Book Description

This dissertation in practice (DIP), responsive evaluation (RE) explored relationships of the Faulkner Academic Math Excellence (FAME) Laboratory characteristics and specific perceptions of students enrolled in developmental mathematics education courses at a rural community college in Alabama's southeastern region. This program evaluation examined information surrounding the effectiveness of the FAME Lab program and service activities housed within a two-year community college. The study explored perceptions of students within a community college developmental mathematics education program relative to three areas of focus: (a) students' expressed access and use of the FAME Lab program services, (b) students' perceptions of the influence of the FAME Lab program services relative to academic performance levels, and (c) students' perceived value of the FAME Lab program relative to successes in developmental math courses. The researcher performed an extensive review of the literature and identified a critical problem of low numbers of students successfully completing developmental mathematics courses among colleges across the United States as a pervasive challenge, uniquely identified within community colleges and evidenced by 96% of colleges across the country requiring remediation courses, primarily in mathematics (Butrymowicz, 2017). The participants in the study were community college developmental education students and faculty of the community college. A potential limitation of this study includes researcher bias. The magnitude of the problem identified in the literature provided the impetus for the investigation and aligned with the nature of the meaning and purpose for using the DIP, explicitly recognizing an existing problem in practice and performing a study aligned with the need acknowledged by the problem in practice. The Faulkner Academic Math Excellence (FAME) Laboratory program exemplifies and aligns with the type of intervention programs reflective of the remediation programs that colleges across the United States are utilizing to curb or remedy the problem of low numbers of students successfully completing developmental mathematics courses. The researcher communicated with the Vice-President of Instruction and the Math Division Chair and received approval to conduct the DIP study. The researcher created a questionnaire for the student participants and conducted a RE of the FAME Lab program to respond to the problem defined for investigation. The current study provided a practitioner approach to examining the problem by incorporating the use of the RE model (Stake, 2014) to discern the problem within a focused setting, explicitly utilizing the FAME Lab program within a two-year college located in the southeastern region of the United States. The use of the RE protocol provided the researcher with strategies to inform results focused on three areas of consideration: (a) the examination of program activities rather than program goals or intents; (b) the acquisition of students' needs, reactions, and information rather than college leaders' intentions or purposes; and (c) the reporting of differing perspectives in determining the success and failure of the program. Based on the researcher's critical use of the RE protocol, a 12-step implementation plan for the FAME Lab program to assist students in attaining success within developmental mathematics was provided to college officials and are is provided for consideration by other developmental math programs at colleges across the United States. These 12 considerations, presented in Chapter 5, coupled with additional discussions of study results, add to the body of literature supporting students' preparation for entering college mathematics programs, a practitioner problem pervasive in colleges across the United States. The study will inform and advance the professional practice by informing the implementation of developmental mathematics education for students who do not complete developmental mathematics courses successfully.