NROC Case Studies

Overview

NROC has prepared a series of case studies to highlight the innovative and different ways member institutions use NROC content and tools.  These are provided to assist members considering alternate ways of using NROC within their institution, as well as allowing prospective members to understand the potential of joining the NROC Network.

A few examples of how students benefit when institutions join NROC:

EdReady

EdReady in Four-Year Colleges

This report gives a glimpse into how five different universities are using EdReady as a tool for pre-enrollment preparation, as a replacement for high-stakes placement exams, in student support services, as core curricula for developmental studies, and for high-school outreach. ...

EdReady in Community Colleges

Community Colleges across the nation are using EdReady’s personalized study paths to prepare incoming students to pass their math placement exams and avoid remediation. This report offers short summaries of the many ways EdReady is being used by Community Colleges to help students prepare for national...

EdReady in Adult Basic Education

Adult Basic Education programs nationwide are using EdReady’s personalized learning system to help ensure that their students are prepared for high school equivalency tests and general education exit exams. This report contains short summaries of the ways in which several Adult Education organizations...

EdReady in High Schools

EdReady enables high school students to assess their readiness for college math, select their study options, and follow a personalized study path to fill in knowledge gaps. High schools nationwide are using EdReady to ensure that graduating seniors are ready for college level math, and to help them prepare...

Career and Technical Training: St. Philip's College

Students in the career and technical training programs at St. Philip’s College were struggling with the math in their courses, requiring faculty to divert teaching time to remediate students’ math skills in the classroom. The Applied Sciences Divison and the Math Department teamed up to create a...

EdReady as a Placement Exam - Chattanooga State Community College

When ACT’s Compass exam was retired in December 2016, Chattanooga State Community College chose to implement EdReady for placement. This pilot would provide a diagnostic of each student’s math strengths and weaknesses as well as provide a clear, individualized path to shore up weak areas, quickly...

Anecdotes from the Field: Owensboro Community and Technical College

Math professor Connie Booker of Kentucky's Owensboro Community and Technical College has been using EdReady to quickly remediate incoming students so they can get into credit-bearing math classes far faster than they could in the traditional "test-once-and-place" approach. ...

Revamping College Math Placement at Nevada State College

Under Nevada State College’s old math placement policy, incoming students took the Accuplacer exam during the summer prior to new-student orientation. In 2016, they moved to using EdReady, and saw placement of new students into college-level math courses increase from 24% to 42%. ...

Hawaii: Waipahu High School Early College

Waipahu High School Early College offered an online program, EdReady, to 30 high school freshmen who had not placed into college algebra as 8th graders or by fall of their 9th grade year. The goal was to prepare those students, by spring of 9th grade, to earn an Accuplacer Math placement score that met...

Corvallis High School (MT): Getting High School Freshmen Back on Track in Math

At Corvallis High School in Montana, incoming freshmen who have not yet mastered pre-algebra are catching up with their peers and getting ready for geometry in 10th grade through an intensive dual-block program that uses EdReady as a core component of the class. ...

The Power of EdReady and Technology to Transform Learners: An Illustration

Our members at OTAN shared this poster that demonstrates the dramatic change in attitude experienced by their welding students when they used EdReady to learn math. They not only overcame their fear of computers, but went beyond EdReady to use the internet to apply for jobs and take additional certifications,...

Nevada - Agassi College Preparatory Academy - EdReady

The state of Nevada uses the ACT exam as their college and career readiness assessment. All high school juniors attending public schools are required to take the ACT in the spring. In this case study, teacher Sarada Toomey of Agassi College Preparatory Academy (a public charter school in Nevada) describes...

Montana - Lifelong Learning Center - EdReady

The Lifelong Learning Center (LLC) is an adult basic literacy education service that prepares students to pass high school equivalency exams, succeed in college classes, and re-enter the workforce by providing reading, writing, and math instruction at multiple locations throughout Missoula, Montana....

Nevada - Foothill High School - EdReady

Two teachers from Foothill High School in Henderson, Nevada, describe how they are using EdReady in their College Readiness Math classes. They found that EdReady works well as a tool to supplement students’ math skills to make sure they do well on the ACT exam and that graduating seniors are ready...

EdReady as a Low-Stakes Alternative - Jacksonville State

As part of their effort to redesign developmental education and refine placement practices, Jacksonville State University tested EdReady as a low-stakes math placement tool. Early results are promising for this approach as an alternative to traditional high-stakes placement exams that have frequently...

STEM School Chattanooga - EdReady

Students entering STEM School Chattanooga as high school freshmen are required to have a baseline knowledge of algebra and geometry. Students identified as deficient in those skills were offered EdReady over the summer and into the fall as a free tool to help fill in knowledge gaps and ensure that the...

Waipahu High School - EdReady

During the summer and fall of 2014, the Waipahu High School Early College program collaborated with the University of Hawaii to offer an online program, EdReady, with the goal of increasing the number of their high school students who could score well enough on the COMPASS placement exam to qualify for...

South Carolina - VirtualSC - EdReady

South Carolina’s state-wide virtual school program, VirtualSC, launched the Summer Middle School Assistance Project in June 2014. The three-week summer pilot program was designed to assist students in participating schools who had completed Grades 6-8 instruction but who required remediation in mathematics...

Owensboro Community and Technical College - EdReady

At the end of the Fall 2014 semester, the Math Department faculty at Owensboro Community & Technical College offered students an intensive, one-week math boot camp to finish the requirements for the developmental math class they were enrolled in that semester. At the end of the week, students would be...

Mountain Heights Academy - EdReady

During summer 2014, Mountain Heights Academy teachers built a new, year-long course called College Prep Math. EdReady with NROC math resources was at the center of the new course, which they built within the school's Moodle environment. The purpose of the course was to ensure that students had an option...

Montana Digital Academy and the University of Montana - EdReady

In Summer 2013, Montana Digital Academy and the University of Montana collaborated on an EdReady pilot designed to help students get into the college math course they need for their major interest. The Office for Student Success and Math Department at UMT offered “a FREE, personalized, self-paced,...

NROC English

Texas - Victoria College Freshmen Needing Remediation - NROC English

All college-bound students in Texas are required to take the Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) to determine if they are ready for college-level coursework. Approximately 25% of the students who enroll at Victoria College have TSIA scores that indicate they are not ready in reading or writing...

Case Study: Tennessee SAILS ACT English Prep

In Tennessee, nearly 70% of college freshmen are required to take remedial courses in math, English, or both before they are qualified to take college-level courses. Seamless Alignment and Integrated Support (SAILS) integrates the Tennessee Board of Regents learning support competencies and the Tennessee...

NROC Developmental Math

North Carolina - Central Piedmont Community College - NROC Math

Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte, NC, has adapted NROC Developmental Math resources to create supplemental math labs for students admitted to the college under the North Carolina Community College system’s “Multiple Measures for Placement” policy. This policy allows students...

Ivy Tech Community College - NROC Developmental Math

Ivy Tech Community College is Indiana’s largest public post-secondary institution serving nearly 200,000 students. They chose to pilot NROC’s Developmental Math – An Open Program in the Fall of 2012 as a way to address the math remediation needs of their Automotive and Welding program students....

Rasmussen College - NROC Developmental Math

Rasmussen College, founded in 1900 in St. Paul, Minnesota, today includes 24 campuses around the country and more than 40 diverse online degree programs available to students around the   globe. Rasmussen began piloting NROC’s Developmental Math – An Open Program in Fall 2012 with their Math Prep...

Renton Technical College - NROC Developmental Math

Renton Technical College provides training or retraining for those seeking marketable job skills or upgrading current skills. Specialized programs allow students with or without high school credentials to enter at numerous times, progress in accordance with individual aptitudes, and complete low-cost...

Case Study - Jacksonville State University - NROC Developmental Math

Jacksonville State University (JSU)  is a regional university serving northeast Alabama on a 459-acre campus with 59 buildings and multiple locations. Many of their students are low-income, from rural areas, and are first generation college students. In recent years, JSU has seen an increased enrollment...

Chattanooga State Community College - NROC Developmental Math

Chattanooga State is a regionally accredited educational institution. Their mission is to transform the lives of individuals and develop the capacities of the business and industrial communities through technical and postsecondary education. In August of 2012 Chattanooga began a pilot of NROC Developmental...

Central Piedmont Community College - NROC Developmental Math

Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) has been part of the Charlotte, NC, landscape for 50 years and has six campuses located throughout Mecklenburg County. They serve a largely urban population of traditional college age students and returning adults in career transition. They began piloting NROC’s...

NROC Algebra

Mountain Heights Academy Case Study - NROC Algebra 1

Mountain Heights Academy (formerly Open High School of Utah) chooses its open educational resources carefully. Although their students were performing slightly above state math test averages with their original online algebra course, the administrative team of Director DeLaina Tonks and Curriculum Director...

Montana Digital Academy Case Study - NROC Algebra 1

Montana Digital Academy (MTDA) is a state virtual school that works with districts across the state to expand educational options by offering a mix of core and elective online supplemental courses. MTDA administrators and teachers were excited to pilot Algebra 1–An Open Course because the course aligned...

Bay Port Case Study - NROC Algebra 1

Bay Port High School is part of the Howard-Suamico School District in Green Bay, WI.Over 90% of Bay Port graduates go on to some type of post-secondary education. In 2011, Bay Port ran two pilot sections using NROC’s Algebra 1—An Open Course – one competency-based accelerated class and one standard...

Culver Case Study - NROC Algebra 1

Culver City Adult School serves over 4000 students annually with GED, Adult Basic Education, ESL, Independent Learning, and other high school diploma classes. Students have varied levels of education, language, and computer skills. Culver City Adult School used NROC’s Algebra 1—An Open Course as...

Placer Case Study - NROC Algebra 1

Placer Union High School District found NROC’s Algebra 1—An Open Course to be a helpful resource for struggling students in a special Alternative Program. About half of the students in the pilot section had previously failed algebra, some as many as three or four times. Many of the students found...

Whittier Case Study - NROC Algebra 1

Sierra Vista High School is a year-round, open enrollment high school offering both continuation and independent study programs to students within the Whittier Union High School District. Approximately 84 percent of Sierra Vista students are Hispanic/Latino, and 62 percent are identified as socioeconomically...