College in the High School: An Alternative Remediation Model

Abstract

Students entering post-secondary education in the United States are required to enroll in remedial mathematics courses at alarming rates (Chen, 2016), and only 1 in 4 complete these required courses that act as “gatekeeper” to college-level mathematics (Bahr, 2008). In an effort to close a perceived “gap” between secondary and post-secondary education as well as remove the systematic barrier that traditional mathematics remediation has become for students transitioning to post-secondary education, an alternative model is proposed. The course that is the subject of this instrumental case study was offered as a preparatory semester before students completed College Algebra as a concurrent course at their large suburban high school in a southern plains state. Data collection included the teacher’s reflection journal, course documents, student work, and student interviews. Analysis of these data revealed the course to have three defining characteristics, which were a mathematical community of practice, problem-centered learning, and writing, and describes the impact each had on the class itself and the perceptions students had about how these characteristics impacted their learning.