Two groups of mathematics faculty, one from a four-year college and one from a two-year college, redesigned their respective introductory college mathematics courses following presentation of observational data regarding how faculty had been teaching the courses. This presentation emphasised how infrequently faculty teaching introductory college…

The Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) is a networked improvement community (NIC) of researchers and high school teachers from New England who use improvement science principles to deepen student engagement in algebra content. The BMTN began as a pilot during the 2015-16 school year and concluded in fall 2021. Key learnings from the network…

The goal of this article is to describe a university-community partnership sponsored by a university office of civic engagement. University-community partnerships are common, but many collaborations are fraught with challenges because of power inequities or differing goals and ways of operating. Aware of the potential pitfalls, the…

The Better Math Teaching Network offers a promising, practical model for teacher learning. Its practitioner members--who all teach at least one section of high school algebra and all joined voluntarily--are working with each other and a team of researchers to make their teaching more student-centered through an improvement science approach. With…

The statistics about community college developmental math level and completion rates can seem disheartening, especially for those who work with these students day-to-day and know their life stories. When it comes to teaching her students, the author chooses not to focus on the statistics. Instead, she pays attention to their varied career goals…

This chapter describes a promising new approach to teaching developmental arithmetic and prealgebra, and presents research findings that demonstrate how a faculty support network helped instructors adopt new teaching strategies and gain confidence in teaching the reformed course.

The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are the minimum ACT® college readiness assessment scores required for students to have a high probability of success in credit-bearing college courses--English Composition, social sciences courses, College Algebra, or Biology. This report identifies the College Readiness Benchmarks on the ACT Compass scale…

We report on some results from a multiyear development of new techniques and materials for teaching linear algebra. Our goals were to (a) to create a professional learning community across STEM disciplines, (b) to combine expertise in content and pedagogy in designing effective instructional practice, and (c) to use learning theories to support…

What does interdisciplinary integration actually look like for students beginning their college studies? This article describes what a LaGuardia Community College teaching team, who typically share a theme and consult periodically but keep their classes distinct--discovered when they designed an integrative assignment for a paired developmental…

This "Eighth Annual Report Card" tracks progress on Boston's goals for educating learners of all ages. The report lays out Boston Opportunity Agenda's current metrics, the baseline that has been established for the future, and the progress to be made over the course of the next five years. This report card contains the most up-to-date…

This article describes the impact of starting with gases in an introductory chemistry course at a community college. Students in the author's class frequently are very weak in algebra skills, and this has a cumulative impact over time that culminates in student struggles when moles and reaction stoichiometry are discussed. The rationale behind…

Today's colleges are faced with accommodating students that are increasingly underprepared. While Amarillo College has provided coursework for underprepared math students since 1980, in the fall of 2005 a significant change was implemented that positively impacted the student outcomes. This change was the creation of the Mathematics Outreach…

The "Seventh Annual Report Card" provides the most up-to-date information available on Boston's education pipeline, from kindergarten through college graduation, including measures for school readiness, 3rd-grade reading proficiency, 6th-grade mathematics proficiency, 10th-grade academic proficiency, high school completion, dropout…

A peer mentoring program has been implemented to support a group of at-risk students enrolled in two sections of an elementary algebra course at an urban community college. Peer mentors were recruited from advanced mathematics classes and trained to provide individualized tutoring and mentoring support to at-risk students. The results show that…

The nation is facing a crisis in its community colleges: more and more students are attending community colleges, but most of them are not prepared for college-level work. The problem may be most dire in mathematics. By most accounts, the majority of students entering community colleges are placed (based on placement test performance) into…