Whether it's inappropriate placement, misaligned content, or long course sequences, postsecondary mathematics is a barrier to degree completion for millions of students. In this webinar, Aligning Math Pathways to Improve Outcomes, Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow, Senior Research Associate at MDRC, discusses ways to break down these barriers. Topics discussed include:
- Findings from an RCT evaluation of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP), which revises college math courses to align with students intended careers
- The implementation of revised course content and instruction, their contrast with colleges’ traditional math courses; and students’ perspectives of these courses;
- The impact of the DCMP on students’ completion of their developmental education requirements and first college-level math courses.
Download the presentation here.
Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow, Ed.D., M.Div.
Senior Research Associate, MDRC
Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow is a lead in MDRC’s research on developmental education, adult basic education, and GED preparation. She is the director of several projects including a random assignment evaluation of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways and a descriptive study examining developmental education assessment as part of the IES-funded Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness. She is also the lead of a scan of promising adult basic education programs in California that help better prepare low-skilled adults and disconnected youth for college and careers. She has authored numerous reports analyzing the promising programs for increasing postsecondary completion and success, including two literature reviews analyzing the most promising reforms in developmental and adult education, based on the results of rigorous research (Unlocking the Gate and Beyond the GED) and a commissioned paper for the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine promising developmental math reforms. Before joining MDRC in 2007, Zachry Rutschow worked as a researcher and teacher in adult literacy education and served as a doctoral fellow for three years at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is also a specialist in reading instruction and taught numerous adult basic education and GED courses. She holds a masters and EdD in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Master’s of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School.
