Impact of course policy changes on calculus II DFW rates

This paper examines the impact of departmental policy changes on the trend in DFW proportions for Calculus II at a large research university. Calculus I and II have been shown to be barrier courses for STEM majors, so increasing student success in these courses is imperative to retaining more students in STEM fields. A study was conducted to investigate how the DFW proportions for Calculus II changed in response to the policy changes. The data spanned Spring 2002–Fall 2016, and major changes in policy took place twice during this time. The policy changes were a combination of instructional method, textbook and online homework software, grading policies and passing conditions for the course. Three periods corresponding to the policy changes were defined: Pre-SCALE-UP (2002–2006), Active Learning (SCALE-UP) (2007–2013), and Post-SCALE-UP (2014–2016). The findings suggested that the second round of policy changes made in Calculus II had a larger impact on the mean DFW proportion than the first round of policy changes. The policy changes impacted individual D, F, and W proportions for the fall semester, while only the W proportion for the spring semester seemed to be affected, specifically by the Post-SCALE-UP changes.