055-algebraic-literacy.htm

Community College of Denver http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87UAA8-CEA+New+Math+Classes

Arapahoe Community College http://www.arapahoe.edu/departments-and-programs/a-z-programs/mathematics/syllabi-mathematics-department

Colorado got it right. Congratulations to them. Their plan can be an inspiration to the rest of us.

Join Dev Math Revival on Facebook: