Across the United States, students are entering college with a need for improvement in basic mathematics and communication skills. In 2008, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 1908 which changed the expectations for the senior year of high school for many students. Students who score within certain levels on the mandatory high school assessment are administered a college placement test. For those students who do not meet the college level score identified by Florida's Board of Education, enrollment in postsecondary preparatory instruction is now mandatory. Mathematics for College Readiness is the primary mathematics course delivered to satisfy this requirement. This study analyzes the impact of Mathematics for College Readiness on postsecondary course enrollment and success. In addition to statistics describing the population, logistic regression was applied to examine which factors were likely to be related to developmental education course enrollment and postsecondary course success. A series logistic regression analyses were conducted for all students and students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. The findings indicate that taking Mathematics for College Readiness helped reduce student probability of taking developmental education courses in college, particularly for African American and Female students. Although taking Mathematics for College Readiness was not related to student passing rates in college level mathematics courses, further analyses suggests that taking a senior-year mathematics course like Mathematics for College Readiness promotes student success in college level mathematics courses, particularly when compared with students who completed Algebra II. The results from this study also confirm the disparity in college readiness along the lines of race and ethnicity and high school academic achievement as reflected in student Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores. The findings from this study have strong implications for policy and practice aiming for reducing the need of developmental education in college and for improving college readiness for high school students. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / Fall Semester, 2013. / October 29, 2013. / College Readiness / Includes bibliographical references. / Shouping Hu, Professor Directing Dissertation; Vanessa Dennen, University Representative; Robert A. Schwartz, Committee Member; David Tandberg, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_254413 |
| Contributors | Alexander, Julie (authoraut), Hu, Shouping (professor directing dissertation), Dennen, Vanessa (university representative), Schwartz, Robert A. (committee member), Tandberg, David (committee member), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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