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Abstract
Recent statistics show 68.3 percent of high school graduates enrolled in college, and 43 percent of these graduates enrolled in community college. Despite earning a high school diploma, nearly 60% of entering college freshmen were mandated to take developmental or remedial mathematics or English courses, resulting in upwards of $3 billion spent on courses that do not count toward students degrees but are required for these students to begin their college careers (Complete College America, 2012). Even though 2-year colleges are more economical for many students who wish to pursue their postsecondary education, students having to take developmental education courses can potentially diminish students interest in education and frustrate students as they are forced to re-learn high school material.In this study, I focused on the perspectives of high school mathematics teachers, community college mathematics teachers, and community college students on postsecondary mathematics readiness. Particularly, I was interested in their views of what constitutes a college-ready mathematics student by searching for meanings of mathematical competency, what potential disconnect there may be between secondary and postsecondary institutions, and how collaboration between the institutions could be a possible solution to reduce developmental mathematics enrollment. During this mixed methods study, the five high school educator participants, five community college educator participants, and six community college student participants were asked to complete an initial survey modified from Corbishley and Truxaws (2010) original version, which was used to provide information on postsecondary mathematics competency. After the survey, I conducted focus groups with the three different groups to gain their perspectives on students high school preparation toward postsecondary mathematics education. The conclusions were that students are not well equipped to handle the expectations and rigor of postsecondary mathematics courses because of the restrictions and guidelines set for high school educators. These students need higher levels of academic intangible skills to be successful instead of higher levels of mathematical competency. Mathematical content, educator expectation, and student accountability are forms of disconnect that can be limiting factors to students mathematical success in college. Collaboration is possible with specific roles by those involved and the trusting of those roles by all the members.