Quality Enhancement Plan
Florence-Darlington Technical College
Abstract
In order to create a long-term, positive impact upon student learning in mathematics, thereby enabling students' fulfillment of educational and career goals, Florence-Darlington Technical College has launched a Quality Enhancement Plan entitled “Calculate This!” The QEP is an ongoing plan of continuous improvement that will be monitored and reviewed by the QEP Oversight Committee on a regular basis. The development of a QEP is a new compliance standard that has been established by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
The mission of Florence-Darlington Technical College is “to provide comprehensive technical education, workforce development, and educational services to students, business & industry, and the markets it serves.” Chief among strategic goals to fulfill this mission is transformation of the learning environment “from the traditional instructional approach into a flexible, customer-oriented learning environment emphasizing certifications, work experience credit, competency-based outcomes, self-paced, individualized instruction, and the infusion of technology into programs of study”
The stated goal of the QEP (“to increase student knowledge of course competencies in remedial and prerequisite math courses”) and the definition of student learning that guides it (“the achievement of competence in the knowledge, skills, and behavior necessary to attain defined educational goals”) relate to the College Mission and Strategic Goal by directly addressing a major barrier to student success: failure to demonstrate competencies in remedial and prerequisite math courses. Mathematics was chosen as the initial focus because these courses have significantly higher enrollment than other remedial or prerequisite courses and have a low course completion rate.
The QEP consists of several goals. The primary goal is to increase student knowledge of course competencies in remedial and prerequisite mathematics courses. Additionally, as a result of measuring the increase in student learning, secondary goals pertaining to student outputs will be achieved.
- Secondary Goal 1: to increase the course completion rate in remedial/prerequisite math classes by at least 5%. Achieving this goal will decrease the proportion of students who repeat a remedial/prerequisite math course, thus resulting in a higher proportion of students reaching curriculum courses sooner
- Secondary Goal 2: to increase the course completion rate of students in curriculum math courses who took the prerequisite math course by at least 5%.
- Secondary Goal 3: to maintain or increase the average on the final/exit exam of each remedial and prerequisite course.
The Mathematics and Technology Hub approach combines traditional class lecture with interactive technology and guided instruction in a supervised laboratory environment. Students attend one hour of lecture and three hours of lab and participate in a one-on-one communication hour each week. It is important to note that one significant difference between the Hub classes and traditional classes is the mastery of material. In the Hub, a student must always demonstrate mastery of the material before the student is allowed to progress to a new concept. It is the mastery of the mathematics that ensures that student learning is occurring.
In Phase II of the plan, the math hub classes will be expanded to include two sections each of Math 101 and Math 102, and ongoing data analysis will be conducted. Phase III will explore the suitability of the Hub methodology for curriculum math courses and other general education curricula.
QEP = (SS) ² This formula represents the following philosophy: If a good Quality Enhancement Plan is implemented then student success will increase exponentially.