GPS Part II: Guided Pathways for Success, a Mathematician’s View (Part II)

Guided Pathways (GPS) is one of the current ‘movements’ in higher education, both at the associate degree and bachelors degree level.  A description of GPS is available at http://completecollege.org/the-game-changers/ (although quite a bit of this document is rhetoric designed to convince the reader of a point of view).

At the heart of GPS is the concept of one set of courses for the student to take for their program, starting (hopefully) in their first semester.  Mathematics is specifically addressed in the GPS model … “Math Alignment to Majors”, and this echos movements within the mathematics profession to create pathways leading to multiple end-points (college algebra/calculus, statistics, quantitative reasoning or QR).

This apparent congruence is a concern for me.  Here is the issue … math alignment is intended to divert students out of the college algebra path as early as possible.  This is somewhat true of pathways in general, but the GPS work tends to create rigid walls around the paths.  A student declares a major like nursing (which the CCA considers “STEM”, by the way) … and is likely to take statistics as their math course (possibly QR).  What happens when this student gets inspired to pursue a truly STEM field, such as biology or pre-med?  Actually, the student will not have much chance to be inspired in their math courses; the GPS work has a goal “as little as possible” when it comes to mathematics.

One of the reasons I believe so strongly in the QR course we offer is that it builds algebraic reasoning (as well as statistical reasoning and proportional reasoning).  If all QR courses did this, I would have fewer concerns about GPS paths … if QR was the default math path.  In many parts of the country, statistics has become the default math path (outside of STEM); I am concerned about a student’s only college math course being in one field of mathematics when the student’s program does not call for specialized or focused mathematics.

GPS also presents the idea of milestone courses; mathematics is likely to be on an institution’s short list of milestones, especially in the first year.  I do not want students to see that the world shares their desire to get math out of the way, nor do I want to see mathematics used as gatekeepers for programs.  Certainly, if the student’s program involves courses which will actually use the mathematics in their math course, by all means … require the math in semester #1.

Too often, however, our colleagues in other disciplines have de-quantified their subject … even STEM disciplines.  Intro science courses are often presented (at the associate degree level in particular) in a conceptual way, without the mathematical methods (or ideas, even) used in current work in those fields.

GPS holds promise, and our students can benefit if we do a good job.  We need to avoid the pressure to swallow the GPS pill whole; each component needs critical thinking and the professional expertise we can bring.

 
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