By the Numbers: Course Equity Gap

Sunday, November 20, 2022 - 9:45am

A course’s DFW rate is the percentage of students who drop, fail or withdraw from a course. The higher the DFW rate, the more students who are failing to successfully complete the course. One way to measure the success of our efforts to improve outcomes for underrepresented and first-generation students is to compare the DFW rate for these student populations to the DFW rate for represented and non-first-generation students. The difference between these two measures is the course equity gap.  

Race/Ethnicity 

Students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups tend to have higher DFW rates than represented students. This was true for all the college’s academic programs during academic year 2021-2022.  

In 2021-2022, the overall course race/ethnicity equity gap was the largest in the college’s JGEN courses (5.9%), followed by Advertising and Public Relations (5.3%). Journalism had the lowest course equity gap at 3.2%.  

While program gaps are determined by the overall number of students who drop, fail or withdraw, a few notable courses stand out within each program for having equity gaps of more than 10%. While some of these courses are special topics, pop-ups or electives, several are core required courses within our majors (in red). The high course equity gaps in these courses indicate barriers to degree completion for underrepresented students.  

Course 

Race/Ethnicity Equity Gap 

ADPR 491 
23.14% 
ADPR 437 
22.81% 
ADPR 434 
22.73% 
ADPR 881 
16% 
ADPR 283 
11.11% 
BRDC 227 
22.22% 
BRDC 291 
16.67% 
JGEN 184 
13.5% 
JOMC 291 
18% 
JOMC 422 
16.7% 
JOMC 222 
10.3% 
JOMC 133 
10.2% 
JOUR 200B 
12.12% 
SPMC 150 
10.76% 

First-Generation Students  

First-generation students are those whose parents did not complete a 4-year college or university degree. First-generation college students also tend to have higher course equity gaps than those students whose parents are college graduates. In all our programs, the DFW rate is higher for first-generation students. However, that gaps do not mirror those for underrepresented students. In several of our programs – JGEN, JGRD and SPMC, the first-generation equity gap is much larger than the underrepresented student equity gap. And in several programs – ADPR, BRDC and JOUR – it is much smaller.  

For first-generation students, we also see a mix of courses with high equity gaps. Interestingly, while underrepresented students seem to be failing to complete skills courses at a higher rate, first-generation students are struggling in introductory, large lecture courses.  

Course 
First Generation Equity Gap  
ADPR 361 
11.4% 
ADPR 433 
30% 
ADPR 491 
10.4% 
ADPR 830 
21.4% 
BRDC 191 
11.4% 
BRDC 491 
14.3% 
JGEN 200 
13.6% 
JOMC 101 
10% 
JOMC 222 
11.9% 
SPMC 150 
13% 
SPMC 250 
25.9%  

If you teach a course with a high equity gap and you are interested in ways to improve, please visit with Amy Ort. The Center for Transformative Teaching has many resources to help improve access and inclusion in courses.