Carnegie Math Pathways

Key Takeaways from a Decade of the Math Pathways Movement

Marley Arechiga

Key Takeaways from a Decade of the Math Pathways Movement

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Earlier this year I had a wonderful conversation with three key education reform leaders on the movement to create math pathways. As I reflect on that discussion and particularly how Carnegie Math Pathways has helped shape this field, a few things stand out in terms of what has been most impactful and where there is further work to be done in reshaping mathematics to better serve our students and ensure success.

1. Data is essential to understanding the problem we are trying to solve, to motivating the will to make change, and to helping us identify potential solutions.

Thinking back to the early 2000’s, most of us understood from our own experiences on campuses that mathematics was a barrier to success. But it wasn’t until Tom Bailey’s work at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) in 2010 that the problem was put into sharp relief. CCRC’s research demonstrated that once students were placed in remedial or developmental mathematics, only 20% completed a single college level math class within three years. And this system of remediation particularly disadvantages marginalized students, including Black, Latinx, Indigenous students, and students experiencing poverty.

Developmental mathematics is a well intended solution to a very real problem; yet its design actually prevents students from learning and succeeding in college level mathematics. The system of developmental mathematics has stopped half a million students a year from graduating or transfering. Knowing this has forced all of us as educators to ask hard questions about our current approaches. It’s spurred us to examine our own institutional data to understand how these national statistics relate to what is actually happening with our own students. As we begin to understand the impact of this system within our own institutions, it becomes clear that the status quo is unacceptable, that a more just and equitable solution is needed.

By taking a more comprehensive, data-informed view of the system that generates these outcomes, we are better able to understand our students’ experiences, the factors impacting their experiences, and how best to address them.

2. Reimagining mathematics education so that it is a gateway to college success for every student requires systems change, not mere tweaks to existing structures.

Through critically examining the system, it became clear that multiple factors affect student success, namely, how students are placed into classes, the sequence of developmental courses students must pass before being allowed to enroll in college level mathematics, and what mathematics content students actually need to know to meet their college, career, and life goals.

We learned that traditional placement methods overplace students into developmental mathematics courses (often a sequence of courses) before allowing them to enter a credit-bearing college level course, financially burdening students and significantly lengthening their educational journey.

Data from the Carnegie Math Pathways showed that students performed just as well with college level mathematics content regardless of whether they were assessed as needing intermediate algebra, elementary algebra, or even pre-algebra.

In fact, Carnegie Math Pathways programs, Quantway and Statway, showed that sequences of developmental courses were not necessary. Students could succeed in college level mathematics if simultaneously given the right supports. This evidence has helped spark the movement of corequisite remediation, which is now in place in roughly half the states across the country.

At the same time, the math pathways approach has ensured that more students are learning mathematics relevant to their careers and interests such as statistics and quantitative reasoning. No longer are all students, regardless of interest or major, on a single trajectory to calculus inspired by our nation’s race to space against the Soviets in the 1950s. Instead, mathematics departments are following the advice of the mathematics and statistical professional societies in offering differentiated pathways that give students the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in their careers and lives in the 21st century.

3. Developing confident and successful learners requires transforming their learning experience inside the classroom.

The structural changes of redesigning placement, implementing corequisite remediation, and aligning math pathways with majors are essential to improving student outcomes and experiences. But they are not sufficient. Developing confident and successful learners and doers of mathematics requires changing how students engage with mathematics inside the classroom. Carnegie Math Pathways has shown that by actively engaging in contextualized mathematics in a supportive and inclusive environment, students develop deep conceptual knowledge, build confidence, and gain transferable hard and soft skills they need to be successful in mathematics and beyond. Because of Quantway and Staway, and programs like them, students are pursuing mathematics-based careers that they never before thought possible.

faculty at a carnegie math pathways event

Every student deserves the chance to succeed and advance, and nowhere can students feel an institutions’ commitment to them more than in the classroom. Creating powerful and effective learning experiences that help students build a growth mindset and foster a sense of belonging in class and in college requires investment in faculty professional development. For example, the State University of New York, through its partnership with Carnegie Math Pathways, has exemplified this commitment to professional learning by establishing a network of mathematics educators across their institutions who are focused on sharing learning and advancing instructional practice. And this investment has led to sustainable change for their students.

Our path forward

In the last 10 years, the Carnegie Math Pathways network of researchers and practitioners has played a leading role, alongside the Charles A. Dana Center and Complete College America, in launching a movement that has supported educators in transforming the educational lives of hundreds of thousands of students nationwide and abroad. While the Covid pandemic has made plain and even exacerbated the inequities in our educational system, math pathways continue to be a proven and sure step in dismantling some of these inequities.

Carnegie Math Pathways remains committed to our goals of improving math learning experiences for every student through innovative course solutions and by strengthening faculty development in equitable and inclusive instruction, and more. Progress toward this goal is possible because educators and administrators who are deeply passionate about making math teaching and learning more equitable are taking action.

So what actions can you and your institution take?

  • Begin by understanding your students’ experiences. Increasingly, many of us know the hard quantitative data about how our current systems serve our students. But knowing their personal stories makes the impact of those facts and figures all too real and impossible to ignore. Talk to them, interview them, ask them about their journey in deciding to come to your school, the process of enrolling, selecting and attending classes, and preparing for their future beyond your school. What do they hope to achieve? What are their pain points? Where could the system serve them better?
  • Then take the time to examine and understand the system that is responsible for the current outcomes so you can take steps to change it. Some key things you can ask include:
    • Are all the students who could benefit from college math able to take it based on your school’s placement method?
    • Do students have the option to engage in mathematics courses that are aligned to their majors? And how quickly is it possible to progress through their required courses?
    • Are students given the individualized support they need to be successful?
    • And are their experiences showing them the relevance of mathematics to their lives and futures and building their confidence as learners?
  • Reach out and connect with others. You don’t have to do this alone. Form a community of like-minded colleagues with whom you can share practices and ideas. Math faculty can connect with faculty in related disciplines to understand the specific mathematics skills students need to be successful in these disciplines. Faculty can connect with advisors to understand how incoming students are guided in selecting course pathways. Understanding each others’ perspectives may lead to new solutions for students. It may be that more can be done to prepare students for placement, that simple additional supports could significantly boost students’ identity and confidence as math learners, or that an alternative pathway would better meet the needs of non-STEM majors, saving them time and money and making it more likely they successfully advance academically.

We acknowledge that these tasks are complex and require time, resources, and commitment. Yet, the hard work has tremendous payoff. All of us need to understand our students’ goals and their experiences within the systems we create. It is incumbent upon all of us to create institutions and systems worthy of the students we serve. Together, the Carnegie Math Pathways network of educators has made tremendous progress over the last 10 years in transforming student’s learning experience and increasing success in gateway college mathematics. In the next 10 years I am confident we can do even more.

How We Reimagined College Readiness Courses at RIDE with WestEd’s Carnegie Math Pathways & Reading Apprenticeship

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Seeking a new path to increase college retention

At the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), we strive to prepare our graduates for success in postsecondary education, work, and life. Like so many education systems across the country, however, each year, we at RIDE have seen thousands of our high school graduates drop out of college before even reaching their second year. By examining the data, we identified that students were consistently dropping out of college once they encountered remediation courses.

Nearly half of Rhode Island students who enroll in one of our three public colleges are placed into developmental courses. Of those, around 70% drop out of college within a year. Intensifying these bleak outcomes is the reality that while students in Rhode Island can earn a degree for free at local community colleges, developmental education courses are excluded from that deal, catching many of our students off guard with unexpected bills.

Recognizing the urgent need to change our approach, we set out to form a partnership between our high schools and colleges to ensure that students arrive at college prepared for college-level coursework.

Building evidence-based high school and college readiness courses in partnership with WestEd

To do this, we partnered with our state’s three public colleges, who recognized that the status quo was not serving our students and whose collaboration was key to better aligning K-12 and college standards. Together, we searched for partners in the field who could help us design quality, student-centered readiness content that focused not just on the skills that students were missing, but on the college-level work that we were preparing them for.

WestEd’s Carnegie Math Pathways and Reading Apprenticeship offered the evidence-based content and student-centered approach that we were searching for. With input from our local educators, administrators, and professors, they also worked with us to create custom courses to meet our students’ specific needs. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we took advantage of WestEd’s adaptive learning platform to provide effective distance learning opportunities, and we expanded our programming to rising 9th-graders. Our goal was to mitigate learning loss caused by the disruption from COVID-19 and to ensure that our students were well prepared for high school and college.

Our four, 8-week-long remote readiness courses—English and math courses for rising 9th-graders, rising 12th-graders, and departing high school seniors—launched in the summer of 2020. Each course was designed with synchronous and asynchronous components, enabling students to work both independently and with their classmates during live collaboration sessions. By bringing these courses online, we were also able to offer students the flexibility to learn at the pace that best suited their learning styles.

And the demand was overwhelming. Within five days, more than 2,000 students had registered for the courses, with 10% of the entire 9th-grade cohort statewide registering for the courses. This response has shown that this shift is something our community desperately needs from us and is already benefiting from.

High impact courses that are boosting engagement and achievement

The impact in both English and math was game-changing, with students demonstrating growth in critical reading areas and in post-math test results. Twelfth-grade students who took the pre and the post math test improved their SAT scores, on average, by 55 points. Even more impressive, students who had enrolled in the math courses below grade level were improving their SAT scores, on average, by 100 points. In the high school math readiness course, students improved their post-math test scores by an average of 15 percentage points.

In their reading courses, students demonstrated gains in comprehension of complex texts, positive self-concept as readers and students, and explicit approaches to reading complex texts. Students across all courses reported feeling engaged and connected to their peers and teachers.

The benefits of the readiness courses extended to our teachers as well. Our staff reported finding the course content engaging and high-quality, and many teachers appreciated the opportunity to gain experience and skills with new teaching styles and tools that could be used both online and in person.

Key takeaways and next steps

A variety of factors contributed to the success of our readiness courses. The broad coalition between RIDE, our public colleges, and WestEd enabled us to remove siloes that unwittingly interfered with our students’ success. With WestEd’s balanced focus on readiness as well as developmental education, we were able to confidently promote these courses not as remedial but as foundational to college success, helping us reduce the stigma for students who were a grade level behind and boost recruitment. And the robust training and professional development provided for RIDE educators, which included one-on-one coaching and a community of practice, supported our teachers as they embraced an innovative instructional approach.

Perhaps most important to our students’ success was the relevant, contextualized curricula that students could connect with real-world situations in their lives. The English and math lessons helped students develop critical thinking skills important not only to their future studies and careers, but also to helping them process and interpret the challenging events happening around them at the time, including the social justice movements in response to George Floyd’s death and the pandemic.

With heartening outcomes from our summer effort, we are even more optimistic about continuing our partnership with WestEd to improve and expand our math and literacy readiness courses. We are offering similar courses year round and aim to eventually expand to elementary school, with the hope of capturing students at critical junctures to prepare them for the next step in their learning journeys. We’re excited because our kids and teachers love these courses, and they’re making a real difference in student achievement.

Q&A with Michelle Brock: The Importance of Social-Emotional Supports in Math Classrooms

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Pictured above: Michelle Brock and a banner hanging in her home office, visible during Zoom sessions with her students.

Teaching math has traditionally been about just that—teaching math. But as Michelle Brock, Carnegie Math Pathways Faculty Mentor and math faculty at American River College, notes, addressing non-cognitive aspects of learning can help math educators build a supportive environment in their classrooms that both reduces students’ anxiety and brings out their strengths.

Brock is part of the Pathways’ Productive Persistence Research and Development team, a group that develops and continuously refines the social-emotional support package the Pathways calls Productive Persistence. We spoke with her about the difference these kinds of supports can make for student success.

How has incorporating social-emotional supports into your instruction affected your students’ self-perception as math learners and doers?
It’s hard to say without actually talking to them how their perception changed but I can say how it played out in the classroom. What I’ve seen the most is the transition from students seeing my class as something they needed to be able to graduate—and not necessarily having faith that they could do it—to being able to redefine how they interpret success. I’ve seen students who would have success in math and still not interpret that as being successful. So being able to see that transition from students becoming resistant or tentative learners to becoming more willing to take risks in the class and more willing to risk not having the perfect answer, has been rewarding. I also think that was evident in the way students would realize that it’s okay to ask for help.

How do you know what sort of social-emotional interventions to use, and when, to best support your math students?
It would be lovely if you could just apply one thing to a class and it would work for everybody, but we’re all human. For me, I listen to how students are speaking about themselves as learners. When they speak to me about their troubles, I listen to the things that they say, or listen to how they speak about themselves in their groups, like, “You all are smarter than me,” “I don’t think as fast as you do.” We’re trained to think that learning looks one way. Some people only have to see something once and they can do it. That’s not me, and I don’t detract from that fact. I think demystifying that for students is important, so listening to how my students talk about themselves affects how I support them.

It sounds like that’s a really good strategy for you. Are there any other strategies you’ve found to be effective in helping your students feel like they belong in your class?
I think also watching other patterns in behavior that may not be so vocal, like attendance. In the past, I’ve heard from students that their anxiety got so high and they were so nervous that they couldn’t get to my class. So that takes a different kind of approach to be able to get them in the door. In the past, it might’ve been easy to classify these students as disinterested. Certainly, there are going to be cases in which people don’t perform because they aren’t interested, but I don’t think that’s the overwhelming narrative. I think there are other things in play that affect how students see themselves and how they perform. We need to take the time to acknowledge that we’re teaching human beings.

Yeah, for sure. It can be difficult sometimes, though, to get in touch with students who have been absent for a while. Have you found that to be the case, and if so, how did you overcome that?
I used to email when we were in-person. But what I learned when we went remote was that email may not be the best way. So, I’d watch for a response and if I don’t get one, I’d go to the phone. If I wasn’t hearing from them, I started calling them. I have yet to experience somebody say, “Why did you just call me?” It’s all been, “Wow, I’ve never had a teacher call me, and I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.” And so, just trying to figure out how to connect wherever I can. I also use a texting app on my phone (Remind) to reach out to both individual students and the whole class by text.

Suppose that beginning tomorrow, you had to teach your current math courses without any attention to the social-emotional wellbeing of your students. You’re strictly teaching math. What do you think your students would lose?
Everything. Seriously, everything. I think it’s easy for a student to fall off and not bring their full selves if we don’t even take the time to see them as their full selves, if we don’t take the time to reach out and understand if there are any barriers that we can remove from our space. We can help. This has always been something that has been in my sights since I’ve been teaching. I started tutoring when I was a senior in high school and math anxiety was always kind of high. Students had lots of stuff about math anxiety, but that still didn’t really get at the meat of what’s going on. It’s a piece of it, and I think that’s what drew me to the work around Productive Persistence, was getting a chance to name something that I’ve always felt in this space.

You say it’s a piece of it. What is that bigger thing that it’s a piece of, do you think?
I just think it’s just a bigger piece of just the whole psychology of humans. That anxiety comes from other things that are in play that we’re not always paying attention to. It’s those kinds of things that we, as math educators, haven’t paid a lot of attention to.

How would you say you measure the social-emotional wellbeing of your students?
I think from the surface and watching their participation gives me some clue, but the best way I’ve been able to measure it is through our Productive Persistence surveys (surveys intentionally built into each Pathways course that measure non-cognitive indicators important to student success at the start of the course and their change over time.). Generally, I judge that somebody is doing okay if they’re engaged and participating and they’re reaching out for help.

How has training and support from Carnegie Math Pathways helped you effectively apply social-emotional support in your courses?
It gave me access to other people who were working on the same kinds of things that I could roll questions back and forth with. And it created the space for me to really tap into my learner self. I’ve always learned something new every day I’ve been teaching, but this actually made me sit in my classroom and purposely put on my learner hat. That has helped me be able to recognize more quickly when students maybe needed a different kind of nudge.

It’s also been helpful to talk with people who are going through the same struggles with their students and realizing that it didn’t matter whether you were here in Sacramento—or New York or Georgia or Ohio—we’re all dealing with similar challenges. Being a part of this community is a chance to really get out of the silo of teaching. It just took the individualistic aspect out of teaching and made it more community-based.

Learn more about Productive Persistence

Carnegie Math Pathways Virtual Courses See 3x the Success Rate of Traditional Math Sequences

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We are thrilled to share that Carnegie Math Pathways’ new fully online courses, Quantway and Statway Virtual, are boosting students’ successful course completion by 3 to 4 times the rate of more traditional course sequences in math.

Uniquely addressing one of the key challenges of distance learning — social connection — these online courses leverage integrated video conferencing and digital analytic tools that help students meaningfully engage in learning, while providing instructors with targeted support to advance learning.

Quantway and Statway Virtual, in development since 2018 and launched in summer of 2020, reimagine online learning by thoughtfully adapting some of the most impactful elements of the Pathways in-class experience for digital learning environments.

The results? Students enrolled in the online courses are achieving success in these courses at the same rate as their peers who participated in the highly successful Carnegie Math Pathways in-person courses.

Designed by faculty with experience using the proven Pathways in-class approach, Quantway and Statway Virtual utilize an intuitive and adaptive digital learning platform. With the seamless integration of video conferencing, an additional external account is not required to enable collaborative, discovery-based learning that nurtures connection to peers, the instructor, and the course content. These elements are key to shifting students’ mindsets and deeply engaging students in the course, leading to improved student outcomes in the course and beyond.

“I think it’s huge that Quantway College Virtual was designed by faculty because the faculty are the ones who are in the classroom,” says Kelly Kohlmetz, math faculty and Pathways faculty designer at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. “We know what works in the classroom and have replicated that as much as possible in the online environment.”

These thoughtfully designed statistical and quantitative reasoning courses can flexibly support fully online, hybrid, or in-person instruction. Kohlmetz says, “One of the things I really love about the Quantway College Virtual class is that the Zoom [collaboration sessions] are built into the course. So the students actually work through the lessons together, as they would do in class — answering the questions, inputting their questions into the system, talking about their answers.”

And students are sharing positive reactions as well, such as Kristen Haner at SUNY Corning Community College who recently said the Quantway Virtual course was more rewarding than any classroom course she could take.

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) is one of many institutions that are experiencing success as they deliver online courses to support their students remotely. RIDE partnered with WestEd’s Carnegie Math Pathways to offer a summer online transition course that helped more than 400 high school seniors and recent graduates prepare for college-level math using a custom course based on Quantway.

To learn more about Statway and Quantway, visit: oer.carnegiemathpathways.org.

 

Q&A with Andre Freeman: How to Establish and Maintain Connections in Your Quantway or Statway Virtual Course

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Andre Freeman is a professor of mathematics at Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut and a Faculty Mentor in the Carnegie Math Pathways Network. As an experienced Statway College Virtual instructor and course designer, we asked him for advice on how faculty can establish and maintain connection with students remotely, and for general best practices for online instruction. Here is some of what he shared:

What best practices would you share with someone teaching Quantway or Statway for the first time?

I think doing a robust, thorough orientation is really important and also getting information on when students can meet for collaboration sessions with other students. Getting that information about a week before the semester begins is critically important (because) building those collaboration groups quicker, I think, will enable a smoother launch for students.

Then in week one, sitting in on collaboration sessions and being there as a support if not for the entire hour, but maybe for the first half an hour. I think really having a strong instructor presence in week one makes a big difference and can lead to the groups working efficiently and effectively for much of the term.

The other thing that I would say is ensuring that the collaboration groups are working well by reaching out to students individually to just check in on how things are going.

What strategies helped you support student retention during your Statway College Virtual course?

Email was huge. I would email students and ask them how they were doing, (if they had any) questions, concerns. Just reaching out.

Unfortunately, a lot of students dropped the class after COVID and I would reach out and try to get them to continue. And it wasn’t just in this course, but in all of my classes at Capital. Our campus was hit pretty hard due to the disruption.

For those that did receive additional flexibility and support, I tried to use my office hours to connect with students and tried to meet on Zoom. Those who did take advantage of that expressed their appreciation and said that that made a big difference.

Pathways Pointer: Pathways educators have learned a lot from their spring 2020 experience with our virtual courses, particularly amid the Covid-19 outbreak, and have helpful tips to share. Register for our free, two-part mini-webinar series for community-building and general instructional strategies that can help support student retention.

How did you initially introduce the virtual Collaboration sessions to your students?

The class orientation was a really important way of introducing the entire course, including the collaboration structure and the requirements for collaborations. In addition to that, I sent out a lot of emails that described that requirement. I emphasized the benefits to students of studying in groups and also emphasized how Carnegie Math Pathways has shown that students in many situations learned better when studying with other students and learning from other students’ perspectives. I really used those two messages to motivate students and to understand why studying mathematics in a collaborative fashion is important and something that they should be open-minded about doing.

Pathways Pointer: “Collaboration sessions” refer to the student group meetings, usually independent of an instructor, held via built-in Zoom rooms in Quantway and Statway Virtual. Holding a full-class orientation at the start of the term is a helpful way to introduce the instructor, students, and the features and structure of the course.

This course allows students to work synchronously via Zoom video conferencing independent of an instructor. How do you stay connected with your students when they meet without you?

I established connection with students by orienting them through a Zoom session (at the start of the term) which allows students to meet me, for me to introduce the course and structure, and to introduce the requirements. I also had the ability to pop in on students’ collaboration sessions. I was then able to stay connected with students through frequent video communication. I would email, post videos of (my feedback), and hold office hours. I found that through constant communication, I was connected with students.

 

Q&A with George Hurlburt, Quantway College Virtual Educator

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George Hurlburt is a mathematics instructor at SUNY Corning Community College in Corning, New York. We recently chatted with him about Quantway College Virtual—his experience, what sets the course apart from others, and how it can help educators amid a global pandemic. Here’s what he had to say.

How did you feel about teaching Quantway College Virtual?

Going into the class I was really worried that students wouldn’t be able to get through the material without a teacher there to guide them. You know, in a traditional class the instructor would be there to prod them along, give them little hints. I was worried without being there, students wouldn’t be as successful, but I think they’re actually more successful.

We talked about (productive) struggle with the Quantway materials, all the time. And you can really see it in this class because the teacher’s not there to give them that quick little hint. They really have to work through (the material together in their online groups).

The other thing I really liked about teaching Quantway College Virtual was watching the groups come together. Some of my students have become very close and very good friends.

How would you say you connect with students if you’re not there present with them all the time?

In Quantway College Virtual, you connect with the students through responses to their collaborations. After watching group collaborations, I would make a short video and send that to them trying to help them understand where their struggles were and show them how to move forward. Sometimes I would just type up things—I didn’t always make a video.

This class offers more flexibility if faculty want to be more involved. You could set this up so that you are leading some of the collaborations, if you wish. I wasn’t able to do that because my students’ schedules didn’t work with my schedule.

How is Quantway College Virtual different from other online classes you’ve taught in the past?

In my other classes, the students are very much on their own—they work individually, do the questions individually, they watch the lectures individually. In Quantway College Virtual, they see each other twice a week, and I get to see them twice a week through watching the videos. With my other (online) classes, I don’t usually see the students very often, except when I give exams. I can look at their homework scores, but I need the students to reach out to me to tell me where they’re struggling. Through watching the videos, I know where the students are struggling and that allows me to be a lot more proactive rather than reactive.

How does Quantway College Virtual help you track your students’ progress?

I’m able to track my students’ progress primarily through the videos. I know I’ve mentioned those several times already but I think they are key to this course and what really makes a difference. The videos allow me to understand what the students are thinking and how they’re attacking problems. I can see exactly where their issues are and I can address them in a timely manner before they’re developing bad habits and making the same mistakes over and over again. The system also gives you a lot of other information about student progress.

How has teaching this class impacted your online teaching style?

This class has not only impacted my online teaching style, it’s also impacted my traditional classroom style. I find I’m trying to do a lot more discussions in my other online classes that I teach. I’m trying to get more student involvement that way—trying to get them to feel more of a community. When students are directing their own learning, they learn much better than when I’m standing in front of the classroom or in talking or if I’m just posting a video for an online class.

What, if anything, surprised you about teaching this course?

The thing that surprised me the most about teaching this course is how successful the students could be without the teacher being in the room. I really thought it would be a problem and that I would have to regularly join the collaborations to help the students get through.

The productive struggle was real. I could really see it when I watched the videos—how the students talk to each other, work through things, try different things until they finally came upon something that seemed right. I could also see their frustration sometimes when they typed in the answer, and it wasn’t right after they’ve worked on one problem for five or 10 minutes. But they didn’t quit and that’s what impressed me the most. And they did get through—my success rate overall has been very high.

You’ve mentioned productive struggle a couple of times and seeing that play out in the collaboration videos. Can you explain what productive struggle is for those unfamiliar?

We know that students struggle in math. What we hope here is to not have them just struggle (and quit) but to have them struggle in a good way. We want them to not immediately know the answer but we want them to have the tools and the ability to try different things and develop the right answer.

So often, students will see a problem that they don’t know how to do and they will just quit. That’s not productive struggle. That’s struggle and quitting. And that’s a very bad thing. And that’s not what we want to have happen here. So we try to give the students a toolbox of different items they can try—different techniques—and work on something, recognize they get an answer and say, well, that can’t possibly be correct. And then they look at their toolbox and pull out a different technique and try that and work through it.

We started developing these online courses long before the pandemic was even a thought. How would you say these classes are meeting the moment?

Right now we’re sitting in an unprecedented moment in time. And I think this virtual class is very, very helpful. I think it gives a means for instructors to teach this course and maintain the group work feel, which is so important to the whole core of this course. I think it would be very, very difficult to teach this course without the collaborations built the way they are, without the built-in Zoom meetings.

I know my college is most likely going to be virtual in the fall so I’m scheduled to teach two sections of this course and I think it’ll make a big difference for my students’ success.

A Statement from Our Team

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Over the last two and a half weeks we have watched the necessary and important actions taking place across the country in response to the recent cruel deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others before them.

We believe that educated citizens are key to a just and equitable society. Yet we are keenly aware of the historic and ongoing educational inequities faced by students of color in our schools, colleges, and universities, and even how our own positions of privilege may play a role in perpetuating this.

We stand against racism, bigotry, and senseless violence against the Black community, and are fiercely committed to doing our part to build a more just and equitable education system that honors and elevates the experiences and intelligence of Black students and all students marginalized by the status quo.

We see math as a tool for empowerment and transformation. In partnership with our network, we have developed and continually improve upon a pedagogy and curricula that value each student’s contributions to the learning process, making each student feel that they belong inside our classes and schools, and having students see themselves and their communities reflected in what they learn.

We are indebted to you, the many educators, who everyday bring these opportunities to life for students in your classrooms. Your experiences with your students, your knowledge of your communities, and your willingness to critically examine, test, and enhance our tools and approaches are what enables our network to improve.

We are a network based on continuous improvement. We will continue to learn, listen, and improve side by side with each of you to better serve our current and future generations of students.

Supporting Educators During Covid-19

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“We’re All In This Together”: Carnegie Math Pathways Helps Educators Transition to Distance Learning Amid COVID-19

Early signs are promising — students’ results in pilot testing of the online courses were slightly higher than students’ results in the face-to-face Pathways courses. Those results are no small feat, given the high bar of success of the in-person Pathways courses.

Peering into their computer screens from the safety of their respective homes, a group of math instructors from the State University of New York (SUNY) system gathered virtually to share details about their abrupt coronavirus-driven shift into the world of distance learning.

The videoconference began with teachers discussing a range of concerns — from how to ensure they are addressing students’ mental states to how to proctor quizzes and tests online. One teacher recalled grappling with a technical issue in her school’s online learning platform. Heartened after a helpful student emailed her guidance on how to troubleshoot the issue, the teacher realized, “I just have to let the students know that we’re all in this together.”

These teachers are part of a weekly virtual convening set up by Carnegie Math Pathways (Pathways) to help math educators in the SUNY system collaboratively navigate their unplanned transition to distance learning. Carnegie Math Pathways is a research-based, holistic approach to developmental math, delivered through two programs, Statway and Quantway, that accelerate college math completion and redesign coursework to make it relevant to students’ lives and areas of study. The programs are taught in 90 colleges in 16 states, including 24 SUNY colleges. In addition to working with the SUNY group, Pathways staff have been helping the broader network of Statway and Quantway teachers across the country with this pivot to virtual learning.

“We wanted to leverage the Pathways network in order to help teachers move online quickly,” says Karon Klipple, executive director of Carnegie Math Pathways. Pathways staff have been offering a range of support to the national network of Statway and Quantway teachers, including facilitating weekly Faculty Sharing Sessions for teachers to collaborate and problem-solve in real time; developing a suite of distance learning resources, and creating an asynchronous online forum for teachers to share ideas and resources.

“Because the move to online learning was so sudden and unplanned for teachers, a lot of the support up front has been triage,” says Klipple. In addition to facilitating collaboration and offering resources and guidance, Klipple and her colleagues have “helped with setting expectations — what are some realistic goals for transitioning to distance learning on a dime in the midst of a crisis.”

To continue reading this article, visit WestEd’s website, where this post written by Joan McRobbie first appeared and is partially re-published here with permission.

Educator Spotlight: Scott Guth

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Scott Guth was skeptical when he first learned in 2010 of the Carnegie Math Pathways’ efforts to remove the remedial math barrier for students.

“The notion of removing prerequisites to college level classes was outside of what I thought was possible,” he said.

Today, Guth has roughly a decade—and counting—of experience in teaching, creating, and improving Statway lessons together with educators in the Carnegie Math Pathways Networked Improvement Community (the network of educators and staff at institutions nationwide that teach Statway and or Quantway).

One of his earliest collaborations with the Pathways network was a project in which he was filmed teaching Statway for the Pathways Faculty Improvement Team (FIT). This project helped the FIT team develop guidance for educators teaching the Pathways.

“It taught me the discipline of allowing students to struggle and posing things in a way that gives them what they need (to solve problems),” he said.

Guth is a member of the PathwaysCurriculum Committee, where he creates Statway lessons with other members of the NIC. As a committee member, he has designed countless images, tables, and interactive activities to help improve the Statway experience for students.

He’s also seen a lot change since the days when he thought the Pathways mission was impossible and throughout his 30-year career as a professor at Mount San Antonio College. In 2018, the system that long enabled non-credit bearing remedial math courses to flourish was dramatically transformed by the passing of California’s AB 705.

The bill says that a college or community college district must maximize the probability that a student complete transfer-level coursework in English and math within a year. It also requires that these institutions consider high school coursework, high school grades, and high school grade point average when placing students into English and math courses.

“AB 705 made it illegal to require prerequisites for math and English without validating that they substantially improved the chance of success in the college-level course,” he said.

As the remedial math landscape has changed, Guth has innovated with the NIC on new ways to help students succeed in math, including helping create the Statway College and Statway Corequisite course offerings. He is now helping the NIC transform those materials into an online course.

Despite his mark on many Statway lessons, he doesn’t highlight any one lesson as his own, crediting instead the collective work of the Curriculum Committee.

Despite his initial skepticism, Guth has become an advocate for Statway, even penning an op-ed in LA School Report in 2017 in support of the program.

“I think there are people that (think) we’ve made the curriculum easier,” he said.

“Actually, we’ve made it relevant to people who never saw any purpose for the (math) that they were being asked to do in college.”

When he faces skepticism in his department about disrupting the status quo with Statway, Guth says he shares a group photo of the faculty in the NIC who continually work together to develop the program’s curriculum.

“The NIC is a group of teachers—just like you.”

Educator Spotlight: Kelly Kohlmetz

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Each year, Kelly Kohlmetz, math literacy pathway coordinator and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, sorts through hundreds of freshmen student transcripts to make sure students are placed in the math course that best suits their needs.

If she finds that students are in the wrong course, she emails them and their advisor. It’s a task she undertakes independently to help advisors set students up for success.

“I want the advisors involved because they’re the first line of communication with the students. And a lot of times, the advisors know things that are happening in the students’ lives that I don’t,” she said.

Her engagement with advisors in the 10 colleges at UWM is one of the many ways she ensures that students can benefit from Quantway, the quantitative reasoning course solution from Carnegie Math Pathways.

UWM serves about 25,000 undergraduate students each year, 40% of which require remedial education. To address a very low pass rate in UWM’s former developmental math sequence—just 55%—she and her colleagues implemented Quantway in the fall of 2015.

“We implemented what is now Quantway Core and we were so pleased with it and saw such great results…I love the idea of the problem situations and not having a prescriptive textbook,” she said.

Since then, Kohlmetz’s involvement with Carnegie Math Pathways has been instrumental in helping develop and refine Quantway course options that are being offered to the Carnegie Math Pathways Networked Improvement Community (the network of educators and staff at institutions nationwide that teach Statway and or Quantway).

Kohlmetz became an Administrative Coach for the Carnegie Math Pathways in 2016, helping administrators at other institutions to implement and scale the pathways at their campus.

In the spring semesters of 2018 and 2019, she piloted Quantway Corequisite courses, which saw 83% and 82% success rates at UWM, respectively.

She is an active member of the Pathways Curriculum Committee, which develops and improves Statway and Quantway curricula. The committee is comprised of Pathways staff and educators in the network.

Throughout her involvement with Pathways, she has also continued to innovate on her own campus, even creating an online version of Quantway before Pathways partnered with the adaptive learning provider, RealizeIt, last year to create fully-online versions of Statway and Quantway.

Kohlmetz piloted the fully-online version of Quantway Core this past fall and will be piloting the Quantway College version this spring.

While Kohlmetz wears many hats with the Carnegie Math Pathways, it’s her commitment to placement and advising that sets her apart. On top of checking student transcripts, she maintains strong relationships with advisors and meets with them regularly to keep them informed about math offerings.

“I guess I feel that, yes, it’s over and beyond but, it’s something that I think needs to be done, so I do it,” she said.

At the time of this interview, Kohlmetz was getting ready to schedule another round of meetings with advisors.