Date of Degree

8-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program

Education

Advisor

Judith Beauford

Advisor

Susan Hall

Advisor

Renea Fike

Abstract

In today’s society, many students are entering colleges and universities unprepared in mathematics for enrollment in college-level courses. The lack of sufficient preparation during high school years for taking college-level mathematics courses has created a problem for students and the institutions of higher education trying to serve them. Most colleges and universities have implemented developmental courses for students who have fallen short of the required skills for entering into college-level mathematics courses. Since developmental education is a comprehensive process focusing on intellectual, social, and educational growth for all students, interventions are provided to improve unprepared students’ achievement and persistence in both the short-term, first semester, and in the longer term degree processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in success rates and persistence to further mathematics courses between students who took the first developmental mathematics course in a summer bridge program and those who took the first course in a traditional program. The students enrolled in the summer 2008 through fall 2009 were selected for this study. Their records of enrollment and passing rates were collected and analyzed using descriptive cross-tabulation. The results indicated students in the bridge mathematics programs were more persistent than the students in the traditional developmental mathematics courses, and the students in the traditional developmental mathematics courses had a better passing rate than the students in the bridge mathematics programs.

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