Inside Counts
Categories: General Education | First Time Freshmen | Math
As of Fall 2018, all incoming freshmen in the CSU system who need additional academic support to complete their GE writing or quantitative reasoning requirement must be allowed to do so in college-level courses that carry baccalaureate credit toward their degrees (for details, see Executive Order 1110 and its accompanying FAQ ). This change has the effect of shifting away from pre-baccalaureate developmental coursework which does not count toward a student’s degree units; such courses have been shown to impede progress to the degree, especially for traditionally underserved students.
At CSUN, our GE writing courses were already using this baccalaureate credit model, with stretch writing (113A/B, 114A/B) for students who need additional support. In Fall 2018, our GE math courses moved to this model as well, switching from Developmental Math to co-requisite math courses. In this report, we share some preliminary results on the impact of this change for the Fall 2018 freshmen who required additional academic support in math.
There are 4 categories of math placement; here, we focus on the 2 categories that indicate that additional support is necessary, categories 3 and 4.
In Fall 2017, First-Time Freshmen placed in Category 4 needed 2 courses: typically MATH 092 and 093
In Fall 2018, First-Time Freshmen placed in Category 4 needed 1 course: typically MATH 196QR
In Fall 2017, First-Time Freshmen placed in Category 3 usually took MATH 093.
In Fall 2018, First-Time Freshmen placed in Category 3 usually took MATH 196QR.
Preliminary Conclusions
Under this new model, more students in categories 3 and 4 are successfully completing their pre-GE math/quantitative reasoning coursework, and are receiving credit for this work. These early results are very promising and in line with other universities that have made similar changes. CSUN will continue to examine the impact of these changes on student success.
