Daytona State tops in preparing students for college-level math and reading

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 23, 2012) – For anyone who needs to bone up on reading and math skills before taking college courses, Daytona State College is the place to be.
 

The college ranks first among its 28 Florida College System counterparts in success rates for college-preparatory reading and mathematics. The success rate tallies the number of students who completed the highest level in the sequence of college-prep courses for each discipline over a three-year period (fall 2008 to spring 2011).
 
Also, the college ranked 12th in the state in college-prep writing, moving up two places from the prior reporting period, and its success rates were above state averages in all three categories:

 

College Prep Discipline	DSC Average	State Average
Reading	89.8 percent	74.2 percent
Writing	73.2 percent	69 percent
Mathematics	84.9 percent	55.9 percent

Developmental courses (college-prep) are required for all students who do not score minimums on the college placement test in reading, writing and mathematics. During the most recent reporting year, 58.18 percent of Daytona State’s first-time-in-college students were required to take at least one developmental course. System-wide it was 63.59 percent.  
 
It’s the third consecutive year Daytona State ranked first in mathematics. In college-prep math, it has held a top-three ranking since 2005.
 
“The success of our developmental math students is due to several proactive steps the department has taken in recent years,” said Mathematics Department Chair Marc Campbell.  Those steps include:

• A vast majority of coursework is done in class with the instructor, making work more meaningful, allowing for immediate feedback and keeping students on task.
• Traditional instruction is supplemented with video instruction, allowing students to work in small groups based on their abilities, fostering active learning, collaboration and consistency.
• Students must attend a mandatory one-and-a-half-hour lab in the Academic Support Center each week, where they work with full-time faculty, adjunct instructors and professional tutors, using software designed by faculty to supplement classroom instruction.
• Customized textbooks are used, which allow faculty to select, delete and rearrange specific topics relevant to their courses; combine materials from multiple textbooks in order to create more interactive and dynamic course materials; and reduce textbook costs.
• Standardized tests, midterms and final exams provide for more consistency across all course sections.
• Combined, the Florida College System had an enrollment of 903,846 students in college and vocational preparatory courses during 2010-2011, with Daytona State’s share at 37,119, according to the Florida Department of Education Fact Book.

The success of students in developmental programs appears to be carrying over to Daytona State’s graduation rates, which increased from 38 percent in the 2009-2010 academic year to 40.3 percent in 2010-2011. This measure also surpassed the state average, which stood at 37.8 percent in the most recent reporting period.
 
Campbell said, in the case of mathematics, these graduations rates are directly tied to the restructuring of the discipline’s developmental program. “A lot of the things we have put in place are now showing up in our performance measures,” he said.

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