Table 7.
Changes in achievement and failure rate for SI programs in the first term of their implementationa
| Failure rate | Achievement | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % Change: | % Change: | ||||||
| Study | Classroom | Non-SI | SI | failure rate | Non-SI | SI | achievement |
| Fullilove and Treisman, 1990 | Calculus I | 41% | 7% | 77 | NA | NA | NA |
| Wischusen and Wischusen, 2007 | Biology I | 18.6% | 6.9% | 62.9 | ∼85% | ∼87% | 2.4 |
| Rath et al., 2007 | Biology I | 27% | 15% | 44.4 | ∼75% | ∼79% | 5.3 |
| Peterfreund et al., 2007 | Biology I | 27% | 15% | 44 | ∼75% | ∼79% | 5.3 |
| Minchella et al., 2002 | Biology I and II | 30.2% | 16.9% | 44 | ∼75% | ∼78% | 4 |
| Barlow and Villarejo, 2004 | General Chemistry | 44% | 28% | 36.3 | ∼80% | ∼83% | 3.8 |
| Dirks and Cunningham, 2006 | Biology I | NA | NA | NA | ∼81% | ∼84% | 3.7 |
aMost achievement data were reported on the 4.0 scale, and the percentage of points earned was approximated using a conversion scale. In comparison, in the current student population, we saw a 41.3% reduction in the failure rate and a 3.2–6.3% increase in achievement, depending on which student subpopulation was the focus.