[EDEQUITY] Math Prereq & Tech Biblio for Women/Minorities

From: Donna Milgram (dmilgram@iwitts.com)
Date: Thu Nov 02 2000 - 16:39:43 EST


WomenTech Project: Making Community College Math and Technology=20
Courses User Friendly to Women and Minorities: An Annotated Bibliography
Go to http://www.iwitts.com/html/womentech.html

Questions I have for Community Colleges:

1) Are traditional rather than contexual math courses offered at the =
community college you are associated with? 2) Does your school offer =
pre-technology courses? and 3) Do many of your colleges Technology =
programs have math prerequisites, and if so what are they? Reply to the =
list or to me personally at dmilgram@iwitts.com

Long explanation:

Some time ago I asked several lists for help in identifying off the =
shelf resources=20
for women and minorities in community colleges that would assist them in =

quickly moving through math prerequisites and would give them =
pre-technology skills
to help ensure their success in applied technology certificate and =
degree programs. I also
asked for key pieces of literature on gender and race differences =
regarding learning style.

The response from all of you was overwhelming, thank you all so much for =
your generosity,=20
I received 50 responses and many people sent their curriculums. Clearly =
I struck a chord, as many community=20
colleges wrote me they needed the same information. Those who had =
developed and used
these curriculums wrote me long e-mails offering assistance. =20

The good news is that many off-the-shelf curriculums do exist and there =
are many key pieces of=20
literature to explain the problem and strategies to overcome them. I've =
developed these into an
8 page bibliography with web links that is on our Web site at =
http://www.iwitts.com/html/womentech.html

The Community College of Rhode Island, one of the WomenTech =
demonstration Projects is=20
moving ahead to develop a "Bridges to Technology" Course module that =
will include a=20
contextual pre-technology and math module that will link to the =
technology programs being targeted. =20
The Chair of Engineering & Technology for CCRI told me that the =
curriculum brought him right to
the curriculum outlines on the web and made it very easy to get a sense =
of what's out there.

North Harris Montgomery Community College District in Houston, Texas, =
another WomenTech site, is having a joint meeting between key =
instructors in their math and technology Departments -- which I will =
facilitate -- to collaboratively develop a combined math/pre-technology =
course module/curriculum.

I guess the bad news, from what I can tell, is that many if not most =
community colleges still teach math in a=20
traditional style (lecture format) that assumes the students are =
transferring onto college. In my opinion, this doesn't make sense. The =
traditional math teaching doesn't work well for two of the largest =
populations in community colleges -- women and minorities -- and in fact =
most students attending community colleges don't transfer to a 4-year =
college based on national stats. The attempts I have seen to fix this =
problem are remedial in nature rather than changing the structure of the =
courses - i.e. extra assistance in math labs. The problem with this is =
that most students who are not doing well in math are not likely to =
pursue individual remediation options and research shows the best =
learning method for them is cooperative in any event. Additionally, =
community college students are usually working and have young families, =
so lots of time on their own in the math lab is not realistic.

I don't have a large n of community colleges (in addition to the ones in =
the WomenTech Project sites I've heard from maybe ten others) but may =
question to you is, is this a national problem? 1) Are traditional =
rather than contexual math courses offered at the community college you =
are associated with? 2) Does your school offer pre-technology courses? =
and 3) do many of your colleges Technology programs have math =
prerequisites, and if so what are they?

In my opinion an important key to assisting more women and minorities in =
getting into tech occupations is helping them gain the math prerequisite =
and pretechnology skills needed in a way that works for them. Only then =
will we start to bridge the digital divide for women and minorities. =
(And the great news is, that this will also help non-techie oriented =
males too.)

Thanks for your time in responding and your wisdom and assistance.
____________________________________________

Donna Milgram
Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science
www.iwitts.com * donnam@iwitts.com
1150 Ballena Blvd, Suite 102
Alameda, CA 94501
510-749-0200 ext. 101 (phone) 510-749-0500 (fax)



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