Community college students may be missing out on a major opportunity to excel in their first year of college. “Gateway” courses – the first college-level course a student will take in a specific subject area– are key to student retention and completion. Only 16% of students take gateway courses in both math and English. Of those who have taken both courses, 45% graduate in three years. The student population that did not take those courses graduated at a rate of 20%. The first to second year retention rate drops by 17% and 34% if a student does not take math or English, respectively. This suggests that gateway courses are key to students staying in college and completing their degrees.
Why Gateway Courses are Important
The opportunity provided by successful gateway courses is not limited to only students who performed well in high school. Even students who performed poorly in highschool are more likely to be competitive when they enter directly into college courses. Students are shown to be three times more likely to do well if placed in college-level English and math. The key to being prepared to support all admitted students is to focus on being “student ready”-- i.e ready to meet all of the needs of all admitted students. Corequisite models of education are standard in Kentucky, and the state minimum requires corequisite education for students who have not yet met the readiness standard at university as well as ensuring all Kentucky Community and Technical College System students have access to these essential courses.
Gateway courses as a solution to institutional performance gaps are also an equity issue. Institutional performance gaps in math are in the double digits for students of color and adult learners. The largest inequities in public universities and Kentucky Community and Technical College System schools are found consistently in students of color and adult learners across the board. The Kentucky Community and Technical College System largely has less success than the public system in facilitating student completion of gateway courses in English and Math.
New priorities to facilitate gateway course success in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Student enrollment should be based on multiple measures, like grade point average, high school coursework, and subjective factors. This has been shown to increase the number of students completing gateway math and English. The most major factor in gateway course success is unsurprisingly faculty involvement and curriculum.
The highest impact strategies for student success in these courses are keeping the same teacher for college-level courses and co-requisite support, and reserving two contact hours per week for the support course. Providing culturally sensitive, historically accurate, social justice-focused examples in the curriculum is incredibly important and is referred to as “Culturally responsive teaching”. “Just-in-time” teaching is another priority– providing structured time to the student to review old material, preview new material, provide support to the student, and allow the student to build confidence. These priorities and methods are vital for making the gateway course model viable and make its benefits accessible to all students in Kentucky Community and Technical College System schools.
It is also vital to integrate gateway courses with overall student success strategies. This includes several broad topics, including helping students choose a major and career path early. The sooner students have a career and education plan, the more easily they can make sure to choose the correct courses– even, ideally, the correct gateway courses. General campus climate is also vital. If the students feel they belong and are supported on campus, the more likely they are to succeed, especially in connecting to peers and faculty. Another significant success strategy is that the university provides for a student’s basic needs when non-academic barriers come up. Research has found that all of these success strategies are multiplied in impact when combined with a focus on gateway course success strategies.
Conclusion
As evidenced, gateway courses are key for the success of students in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and beyond. Combined with other student success strategies and provided educators and administration remain attuned to diversity and student need, a focus on gateway courses offer a way to greatly increase student retention and graduation.
