Identifying item and attribute associations with course outcomes in gateway mathematics courses

This study seeks to understand how students transition to higher education mathematics courses, gain access to gateway mathematics courses, expectations of mathematical preparation, and success rates in such courses. The crux revolves around placement policies, placement mechanisms, and corequisite courses. This thesis considers the history, goals, challenges, and best practices for institutions that are implementing or evaluating placement programs, and the impact on students. These studies investigate the following topics: the extent to which mathematical background knowledge predicts mathematics course outcomes, to what extent course outcomes are different for corequisite college algebra students, and the effect of student status (first generation, underrepresented minority, low socioeconomic status) on mathematics course outcomes. The population studied is primarily incoming first year students at the University of Illinois. The findings indicate that (a) mathematical background knowledge (as measured by ALEKS PPL) does predict course outcomes and course outcomes improved with higher placement exam scores; (b) difference in course outcomes are nonsignificant for the corequisite college algebra students; and (c) some subpopulations of students taking college algebra at Illinois are at greater risk of nonsuccess. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.U of I OnlyAuthor requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD syste