AND ITS EFFECT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

piloted a modeling-based approach to college algebra. This paper de-scribes the course and an assessment that was conducted to determine the effect of this approach on student achievement in comparison to a traditional approach to college algebra. The results show that com-pared with their counterparts in the traditional sections, students in the model-based approach had a higher success rate in the college al-gebra course; performed better on common final exam questions; per-formed less well in a subsequent precalculus course and slightly better in a subsequent business mathematics applications course. Overall, by the end of the following semester, the percentage of students who enrolled in the modeling course and successfully completed college algebra and a subsequent course required for their majors was signif-icantly larger than the corresponding percentage of students in the traditional sections