Thank you for watching our video!  This video is based on our collaborative research with college mathematics instructors at a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution. We are focused on redesigning "gateway" mathematics courses, which are the introductory courses that students must take when they arrive at the two year college. For students who are in the "BSTEM" (Business + STEM) majors, the gateway classes might be college algebra, trigonometry, or precalculus. Our work is happening against the backdrop of state-wide policy changes that have transformed the course placement process. 

We are interested in connecting with others who are doing similar work. What are your experiences of responding to state policies that are changing the makeup of gateway mathematics courses? What methods have you used in your professional development work with instructors in two year colleges? What connections do you see related to our work?

Great video. We have very similar goals in our project. We are based in Puerto Rico, but we are facing similar challenges as you are with our math courses. Best of luck.

Such cool work ... excited to hear what you all are learning!

Hi! Great work! As my colleague Peter Barbosa said, we face similar challenges and share similar goals. We are at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, a private Institution in PR. We have not been affected by statewide policy changes - in fact, there have been none regarding Math in PR. There have been changes at the Institutional level, so we are adapting our courses to comply with these changes and still serve our students well. One of the biggest challenges our STEM students face is these math gateway courses, so we trained our faculty in active learning techniques, which we will begin implementing in our Algebra, PreCalculus, Calculus, Statistics and Math for Computer Scientists courses starting in August 2022. I would love to continue this conversation and share our strategies and results!

I like the data-driven approach to the project.  I know it may be early to have data, but how are the faculty reacting to the PD that you are providing for them?  Will you be able to tell if they are enacting the ideas and practices being promoted in the PD in their own teaching, and what the impact may be?

Hello Bill and team- It is really great to learn about this project and to know that it is being implemented here in San Diego. I was excited to see the 5-Practices book in use as a professional development tool. I am wondering if your participating instructors volunteer to attend your professional development. Perhaps they are required to attend?? Also, how do you build buy-in for instructors who are reluctant to change their instructional practices? Also, given that there are a number of different gateway courses offered, did you find that professional development was taken up more by instructors teaching certain courses?

Great question, Joi! The PD is not required; it is optional. We pay them for their time as well. We are also hoping to get past participants involved in aspects of future PD. Hopefully this grass-roots effort will encourage others to participate in future semesters. 

In our first year, we had 7 unique participants. I don't believe that there was one particular course that "dominated", and instructors taught a variety of courses. It will be interesting to see if that changes in the upcoming year. 

BUT, I will also let Charles chime in - he worked one-on-one with the participants, and has more detailed information. 

Thanks!

Thank you for your questions Joi! Below are some answers that build on what Mary wrote. 

1) Using the 5 practices book was great. We added some equity components that complemented the book and the community college context nicely. Using the 5 practices book illuminated interesting aspects around participant's beliefs and practices. 

2) To Mary's point instructors volunteered and were compensated for their time. However, in our discussions as a team and my experiences doing PD, we do think that participants volunteering instead of being "voluntold" is important for the work that we are doing. 

3) Connected to the previous comment, instructors volunteering contributes to buy-in (in our opinion). We are fortunate that participants have been vulnerable with their practice (albeit with some things more than others). We have leveraged their willingness to be vulnerable to set up experiences that connect to ideas of inquiry and equity in both the Fall pd and Spring pd. Additionally, we thinking having some stability with the same participants, same facilitators (both at the university and the community college), and creating an environment where participants can share and not be evaluated seems to have also contributed to buy-in. 

4) Again to Mary's point there is not a particular course (e.g, college algebra) that was being dominated among participants. We have some ideas moving forward about how it might be beneficial to have a pd that uses specific content for gateways courses and group participants based upon the courses they are teaching. For example having college algebra pd group, a trigonometry pd group, and a pre-cal pd group. 

Awesome program. I appreciate the distinctions made between HSI enrolling and HSI serving institutions. This is indeed an important difference as retention is key to receiving your degree and starting your career.

I wonder if you all provide direct supports or have consistent interactions with students who are taking these gateway courses? Have you all gathered data that speaks to how they have been impacted by the program?

Thank you for your comments and questions. We have collected some data in the form of student interviews, focus groups, and surveys that capture their experiences and perspectives with respect to their experiences in courses at the community college, in mathematics classes, and prior experiences. We will continue to collect that data and more as we connect it with what is going on inside of classrooms, particularly with respect to teacher practice. We also have institutional data that can speak to students matriculation in and through gateway math courses. 

Good advice! Thank you! In our case, we only have undergraduate students in our School of Sciences, so the task would "fall" on the project staff's shoulders, but is one we will happily accept!

Thank you for your question Agda. We had similar issues. In addition to what Mary described, we think there are some other moves that might be helpful. In addition to visiting the classrooms and emailing students, we also texted them. As you know we get so many emails and sometimes that get triaged. We found a little more success texting. In addition to that we incentivized students to attend the focus groups by offering a gift card. Another strategy that might be helpful is having instructor's reward students who participate in focus groups. 

Those are great suggestions, thanks! It would be interesting to use social media/digital tools such a texting and WhatsApp!

Researching at two-year colleges is great. Administrators need to understand that what works at R-1 institutions doesn't necessarily work at two-year colleges. Thank you for doing this research. If you are not members of AMATYC's Academic Network on research at two-year colleges, REMETYC, please consider becoming a member. AMATYC has a research session before its annual conference on research. I would love to see you present at this session. Also consider presenting at a future AMATYC conference about your research. 

Thank you for the note, Kathryn! We did actually present 2 talks at RMETYC in Phoenix last fall. It was great! I believe we are also planning to submit for Toronto. We have enjoyed connecting with AMATYC through this work.