About Math Pathways & MPAACT
The University of North Carolina System’s Math Pathways project originated with a desire to take a broad, thoughtful look at how students were moving through their mathematics courses of study. The statewide effort leverages the expertise of our System’s faculty, staff, and administrators to tackle the holistic and specific issues that may inhibit student success in mathematics, and supports undergraduate degree attainment. Most recently, the work was funded through an NSF grant entitled, Building Confidence through Culturally Relevant Co-requisite Mathematics Courses – UNC System Math Pathways for African American Collegiate Transformation (MPAACT). This effort focuses on classroom and pedagogy experiences, student mindsets and sense of belonging, advising and mentoring partnerships, placement practices, and faculty development. The UNC System has recently partnered again with the University of Texas, Charles A. Dana Center, the NC Department of Public Instruction, and the NC Community College System to being work aligning student learning outcomes across the three public education systems in the State. That work is expected to run through 2024-25 academic year.
Sincerely,
UNC System Math Pathways Task Force Co-Chairs & Advisory Board
Recommendations
The charge statement of the University of North Carolina System Math Pathways Task Force, adopted in April 2018, was to develop recommendations and processes that support the efforts of each UNC System institution to implement and scale mathematics pathways that yield increased student success and learning in gateway mathematics and statistics courses. In addition to the charge elements, a concerted effort was made by the Task Force to identify successful curricular and pedagogical strategies and models across the UNC System institutions and to disseminate those strategies and models to enhance student success and learning throughout the System.
INDIVIDUAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation #1: Design of Math Pathways
The Task Force recommends that each institution develop campus-specific groups of disciplinary majors (i.e., degree clusters) and create visual representations highlighting each of the following:
- available majors and degree options that can be obtained via each pathway
- the math pathway required for each of those groups of disciplinary majors
Recommendation #2: Student Support
The Task Force recommends that, using disaggregated mathematics course data, individual institutions regularly review their student support programs and adjust as needed.
Recommendation #3A-B: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Faculty Engagement
As institutions develop or refine their mathematics pathways and student support models, the Task Force recommends that each institution critically examine student learning outcomes, mathematics course content, and sequencing of courses to ensure that students’ mathematical experience is relevant and appropriate for their individual programs of study.
The Task Force recommends designing and implementing System-wide mechanisms for identifying and disseminating impactful, promising practices on the teaching, content, and delivery of lower-level undergraduate mathematics courses, including strategies for reducing disparities in student learning for diverse student groups, and on the training of faculty and graduate students to teach those courses.
Recommendation #4: Advising
The Task Force recommends that each institution critically reviews and appropriately updates advising programs (e.g., structure, policies, and processes) to ensure effective advising of students into the appropriate mathematics pathway based on students’ academic and career goals. Advising programs that have proven effective can serve as models to other institutions.
Recommendation #5: Placement
The Task Force recommends that each institution evaluate its current placement practices to determine effectiveness in initial math course placement. Each institution may consider different, and perhaps multiple, measures for each of its college-level mathematics courses, based on those measures deemed appropriate.
Recommendation #6: K-14
The Task Force recommends strengthening partnerships among educational institutions in order to: analyze data that can affect seamless movement at each transition point (e.g., high school to college; community college to university), share best practices for teaching and learning, increase availability and diversity of academic supports, and increase opportunities for 9th-12th graders to engage with academic and professional communities.
Recommendation #7: Transfer
The Task Force recommends that deliberate collaboration and communication be established to ensure more seamless and effective student transfer and course applicability between and among UNC System and NCCCS institutions.
Recommendation #8: Data and Assessment
In support of data collection and all recommendations in this report, we recommend that the UNC System Office add mechanisms by which to identify all gateway and entry-level mathematics and statistics courses in Student Data Mart and use it regularly to analyze and provide outcomes-based information to UNC System universities.
Timeline: Fall 2017 – Present
