Mathematics bars many students from beginning a college program, as evidenced in community college developmental mathematics. In community colleges, over 60% of incoming students who fail a placement test are placed into developmental mathematics; 70% of these students never pass developmental mathematics and, therefore, never begin their college-level program. However, many of the skills tested to determine which students need developmental mathematics are unrelated to the mathematics needed in their desired careers. The mathematical skills needed to be hired in students’ desired careers are determined by the employers who do the hiring. The primary purpose of this study is to understand and describe the mathematics valued by employers of graduates of business and information systems Associate in Applied Science (AAS) two-year programs. Employer-valued mathematics skills are those skills employers identify as being needed by graduates they would hire. A secondary purpose of the study is to develop an alternative career-focused path based on employer-valued mathematics skills, which includes a college-level mathematics course, a corresponding developmental mathematics course, and a corresponding placement test. The data collection methods employed for this ethnographic case study include notes taken at employers’ Advisory Board meetings, online survey, and focus group interviews. The major results of this study are not one Accuplacer Elementary Algebra placement test question was selected as needed by at least 50% of the employers who participated in this study. Correspondingly, not one learning outcome of the developmental mathematics course into which students who fail Accuplacer Elementary Algebra are placed was selected as needed by the employers. Skills that are valued by the employers that are not currently taught in the required mathematics courses include collaborate well with a team, create projects in Excel, recognize unreasonable results before they are disseminated, and clearly communicate mathematically based decisions to others. These results, plus consideration of prerequisite skills for employer-valued mathematical skills, are the basis for the recommended career-focused path that emerged from this case study.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Mathematics Education
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Business mathematics
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Mathematics
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Mathematics--Study and teaching (Higher)
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_6770
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (xii, 398 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ed.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Loretta M. Grisi-Dicker
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School of Education Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001500001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.