Seeding Strategies to Close the Calculus Equity Gap, a funding opportunity released by the California Education Learning Lab, was uniquely designed as a department-level funding opportunity to test the implementation of select promising curricular and pedagogical strategies to close equity gaps in calculus course sequences within STEM disciplines.
SACRAMENTO, CA, May 2, 2022 – Today, the California Education Learning Lab (Learning Lab) announced that it is awarding 15 grants in response to Learning Lab’s funding opportunity Seeding Strategies to Close the Calculus Equity Gap. Grants awarded will support STEM departments within the California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California to improve student learning and enhance faculty teaching within calculus course sequences. Seeding Calculus Strategies was designed to further the intent of the 2020-2021 Grand Challenge: Overcoming the Calculus Barrier to STEM Success grant opportunity which asked faculty to transform how first-year calculus is taught across STEM fields to improve learning outcomes and close racial and gender equity gaps for prospective STEM students, especially for Black, Latinx and other historically underrepresented student groups.
Scroll to the bottom of this article to view the funded proposals.
The awards were based on recommendations from Learning Lab’s 2022 Selection Committee for Seeding Calculus Strategies and were approved by Samuel Assefa, Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.
This grant opportunity was released in conjunction with a report by Just Equations that was commissioned by Learning Lab.
Awarded teams will receive up to $100,000 over two years to implement their projects. Strategies include integrating activities to encourage student engagement and active participation, course coordination among faculty, professional development opportunities for faculty, and redesigning the course pathway.
Seeding Calculus Strategies attracted interest from 30 California public higher education institutions from across the state. Of these, 21 institutions submitted proposals, and 15 distinct institutions were included in the awards, including eight California Community Colleges, five California State Universities, and two University of California campuses. Projects will commence upon final agreement between the awarded institutions (listed below) and the Foundation for California Community Colleges, which administers the grants on behalf of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.
Seeding Calculus Strategies Awardees
| INSTITUTION | PROJECT TITLE |
| Cal Poly Humboldt | Humboldt Stretch Calculus Course Pilot |
| CSU Monterey Bay | Increasing Student Success Through Faculty Engagement and Sustainable Professional Development |
| CSU San Marcos | Effective and Equitable Mathematics Pathways in the STEM Curriculum |
| Cuyamaca College | Equity-Minded Calculus Redesign |
| Cypress College | Cypress College Calculus: A New Equitable Direction |
| Hartnell College | Innovations Around Interview Exams |
| Laney College | Closing Equity Gaps in Calculus through Equitable Grading Strategies |
| Modesto Junior College | Calculus Pathway Innovations for Equity |
| San Bernardino Valley College | SBVC Calculus Pathways |
| San Diego Miramar College | Calculus in Action |
| San Diego State University | Holistic Approach for Closing Equity Gaps in Precalculus and Calculus |
| Stanislaus State | College Algebra: A Mastery-Based Grading Approach |
| UC Davis | Calculus for Data-Driven Applications |
| UC Santa Cruz | Improving Calculus Learning Outcomes for Student Success in Engineering |
| West Los Angeles College | Confronting Structural Inequities Impacting STEM Mathematics at West LA College |
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