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Purpose:

To define the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to succeed in the first year of college mathematics. To make this information available to all aspects of the educational endeavor: students, parents, teachers, advisors, and educational policy makers.

Definition of Success:

A student is successful in the first year of college mathematics if the following three conditions are met:

1. The student is prepared for the first college mathematics course required by the student’s choice of major or interest area.
2. The student completes each mathematics course attempted during the freshman year with a grade of C or better.
3. The student is able to transfer knowledge gained in the mathematics course(s) into other courses, particularly into courses of the major.

The overwhelming consideration is that mathematical skill, or the lack thereof, should not be the determining factor in the choice of major or career.

Why you should be concerned:

• Lack of appropriate mathematics preparation greatly restricts the choice of major or career.
• Decisions made as early as those concerning prealgebra in middle school can harm a student’s college performance.

Recommendations for Success:

1. Calculus preparation makes available the widest choice of study areas and career possibilities.
2. The need to take algebra and/or precalculus in college is considered to be a disadvantage.
3. In high school, Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and Precalculus are the minimal requirements necessary for success in college mathematics regardless of major.
4. Study skills, test taking abilities, and technology experiences affect each student’s performance.
5. A broader mathematical understanding, learned from economics, physics, chemistry, and other courses, contributes to success.
6. Courses which emphasize conceptual skills along with calculation skills provide the most benefit to students.
7. Students should have experience with technology before reaching college.

These recommendations also apply to non-traditional students with appropriate reentry into a traditional sequence.

General strategies for learning also apply:

• Early advising is critical to achieving success – even as early as middle school.
• Students need to know how to study for and take comprehensive final exams. Exemptions from final exams are detrimental to success in college study, and particularly in college mathematics.
• Advisors play a significant role in creating an intellectual environment where learning, problem solving and achievement are valued.
• Classes which encourage the transfer of material across disciplines and specific course boundaries aid the student greatly in college.
• Never should the student be scheduled in high school courses so that more than one semester passes without enrollment in a mathematics course.
• Reading skills inadequate to understand or work with modeling problems hinder the learning of mathematics and the ability to connect mathematics to other disciplines.
• Excessive time spent on testing to address "accountability" or "assessment" issues removes additional time from the learning /teaching process.
• Homework is a critical part of learning and retaining information.
• Students should be encouraged at all times to give schoolwork a priority over employment in after-school jobs or extra-curricular activities.

These recommendations apply to all disciplines whose structure requires the use of previously learned information.

The report in its entirety contains information regarding content recommendations, technology recommendations, teaching and environmental issues, and teacher training recommendations. Interested persons are encouraged to obtain a copy either on the Internet or by mail. Copies should also be housed in college and high school libraries.

Committee:

Mary B. Martin, Chair, Winthrop University
Roger Allen, Francis Marion University
Eddie Brown, Burkett CPA’s
Charles Cleaver, The Citadel
Lin Dearing, Clemson University
Ron Goolsby, Winthrop University
Hugh Haynsworth, College of Charleston
John Long, Midlands Technical College
Mary Ellen O’Leary, University of South Carolina at Columbia
Julia Robbins, Rock Hill School District III
Suzie Schembri, Northwestern High School, Rock Hill
Wade Sherard, Furman University
Chris Tisdale, Winthrop University
Jane Upshaw, American Management Association
Keith Wilks, Rock Hill High School, Rock Hill

Funded by a grant from the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (based upon Act 359) as part of the "Great Expectations" Project.

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Last updated: May 11, 1999
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