Is Developmental Mathematics an Issue for Racial Equity?

If you are very sensitized to issues of race, this might be an uncomfortable post. I’ll try very hard to not offend anybody (the comfort level is a different issue than offense).

Some work in Achieving the Dream is framed in terms of focusing on certain groups; see http://www.tjcnewspaper.com/tjc-fulfilling-its-mission-to-achieve-a-dream-1.2133583 for example. In this article, it is reported that Tyler Junior College is focusing the work especially on “African-American and Hispanic men” … though it seems like both references should say ‘American’. I won’t get in to the ‘American’ label in this post.

Do you agree with a view of low pass rates in developmental mathematics being a racial equity issue?

At my own college, the chair of my department did some research on students in our lowest class (pre-algebra); the conclusion was that a course like pre-algebra can serve as a all-too effective racial screening device … the difference in pass rates was fairly extreme. I don’t want to post them here, but I will tell you that my own research on this over the past 35 years is very consistent with the view that relatively few minority students (especially men) tend to survive the most basic developmental math courses.

“Why” is the issue? A student is quoted in the article about Tyler JC as saying this is somewhat related to lifestyle and culture. I suspect that there are other systemic factors that are at least as important, including the possibility that our standard procedures are less appropriate for students from some cultural or language backgrounds. I believe that there are factors within the instructional context of our classes that have differential impacts on different groups of students.

A few years ago, I attended a short-course on retention for under-served students led by Craig Nelon (http://www.bio.indiana.edu/faculty/directory/profile.php?person=nelson1) and Bob Grossman (Kalamazoo College, MI); you can see some of this information online at http://www.csmd.edu/istem/events_presentations_nelsongrossman.html. I encourage you to look for professional development, and resist the temptation to accept low minority pass rates in our courses.

Equity is a basic goal of developmental mathematics, in my view. We can not ‘solve society’s problems’ by ourselves, but we can be part of the solution.

Developmental Mathematics Revival!

Bringing a new vitality to college mathematics 2011 to 2019