Success in English and
Math
by Repeater Status
Office of Institutional Research and Planning
Drs. Amber Machamer & Nicole Holthuis
December, 2009
Background/Methodology
 This
report is at the request of math faculty
on the basic skills committee
 Math faculty would like to know more
about the number and performance of
repeating students in basic skills courses
 We ran enrollments and grades for basic
skills courses and tagged students who
had prior enrollment in the course in any
form (A/B, X/Y, regular)
Percentage of Students Enrolled by Repeater Status:
English
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
13%
8%
87%
92%
104
100A
% of Non-Repeaters
18%
82%
100B
% of Repeaters
Percentage of Students Enrolled by Repeater
Status: Math
100%
12%
22% 21%
80%
33% 31%
48% 43% 53%
30% 34%
46%
39%
52%
60%
40%
88%
78% 79%
67% 69%
20%
52% 57% 47%
70% 66%
54% 61% 48%
% of Non-Repeaters
% of Repeaters
55
B
55
A
55
Y
55
X
55
65
B
65
A
65
Y
65
X
65
10
7X
10
7Y
10
7
0%
Enrollments
 The
proportion of Repeater students in
English basic skills courses is less than in
Math courses.
 Both English and Math have fewer
Repeaters in the beginning course of he
sequence (Eng 100A, Math 107)
 Repeaters are more likely to be enrolled in
the “split” courses (Eng 100B, Math 55/65
Y, A/B).
English Success by Repeater Status
100%
1%
12%
14%
8%
10%
19%
90%
14%
13%
11%
21%
19%
11%
9%
13%
28%
16%
7%
11%
80%
9%
20%
70%
30%
29%
21%
60%
30%
Withdrawal
50%
Non-success
Success
40%
79%
80%
79%
71%
80%
76%
78%
66%
30%
59%
57%
57%
42%
20%
10%
0%
Fall 08 Spring 09 Fall 08 Spring 09 Fall 08 Spring 09 Fall 08 Spring 09 Fall 08 Spring 09 Fall 08 Spring 09
104 (352) 104 (339) 100A
100A 100B (70) 100B (80) 104 (29) 104 (71) 100A (7) 100A (15) 100B (23) 100B (9)
(149)
(108)
Non-Repeater
Repeater
English
Repeaters generally have a lower success
rate in each of the English basic skills
courses. However, they make up a small
percentage of the total enrollment.
Math 107 Success by Repeater
100%
90%
21%
25%
80%
70%
60%
30%
14%
32%
45%
25%
16%
17%
50%
18%
13%
81%
49%
61%
41%
44%
37%
40%
20%
11%
11%
10%
50%
30%
19%
0%
77%
56%
47%
42%
83%
22%
75%
59%
0%
28%
10%
41%
0
0%
Fall 08
107 (96)
Spring 09
Fall 08
Spring 09
Fall 08
Spring 09
Fall 08
Spring 09
107 (72) 107X (63) 107X (60) 107Y (21) 107Y (35)
107 (4)
107 (19)
Non-Repeat ers
Success
Fall 08
Spring 09
107X (18) 107X (17) 107Y (9)
Repeat ers
Non-success
Fall 08
Withdrawal
Spring 09
107Y (6)
Math 107’s
 Some
of the sections have too few
repeaters to clearly discern a trend.
 In
those courses with a good number of
repeaters they generally have a lower
success rate than ‘new’ students.
 Repeaters
in Math 107’s make up about
20% of the total enrollment, which is much
smaller than with math 55 and 65.
17%
17%
41%
Non-Repeaters
15%
30%
53%
14%
46% 47%
33%
10%
60%
21%
Repeaters
Spring 09 55B (11)
64%
Fall 08 55B (0)
7%
83%
25%
Spring 09 55A (15)
17%
31% 28%
Fall 08 55A (12)
33%
16%
Spring 09 55Y (17)
40%
50%
Fall 08 55Y 21)
60%
Spring 09 55X (28)
36% 37%
50%
Fall 08 55X (26)
23%
Spring 09 55 (177)
27%
8%
Fall 08 55 (148)
11%
Spring 09 55B (12)
50%
Fall 08 55B (0)
70%
41%
Spring 09 55A (19)
20%
46%
Fall 08 55A (24)
80%
Spring 09 55Y (29)
14%
Fall 08 55Y (15)
49%
Spring 09 55X (35)
49%
Fall 08 55X (69)
60%
23%
Spring 09 55 (318)
90%
Fall 08 55 (436)
Math 55's Success by Repeater Status
100%
8%
48%
41%
20%
18%
20%
27%
28% 20%
25%
Withdrawal
5%
58%
Non-success
35%
Success
74%
48%
55%
35%
24%
17%
0%
Math 55’s
 In
general Math 55 repeaters have lower
success rates.
 This
is not as pronounced in Math 55
section as it is in some of the 55 X/Y or
A/B sections
Non-Repeaters
16%
19% 22%
29% 30% 32% 24%
56%
Repeaters
21%
18%
22% 64%
41%
50% 45%
22%
Spring 09 65B (7)
38%
33%
Fall 08 65B (11)
56% 53%
50%
60%
Spring 09 65A (18)
16%
Fall 08 65A (14)
40%
15% 32%
47%
Spring 09 65Y (9)
11%
42% 47%
100%
Fall 08 65Y (17)
9%
46% 50%
Spring 09 65X (25)
20% 67%
28%
Fall 08 65X (34)
30%
46%
39%
Spring 09 65 (171)
10%
29%
Fall 08 65 (120)
23%
20%
41%
Spring 09 65B (13)
70%
Fall 08 65B (3)
59%
17%
Spring 09 65A (17)
17%
Fall 08 65A (25)
20%
35% 33%
Spring 09 65Y (22)
90%
Fall 08 65Y (6)
50%
Spring 09 65X (51)
70%
Fall 08 65X (80)
60%
Spring 09 65 (223)
80%
Fall 08 65 (362)
Math 65's Success by Repeater Status
100%
14%
27%
57%
17% 27%
Withdraw
12%
Non-suc
23% 18%
Success
29%
14%
0%
Math 65’s
 Math
65 repeaters are much less likely to
succeed
 The
data is not as compelling for Math 65
X where repeaters may do better then new
students
 Rates
for Math A/B do not show a trend
Summary
 The
proportion of repeaters in Eng does
not seem to be a significant problem
 Repeaters in Math 107 are less of a
problem than they are in Math 55/65
 Math’s Y, A, B have higher proportion of
repeaters than regular 55/65 sections
 In most cases repeaters have less
success than non-repeaters
Summary
 Different
versions of Math courses have
different compositions of repeaters and
different success rates-Many students who
need to repeat a course choose the A/BX/Y option
 In some cases trends are difficult to
discern