The Arithmetic Financial Aid Liability

At a session this week (at the National Math Summit), one comment led to some looks of surprise and follow-up discussion.  This comment dealt with the federal financial aid policies that our institutions are required to follow (if they accept any federal student aid money, which pretty much all colleges do). #ArithCollege #FinAid #NewLifeMath

Here is the basic idea:

Courses at a level below high school can not be counted to determine a student’s enrollment level (which determines their actual aid).   [See https://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1415Vol1Ch1.pdf on page 1-4]

In other words, courses primarily at the K-8 level can not be counted.  The determination of which category a given course belongs to … is left up to one of three bodies (a state legal authority, an accrediting body, or a state agency which approves vocational programs).  Two of those decision-making bodies are state level, while the other would normally be one of the regional accreditation bodies.

Perhaps you know what the determination is, within your state.  A logical assumption is that any course below the level of beginning algebra would be considered “K-8” level, and that this would include any arithmetic, basic math, or pre-algebra course.  One of the things I find interesting is that the information on this classification is very difficult to find.

In my own state (Michigan), we do not have a state legal authority for higher education; there is an office for reporting higher education data, and they do not classify remedial courses by level (K-8 or high school).  We have an agency responsible for vocational programs, but they make no determination (as far  as I can tell) about remedial course work.  Our accrediting body (HLC) does not have an answer.  In our college, our administration asked the math department to classify each course.

As remedial education remains in the spotlight, we can expect some added scrutiny based on the financial aid regulations.  Can we defend, with professional integrity, a position that a course in arithmetic or basic math or pre-algebra is ‘at the high school level’?  This is not a question of whether such courses exist in high schools; high schools offer a wide variety of courses, and some of them are below or above high school level.  The issue here is more about standards and expectations:  are students expected to have mastered arithmetic, basic math and pre-algebra before they reach the 9th grade?  From all perspectives that I am aware of, the answer is ‘yes’.

Of course, financial aid rules should not determine what courses we offer in a given college.  [Sadly, at my institution, that is exactly what happened this year.]  However, we have considerable evidence that offering courses at the K-8 level results in more damage than benefits.  Part of this evidence comes from the completion studies, which generally show single-digit completion for those who start in the K-8 math courses; this is for completion of a college-level math course within an extended period (often 3 years in the data).

Another source of evidence against offering K-8 level math courses comes from more scientific progression data.  Over a 40 year period, I’ve checked this progression data at my institution; I’ve never seen a benefit for passing a pre-algebra course prior to algebra … the data does not even show a ‘level playing field’.  Part of the problem contributing to this progression issue is that most courses in arithmetic or basic math or pre-algebra are very skill & procedure oriented.  Our courses and books focus almost exclusively on calculating answers (along with fairly routine ‘applications’), and this approach does not provide any preparation for courses which follow.

I see this as a situation where our best option is over-determined:  We should stop offering K-8 level math courses in college.

If we can justify requiring students to learn specific content from the K-8 mathematics, we should provide those in an accelerated or pre-requisite method.  My own conjecture is that there is a limited set of such content required in college, perhaps equivalent to 3 weeks of a regular course; we can use boot camps or just-in-time remediation, and get better results than our old system of separate course(s) at the K-8 level in college.

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2 Comments

• 

  By schremmer, March 16, 2016 @ 4:06 pm

  I do not understand what “K-8 level math courses” are. I have taught basic algebra to children and I have taught basic algebra to adults. No connection whatsoever.

  Using the phrase “specific content” sounds better than “math facts and skills” but where is the actual difference?

  For an adult to learn to think logically is about as different from a child learning to think logically as learning a second language is from learning one’s mother tongue.

  So far, I have seen no acknowledgment of these facts. Academia lives in la la land and fully deserves what’s coming to it. The real shame is that, as we sink, we are dragging with us both the children and the adults.

• 

  By Jack Rotman, March 16, 2016 @ 11:02 pm

  The post was directly about arithmetic and similar courses in college; the college implementations of these courses is universally at a procedural level (compared to the K-8 curriculum which involves some attempts at understanding) … I suggest that our college courses are weaker than the corresponding K-8 work.

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