Improving Students’ College Math Readiness: A Review of the Evidence on Postsecondary Interventions and Reforms
By Michelle Hodara
A major challenge facing students as they pursue a postsecondary degree is a lack of academic preparedness for college-level coursework and, in particular, college-level math. This CAPSEE working paper reviews the research on the effectiveness of strategies that seek to improve the math preparedness and success of high school students entering college. These include assessing students’ math skills in high school using college placement exams; providing math bridges, boot camps, and brush-ups before students start college; reforming developmental math sequences; and improving instruction in developmental and college-level math courses.
To evaluate the evidence, the author reports on each study’s design and findings. The author also calculates each intervention’s effect size and category of the size in order to compare impacts across the studies under review.
