Institutional Context
FIU’s Gateway Project responds to the well-established problem that the transition from high school to higher education is fraught with challenges, and that first-year student retention is highly correlated with graduation. These challenges are heightened for students from traditionally underserved groups, and further compounded for first-generation college students (Scott-Clayton, 2015). Experiences in the academic realm are often the most abrupt and consequential (Erickson, 2006), confirmed by FIU analyses: As in most universities, the single greatest point in time when we lose students is from the first to second year, and the largest reason for dropout after the first year is poor academic performance. Our 2nd-year retention rate of 80% means that 1 in 5 freshmen who started the previous fall do not return, and most do not graduate. Passing gateway courses predicts retention: Students who passed all of their gateway courses had retention rates up to 42% higher than those who failed multiple courses.
The Gateway Project target population comprises all students who enroll in the gateway courses on which we have focused our efforts.
The Gateway Project target population comprises all students who enroll in the gateway courses on which we have focused our efforts.
From 2012 to 2015, nearly 100% of freshmen took at least one Gateway Project course, for approximately 18,600 course enrollments per year for freshmen classes of about 4,300 students. Students took an average of 4 gateway courses in their first year. Our analyses, in turn, focus on First-Time-In-College (FTIC) freshmen in their first year of school, and their first attempt at a course. Between 2012 and 2015, nearly 17,000 FTIC students took our gateway courses. It is important to add that, given that 80% of our students are from underrepresented backgrounds, our project also represents a model for responding to pervasive gaps in gateway course performance (Koch, 2017). The key outcome selected for improvement is the 1st to 2nd-year retention rate, particularly when compared to our Florida high research activity peer institutions.
Goals & Objectives
With a focus on the application of teaching and learning research and continuous reflection, the Gateway Project aims to improve student learning and performance by
- reducing the number of courses first-year students fail;
- identifying student’s perceptions, experiences and behaviors associated with performance;
- supporting the redesign of gateway courses;
- promoting evidenced-based, learning centered, and culturally responsive instruction; and
- empowering faculty and varied stakeholders as partners in student success.
Project Expansion
Preceding our Gateway Project were early efforts to increase the quantity and improve the quality of science and mathematics teachers. Several funded projects required executive support including the APLU-backed Science and Math Teacher Imperative (SMTI). As FIU’s team leader in the SMTI Leadership Collaborative, then Dean of Arts & Sciences and current Provost, Dr. Kenneth J. Furton “gained a broader perspective of the national needs and the administrative challenges in creating structures to effect change.” He used this perspective to drive change by calling on a large committee of stakeholders: faculty, administrators, and faculty developers to tackle college algebra, where the failure rate had held stubbornly at 70% for about a decade. A large intervention, the Mastery Math Model, was then included in and funded by a Title V DOE grant: Project Gateways. This model began a shift in thinking from faculty-centered to student-centered instruction, and by Fall 2012 had increased passing rates in college algebra by 20%.
In 2013, FIU participated in the Gardner Institute’s Gateways to Completion Project. This entailed a self-study of five courses (General Chemistry I, General Biology I, Finite Math, Intro. to Statistics I, and Writing & Rhetoric I) by five course-specific groups—including both faculty and administrative stakeholders. In 2014, when FIU was selected to participate in the APLU, USU’s Transformational Planning Grant Project, we expanded the Gateway Project more than three-fold and began working with 17 high enrollment (>1,600), high failure (>15%), high impact (strong predictor of dropping out or delayed graduation) courses.
In October 2015, FIU was invited to participate in the APLU-USU Transformational Change Collaborative (TCC), an award that made it possible to hire a full-time gateway faculty developer and reconvene the course teams, so they could begin implementing their plans, and importantly, develop evaluation plans.
We have since facilitated 32 additional multi-day, course-specific workshops; 12 Gateway Department Chair Luncheons; facilitated cross-disciplinary exchanges on teaching and learning successes and innovations; offered grant opportunities to gateway faculty and teams; hosted Gateway Course Coordinator luncheons; and supported many individual gateway faculty in conducting course-specific research.
In 2013, FIU participated in the Gardner Institute’s Gateways to Completion Project. This entailed a self-study of five courses (General Chemistry I, General Biology I, Finite Math, Intro. to Statistics I, and Writing & Rhetoric I) by five course-specific groups—including both faculty and administrative stakeholders. In 2014, when FIU was selected to participate in the APLU, USU’s Transformational Planning Grant Project, we expanded the Gateway Project more than three-fold and began working with 17 high enrollment (>1,600), high failure (>15%), high impact (strong predictor of dropping out or delayed graduation) courses.
In October 2015, FIU was invited to participate in the APLU-USU Transformational Change Collaborative (TCC), an award that made it possible to hire a full-time gateway faculty developer and reconvene the course teams, so they could begin implementing their plans, and importantly, develop evaluation plans.
We have since facilitated 32 additional multi-day, course-specific workshops; 12 Gateway Department Chair Luncheons; facilitated cross-disciplinary exchanges on teaching and learning successes and innovations; offered grant opportunities to gateway faculty and teams; hosted Gateway Course Coordinator luncheons; and supported many individual gateway faculty in conducting course-specific research.