Exploring the Impact of a Co-Requisite Model on Academic Performance in Precalculus: Who Benefits When?

• In Event: Continuing Evolutions of Community College Developmental Education

Abstract

Since Fall 2019, California community colleges (CCCs) have devised corequisite courses in response to Assembly Bill 705. While controlling for gender, generational status, prior academic achievement level (based on high school grade point average, HSGPA), and ethnicity, this study compares the academic performance of CCC students enrolled in a STEM gateway course (precalculus) when taken with traditional versus corequisite sequencing. Statistically significant findings, coupled with effect size estimates, using whole samples, suggests a positive impact of corequisite courses on grades in just one of two CCCs. However, when investigating whether the effect of course type on grades varies by HSGPA, the results from both colleges suggest that students with lower prior achievement performed worse, on average, in corequisite precalculus courses.

Authors

• Savita Bhagi, San Joaquin Delta College

• Rachelle Kisst Hackett, University of the Pacific