ELAC Educational Master Plan - East Los Angeles College

Additionally, the committee found that completion of the English and math sequence was a substantial
barrier to student success. The following data represent the impact of initial math and English placement on
the overall completion of a degree, certificate or transfer program. The data indicate that students beginning
lower in the English and math sequence succeed at a far lesser rate than those students placing at or able the
college competency level (English 101 and Math 125).
Cohort Analysis by First English
First English 2008 Cohort Completions %
Transfer Level 31 13 41.9%
English 101 333 83 24.9%
English 28/60s 614 87 14.2%
English 26/57 527 58 11.0%
English 21 492 35 7.1%
Reading 20 275 17 6.2%
ESL 384 53 13.8%
Other Reading 57 3 5.3%
None 1,414 68 4.8%
Total 4,127 417 10.1%
Cohort Analysis by First Math
First Math 2008 Cohort Completions %
Transfer Level 190 83 43.7%
Math 120/125 420 104 24.8%
Math 115 681 80 11.8%
Math 110/112 1,155 79 6.8%
Math 105 183 7 3.8%
None 1,497 64 4.3%
Other 1 0.0%
Total 4,127 417 10.1%
The initial success completion data led to additional analysis on the math and English sequences.
Specifically, all students who took their first math course at ELAC in Fall 2008 were tracked through Spring
2011 (n = 2,465). These students could be of any academic level, but must have begun their math sequence
in Fall 2008. To ensure that students with different initial levels of math knowledge were not all grouped
together, students were placed into cohorts based on their first math course at ELAC (i.e. Math 105, 110/112,
115, 125, Transfer Level). For example, the progress of students whose first math class at ELAC was Math
105 in Fall 2008 was tracked for three years. Students who began at Math 110/112 in Fall 2008 were grouped
into a separate cohort and their progress was also tracked through three years. The data below illustrate
success through the math sequence as a function of initial math level. In addition, the average number of
attempts that students needed to pass each math course in the sequence was calculated for each cohort. It is
clear from the data that a substantial number of students fail to complete the math sequence within three
years and that the lower the starting point, the more likely the student is to fail to reach transfer level.
Furthermore, students average nearly 1.5 attempts per level, adding significant time to completion for a large
portion of the student body.
8 Page Educational Master Plan 2012