POLICY BRIEF - Impact Findings from the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways Long-Term Follow-Up Study

Oct 15, 2026

Large numbers of community college students are deemed unprepared for college-level mathematics and are often routed into non-credit developmental course sequences. This policy brief reports findings from a rigorous long-term follow-up of an early Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model version. After five years, DCMP showed sustained impact on successful completion of the first college-level math course (+5.6 percentage points), while no discernible effects emerged for credential completion. Results inform current math pathways and developmental reforms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

What We Studied

How We Analyzed the Data

What We Discovered

Education Research Center [www.texaserc.utexas.edu](www.texaserc.utexas.edu) POLICY BRIEF Impact Findings from the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways Long-Term Follow-Up Study Susan Sepanik March 18, 2024 The conclusions of this research do not necessarily reflect the opinion or official position of the Texas Education Research Center, the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Texas Workforce Commission, or the State of Texas. Executive Summary Large numbers of students entering community colleges are deemed not academically prepared for college-level math. These students have historically been assigned to one or more non-credit-bearing courses for remedial math instruction before they can take college-level courses. Research has found that most students assigned to traditional developmental math course sequences never complete those sequences nor attain a credential. The Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model was created in 2011 to better support the needs of these students. The early version of DCMP implemented in this study diversified developmental and college-level math course content, separating it into distinct pathways that better align with students’ career interests including a statistics pathway for students majoring in social and health sciences and a quantitative reasoning pathway for students majoring in the humanities. It also streamlined the developmental math sequence so that students were prepared to advance to any math pathway after only one semester, even students who tested two or more levels below college-ready in math. It also included curriculum and classroom instructional practices that engaged students in active problem solving pertinent to real-life situations, and provided academic and social supports for students that were both integrated into the developmental math courses and aligned with other college services. This brief highlights the findings from a rigorous long-term follow-up study of an early version of the DCMP model. The study found that the model had a sustained impact on students’ successful completion of their first college-level math course of 5.6 percentage points after five years. This impact on college-level math completion did not lead to discernible effects on credential completion, however. Since the launch of this early version of DCMP, the Dana Center has continued to refine and update the model over time and the findings in this study do not reflect the effects of the current version ofthe DCMP model. The findings do offer some insights that may inform the current implementation of math pathways and other developmental math reforms. Please see here for more information on the study and findings. What We Studied Community colleges have been struggling for decades to better support the large number of students entering college who are deemed academically underprepared for college-level work in math. Historically, these students have been required to take and pay for a sequence of one to three or more semester-length non-credit-bearing courses, referred to as developmental math courses, before moving on to college-level math. By the early 2000s, 59 percent of students entering two-year institutions were taking at least one developmental math course and students of color and students from lower-income backgrounds were more likely than their White and higher-income peers to take these courses.i Unfortunately, this policy has not been successful in supporting underprepared students. Research has found that most students identified for traditional developmental math education never completed their developmental sequence nor completed any college-level math credits, leaving them unable to attain a credential.ii How We Analyzed the Data A rigorous randomized controlled trial (RCT) of this early version of DCMP was launched in 2014 at four Texas colleges.iii It found that DCMP had a positive impact on students’ comple

FAQs

What problem does the DCMP model address in community colleges?

It targets students who are deemed academically underprepared for college-level mathematics and who historically must complete non-credit developmental math sequences before progressing.

How was the early version of DCMP evaluated?

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) launched in 2014 at four Texas colleges assigned 1,411 students across four cohorts from fall 2015 through spring 2017.

What were the long-term results after five years?

Students offered DCMP were 5.6 percentage points more likely to complete their first college-level math course by the fifth year, with no discernible effects on credential completion reported.

Oct 15, 2026

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