STUDENT SUCCESS: DO FIRST-TIME, FULL TIME (FTFT) STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI ENROLLED IN INTERMEDIATE MATH (DS 099) EARN HIGHER GRADES IN COLLEGE ALGEBRA (MATH 121) THAN THOSE STUDENTS WHO ENROLLED DIRECTLY IN COLLEGE ALGEBRA?

Critics of developmental studies suggest that remedial courses may negatively influence a student’s program selection, persistence, and completion because remedial classes do not count toward graduation requirements (Long & Boatman, 2013). They have also found that over half of the students referred to remediation do not complete the courses (Clayton, Crosta, & Belfield, 2014; Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010). The number is even lower for minority students (Bailey, 2010). Using pre-existing data collected from the Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning at the University of Mississippi, an independent sample t-test and correlation analysis were conducted to examine the outcomes for students enrolled in remedial math. The researcher looked at the grades (GPA) of two groups of students who enrolled in college algebra with a Math ACT subscore of 17 or 18. The first group was first-time, full-time students who nrolled directly in college algebra. The second group was first-time, full-time students who enrolled in college algebra after completing developmental math. The findings for this study included results from the descriptive data and two research questions and hypotheses. The findings for the first research question revealed that there is a significant difference in the grades earned in Math 121 for the students who completed DS 099 compared to the grades earned in DS 099 for the students who did not take college algebra. On the other hand, the findings for the second research question revealed that there is a low correlation between the grade earned in DS 099 and the grade earned in Math 121 because 0.453 is a low correlation, according to Hinkle et al. (2003, p.109)