THE PROJECT

Supporting Student Mindsets and College-Going Identities in Dual Enrollment Mathematics

A partnership with WestEd, American Institutes for Research, and the Department of Education to enhance student success in a Dual Enrollment Quantitative Reasoning course

THE CONTEXT & CHALLENGE

Access to dual enrollment (DE) courses has grown substantially in recent years, especially in the state of Texas, helping students to access college level coursework earlier to save money and be more prepared for higher education. In the Dallas area, most students enrolled in public schools identify with a historically underrepresented group in higher education (e.g., Black and Brown students, first generation students, low-income students).1,2 Because higher education institutions have not supported students from underrepresented groups as well as they have for students from majority groups, students from historically underrepresented groups are often less likely to see themselves as people who belong in college courses).3,4 What’s more, math performance in the United States has declined in recent years, calling for fresh ideas for how we support students to succeed in mathematics (National Center for Education Statistics, 2025).

THE PARTNERSHIP & APPROACH

WestEd is a nonprofit organization who supports educational institutions with research, evaluation, professional learning services, and technical assistance, all aimed at pursuing a future in which all learners have access to high-quality, evidence-based educational opportunities. While WestEd has designed their QuantWay DE course curriculum to integrate the former, they sought Motivate Lab as a partner to develop a support that does the latter: enhance students’ learning mindsets through targeted practices to complement the curriculum. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) is an independent nonprofit organization seeking to develop and use evidence to improve outcomes. AIR was invited into the project as an independent evaluator. Dallas College is one of the largest community colleges in Texas, serving more than 100,000 students across seven campuses. Because of WestEd’s pre-existing partnership with Dallas College, they were invited in as collaborators on the project. 

The research literature is clear that more engaging and relevant pedagogies, like structured group work activities with examples that connect to students’ current lives, identities, and interests, enhance student success compared to traditional lecture.5,6,7,8 Our research and the work of our colleagues is also clear: students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in higher education significantly benefit from educational practices that support learning mindsets.9,10,11,12,13 We conducted a literature review to better understand the development of college-going identities and the nuances of student motivation for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., Black and Brown students, first generation students, low-income students). The main goal was to create a curriculum support, a set of activities that helps students develop their college-going identities within the structure of the course. We created this program of targeted activities in partnership with WestEd. A key part of this program is our newly redesigned “Values Connection for Dual Enrollment” activity. The idea for this activity emerged from the literature’s insights about the importance of developing a college-going identity, thus making it a key part of the curriculum support. The original Values Connection activity supports students to explore their personal values and connect these values to their education and future goals. The activity is based on relevance affirmation intervention research, which has shown reflections like this can enhance student persistence and achievement, and particularly so for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.14,11

THE LEARNINGS

Initial pilot results over two semesters from five participating teachers have been promising, surfacing positive perceptions from teachers about student engagement through the implementation of our curriculum support, including the Values Connection for Dual Enrollment activity. Teachers have also felt more connected to their students through the implementation of these activities, supporting a greater sense of belonging for themselves and their students.

THE NEXT STEPS

During the 2026-27 academic year, a two-year implementation study will begin that tests the effectiveness of the QuantWay DE course with our curriculum support activities against a course delivering similar content in a randomized controlled trial. We will work with WestEd, the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and the Department of Education to share the results of the study once data is collected and analyzed.

REFERENCES

1 Dallas College (2026). Dallas College Profile. https://www.dallascollege.edu/about/works/profile/ 

2 Dallas Independent School District (2026). Enrollment Statistics (as of 09/07/2026). https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/ENROLLMENT/Enrollment.jsp?SLN=1000 

3 Brown, J. K., & Papp, L. M. (2025). Evidence for College Students’ Decreasing Sense of Belonging over Time: Direct and Moderated Results. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(4), 472. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22040472 

4 Gopalan, M., & Brady, S. T. (2020). College Students’ Sense of Belonging: A National Perspective. Educational researcher (Washington, D.C. : 1972), 49(2), 134–137. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189×19897622

5 Capar, G., & Tarim, K. (2015). Efficacy of the cooperative learning method on mathematics achievement and attitude: A meta-analysis research. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri/Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 15(2), 553–559.

6 Cronin, M.R., Alonzo, S.H., Adamczak, S.K. et al. Anti-racist interventions to transform ecology, evolution and conservation biology departments. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 1213–1223 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01522-z

7 Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(23), 8410–8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111 

8 Hulleman, C. S., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2009). Promoting interest and performance in high school science classes. Science, 326(5958), 1410–1412. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1177067 

9 Hecht, C. A., Priniski, S. J., Tibbetts, Y., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2021). Affirming both independent and interdependent values improves achievement for all students and mitigates cultural mismatch for first-generation college students. The Journal of social issues, 77(3), 851–887. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12416 

10 Hecht, C. A., Bryan, C. J., & Yeager, D. S. (2023). A values-aligned intervention fosters growth mindset-supportive teaching and reduces inequality in educational outcomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(25), e2210704120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210704120 

11 Tibbetts, Y., Harackiewicz, J. M., Canning, E. A., Boston, J. S., Priniski, S. J., & Hyde, J. S. (2016). Affirming independence: Exploring mechanisms underlying a values affirmation intervention for first-generation students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(5), 635–659. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000049 

12 Walton, G. M., Murphy, M. C., Logel, C., Yeager, D. S., Goyer, J. P., Brady, S. T., Emerson, K. T. U., Paunesku, D., Fotuhi, O., Blodorn, A., Boucher, K. L., Carter, E. R., Gopalan, M., Henderson, A., Kroeper, K. M., Murdock-Perriera, L. A., Reeves, S. L., Ablorh, T. T., Ansari, S., Chen, S., … Krol, N. (2023). Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college?. Science (New York, N.Y.), 380(6644), 499–505. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade4420 

13 Williams, C. L., Hirschi, Q., Sublett, K. V., Hulleman, C. S., & Wilson, T. D. (2020). A brief social belonging intervention improves academic outcomes for minoritized high school students. Motivation Science, 6(4), 423–437. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000175 

14 Kizilcec, R. F., Reich, J., Yeomans, M., Dann, C., Brunskill, E., Lopez, G., Turkay, S., Williams, J. J., & Tingley, D. (2020). Scaling up behavioral science interventions in online education. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(26), 14900–14905. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921417117 

The Nation’s Report Card (2025). Scores for 9-year-olds improved in reading and mathematics in 2025 while scores for 13-year-olds showed no significant change. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ltt/2025/ 

Shnabel, N., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Cook, J. E., Garcia, J., & Cohen, G. L. (2013). Demystifying values-affirmation interventions: writing about social belonging is a key to buffering against identity threat. Personality & social psychology bulletin, 39(5), 663–676. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213480816