Claire Cole / 11.18.2011
Taylor Kapser says she wasn’t worried when she first saw the course “College Algebra” appear on her schedule. After all, it’s a mathematics course commonly taught in high schools across the nation.
But College Algebra isn’t what it sounds like here at MU.
“The first week people told me, ‘Why are you taking that?’ because apparently it’s one of the most failed-out classes at Mizzou or the most dropped, at least,” Kasper said. “I had to add to the statistic and drop it.”
Kapser wasn’t the only one who bowed out early. Statistics obtained from the registrar’s office show that the drop rate of College Algebra far exceeds that of similarly basic undergraduate courses. For the current fall semester, two hundred sixty-seven (267) students dropped the class without a grade.
That’s a drop rate of 17.1 percent, which is two to three times greater than all the other courses it was compared to. The next highest drop rate came from another required course—Statistics 1200—and that drop rate stands at 10.4 percent. MU professor Teri Christiansen, the coordinator of the course, said the problem may simply lie in students not attending office hours.
“Always should be coming to more office hours if we can get them in. That’s one problem especially with freshmen. They’re very reluctant to come or they just don’t understand how office hours work,” Christiansen said.
Kasper, however, doesn’t feel that that’s the only problem.
“I went in for a lot of help…I went to tutoring every Monday and Wednesday for at least an hour, got help there, went to all the review sessions, all that stuff…talked to my teachers, sent emails, and nothing really helped,” Kasper said.
Christiansen also cites the computer program that goes with the course, MyMathLab, as a source of frustration for students.
“I think some students do struggle a bit because it’s a computer system and precision is of the utmost importance,” Christiansen said. “But with the ability to rework problems, essentially every student has the chance the chance to get 100% on every assignment because they can just keep doing them until they get them right.”
Freshman Rebecca Wilson claims that it’s more than a learning curve that gives students like her trouble. She said she runs into problems when she completes assignments for the additional online program.
“The material we do in class I understand completely. I can keep up. I know what I’m doing. It’s pretty easy,” Wilson said. “Then, I go home to MyMathLab, and I go to do the homework and it’s the material, but at an advanced level that only someone in a higher math like would be able to handle.”
All this adds up to a lot of time spent on her homework. Wilson can even keep track of the specific hours, since the program records how long a student is using it. Wilson said she has worked for 52 hours during the eight weeks of the course, which adds up to two full days– and then some.
The problems evident in this situation could be part of a larger national trend. As reported in a recent New York Times article, the United States has fallen behind other countries in the education of science, technology, and engineering, and mathematics. This deficiency has been combated by President Obama’s
“Educate to Innovate” campaign, which aims to inspire students to be passionate about such subjects.
The same article stated that the Association of American Universities announced in September that schools should look for more interactive ways to teach important concepts in these fields. Whatever the reason for College Algebra’s substantial drop rate, Christiansen said the Mathematics Department will continue to strive to help students succeed.
“We always take that feedback into account and try and improve every semester and cross our fingers someday we’ll find the magic bullet to get every student to pass,” Christiansen said. I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but we work at it really hard.”
