The Math Gap in an Inclusive CS1 Course
Kris Jordan, Gabi Stein · 2018
This poster investigated the data from the past year of CS1 and found overwhelming evidence that students who have taken calculus are significantly more likely to succeed and less likely to fail that those who do not. On a Fall 2016 CS1 final exam, students who had not earned credit for a first course in college-level calculus were 2.8 times more likely to fail it than those who had (p=<0.0001,N=844). The mean final score for students with calculus was an 84, and those without was 61 (p=<0.0001). The result surprised the instructor, course staff, and faculty familiar with the course because the course itself does not emphasize mathematical or scientific computing. The course was Java-based, objects-early, and introduces both object-oriented and imperative programming fundamentals. The effect was evident across a range of problems, none seemingly requiring beyond basic algebra. In the Spring of 2017, the instructor and course staff set forth to explore these questions and close the math gap discovered in the Fall of 2016. This poster further proposes to develop interventions to aid those with a lower math maturity level through introducing a specialized CS1 to better accommodate those with a lower math maturity level by reducing the pace and installing prerequisites for the established CS1. Prospective Computer Science students at liberal arts colleges and universities enter with a wide range of mathematical backgrounds. Failing to acknowledge these disparities is demoralizing to students during their first course in CS and is counter-productive to inclusivity.