CSPCC Pilot Case Study Pacific Catholic University

1. CSPCCPilot Case StudyPacific Catholic University Sean Larsen Estrella Johnson Steve StrandPortland State University

2. Overview • CSPCC Project • Pacific Catholic University • The Math Department • Components of the Calculus Program • Resources & Support • Takeaways

3. CSPCC Project More students are taking advanced mathematics in high school than ever before - over half a million each year study calculus in high school (Bressoud, 2009).

4. CSPCC Project More students are taking advanced mathematics in high school than ever before - over half a million each year study calculus in high school (Bressoud, 2009). Students in 4-year undergraduate programs enrolled in calculus or above has decreased steadily from 8.93% in 1990 to 6.36% in 2005 (Lutzer et al, 2007).

5. CSPCC Project More students are taking advanced mathematics in high school than ever before - over half a million each year study calculus in high school (Bressoud, 2009). Students in 4-year undergraduate programs enrolled in calculus or above has decreased steadily from 8.93% in 1990 to 6.36% in 2005 (Lutzer et al, 2007). Contrary to what is commonly assumed, students do not leave STEM majors primarily for financial or academic reasons. They leave because of poor instruction in their mathematics and science courses, with calculus instruction and curriculum often cited as a primary reason (Thompson et al., 2007).

6. CSPCC Project The Characteristics of Successful Programs in College Calculus (CSPCC) project is a large empirical study investigating mainstream Calculus 1. The MAA received an NSF grant to fund this project.

7. CSPCC Project Goals • to identify the factors that contribute to success • to understand how these factors are leveraged within highly successful programs • to make recommendations

8. CSPCC Project Phase 1: Large-scale Survey Study Phase 2: Explanatory Case Studies

9. CSPCC Project Data from Phase 1 was analyzed to identify successful schools. Some ways success was defined: • Student retention • Increase in confidence and interest • Pass rate in Calc I

10. CSPCC Project Phase 1: Large-scale Survey Study Phase 2: Explanatory Case Studies • Data Collection: site visits • Starting to build description of these programs

11. Case Studies: 4 yr schools We conducted 2-3 day site visits at five “4 year” institutions. • Interviewed: Students, Teachers, Coordinators, Administrators, Client Discipline representatives, Student & Faculty Support

12. Case Studies: 4 yr schools Data analysis is just beginning for the project The goal of this analysis will be to produce explanatory cases studies (Yin, 2003) – what characteristics contribute to the success of these programs

13. Case Studies: 4 yr schools The goal of the preliminary analysis presented here was to produce “facts & features” summaries to share with the institutions • Identify characteristics & facts about the calculus program and institution • “Pull” quotes representative of consistently reported features of the program – features that participants cite as reasons for success

14. Pacific Catholic Univ. Pacific Catholic University (PCU) was identified as successful by: • Calc I Pass Rate: 89% • High number of “persisters” and low number of “switchers” • Increased interest

15. Pacific Catholic Univ. 3,600 students and approximately 320 faculty members are engaged in teaching and research on the campus founded in 1901. First year retention rate is 91% for full-time students.

16. Pacific Catholic Univ. Student Body Women comprise 61% of undergraduate student body. 86% of students are between 18 & 24. Ethnicity: White – 70% Hispanic/Latino – 7% Asian – 9% Nonresident Aliens – 3% Unknown – 2% African American – 1% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander – 1% American Indian/Alaska Native – 1%

17. Math Department at PCU The Department of Mathematics offers two programs leading to degrees in mathematics: • Bachelor of Arts: suited especially for students also interested in humanities (e.g. philosophy, history, language, or theology) • Bachelor of Science: designed for general mathematics student; particularly appropriate for students also interested in physical science or computer science.

18. Math Department at PCU • Department boasts ten outstanding mathematicians - seven under the age of 40 – and with a total of about 50 majors. • Every major can work one-on-one with professors, often on independent study or even research projects.

19. Faculty • New young faculty group – hired for commitment to student learning • All sections taught by full-time tenure track faculty (or the husbands of the faculty)

20. Faculty What makes the Calculus I program at your institution effective? “Hiring really high quality instructors and having them communicate with each other effectively, frequently. I think that’s really the thing… We hire at an institution like this with teaching being the first priority, teaching and collegiality” - Math Department Chair

21. Components of the Calculus Program • Placement • Coordination • Culture • Regular auditing and review of programs

22. Placement • MAA test, implemented last year, increased Calc 1 pass rate from 78% to 89%. C- or higher in Calc II went from 82.2% to 91.4%. • Taken spring of Senior year, results are sent to freshman scheduler, everyone must take placement exam (even AP students). • It is rare to start in Calc 2 even with AP pass. • They also changed passing from D- to C-.

23. Placement Both of these changes were welcomed by the client disciplines even though it slows some students advancement through the programs.

24. Placement “One of the things that the placement test has done is it’s made it ok to take precalculus. When I first taught it, I had nine students in precalculus. Teaching that class was horrible since all the students felt like it was shameful and they were embarrassed. Now we have two classes of 30 and it’s wonderful.” - Calculus Instructor – Math Prof.

25. Coordination • Shared book (Hughes-Hallett) • Common syllabus • Some common quizzes • Common homework (computational WebWork) Despite this, teachers retain a lot of autonomy (in material presentation and selection of homework problems from a collaborative problem bank)

26. Coordination “In the past, when we’ve had adjuncts that [calculus coordinator] was an important role. But now it’s mostly about the mechanics of coordinating the sections. Making sure we roll out those common quizzes, some common questions on the final, that sort of thing…just having meetings so people can share what is going on.” -Math Department Chair

27. Culture • Frequent informal conversations and semi-regular meetings • Extreme office hour availability (regular encouragement in class, come in to get your test) • At all levels teaching is top priority – even Deans must teach

28. Culture • Small size of institution allowed for informal communication (at the lunch room and in halls) • Faculty are encouraged to develop new classes to support students – a new bio-calc course was developed last year after biology reduced calc requirements to just one course

29. Culture “From what she's mentioned in the class, and the few times I’ve seen her in office hours, it seems like they’re like a little math family. They’re a little math community. Everyone’s always talking... I’ve seen them go into other people's rooms and you hear like laughing coming down the hallway sometimes.” - Calculus Student

30. Regular Auditing & Review of Programs Regular auditing and review of programs that are taken seriously and results in initiatives that actually happen • Freshman retention • Teaching and Learning Collaborative

31. Regular Auditing & Review of Programs “The Collaborative was created as part of this new strategic plan that was developed last year…When the old strategic plan runs out, one must have a new one.” “Simultaneously with the strategic plan there was a retention study that was underway to change our retention from the high 80’s from freshman to sophomore to above 90 percent. Part that of that recommendation which was now moved into the strategic plan was that we should have this Teaching and Learning collaborative” - Dean of the Graduate School & Director of Teaching and Learning Collaborative

32. Freshman Support System Faculty sends lists of students who have missed class or done bad on exams These students then have a meeting with the FRC director to get services like tutoring, peer mentoring Generally meet with 50% of the freshman on an individual basis at some point

33. Freshman Support System “Because of our freshman resource center, which is excellent, we look out for students who either are struggling academically or you can just tell aren’t really fitting in…We try to be pretty aware of that early on and let Belinda know. Hey this is a student of concern and here is why. And Belinda is great about following up with that.” - Another Calculus Instructor – Math Prof.

34. Resources & Administrative Support • Very little negative pressure from administration (small number of administrators pushing enrollment and class sizes up) • Supportive of innovation • Create initiatives and committees to deal with issues (like the freshman retention committee that spurred placement exam) • Dean pushes back against class size increases

35. Resources & Administrative Support “Certainly our Dean is very concerned about making sure we have the resources we need to deliver a quality [course] for students.” “There’s been speculation through the grapevine, rumors, about various comments the provost has made which indicate that maybe he doesn’t understand entirely the value of what we are doing for students. Commenting to an outside evaluator once about calculus being a four hours course and why couldn’t it be three. Can’t we bore them in three hours just as well?” - Calculus Coordinator

36. Supports and Communication • Communication between faculty and freshman resource center • Communication between faculty placement person and scheduling personnel • Limited communication between department and client disciplines • Chair and Dean provide support and a buffer between the calculus faculty and any negative pressure from upper administration

37. Takeaways • Very collegial environment • Strong persistent effort (and support) to improve teaching • Dedication to student learning and general student support (“life coaching”) • Very little tension from administration or funding issues (limited to recent enrollment increases)

38. Next Steps • Can we verify that these are characteristics of the program? • Can we determine whether these characteristics (and others) actually account for the success of the program(s)? • Questions: • Given the data set we have (interviews and surveys), to what extent can we address these questions? • What kind of analytic approaches might be promising?

39. Thanks!