About the Book
Serving as a call to action for educators to recognize and address inequities in gateway courses, this book offers an evidence-based model for improving teaching, learning, and student success within the foundational college classroom.
Gateway courses often reflect broader societal, cultural, and economic issues; this book argues that inequitable outcomes result from specific practices and policies, rather than occurring naturally. Using data and examples from his work with various colleges and universities, Andrew K. Koch highlights the systemic issues that perpetuate inequality in higher education. He examines how and why race and class divisions are reinforced through current practice and the impact that these courses have on students’ sense of belonging. By giving suggestions for policy changes on how to combat high failure rates and challenging myths such as grade inflation and curve grading, this text seeks to critique and ultimately dismantle the toxic culture of “weeding out” students.
This accessible book is for any college instructor who wants to transform gateway courses into true opportunities for student success, ultimately advancing higher education's broader equity and social justice goals.
Table of Contents:
1. On Gateway Courses and DFWI Rates – Defining the Issues 2. The Gateway Course Completion Line 3. On Belonging – The Case for Learning Mindsets, Metacognition, and Faculty as Teaching and Learning Experts 4. Weeding Out the Weed-Out Culture 5. Taking Action – A Three-Phase Model for Gateway Course Redesign
About the Author :
Andrew K. Koch is the Chief Executive Officer at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, Brevard, NC, USA.
Review :
“As I was sitting down to read Drew Koch’s manuscript on Transforming the Gateway Experience, I was thinking that it would be a 'cookbook' or a 'workbook' on addressing what is a huge student success barrier in the universities and colleges around our nation. I have been in the student-success business almost 40 years and was extremely happy to see a scholar/ practitioner put a pen to paper giving us some direction. What I got was that and much more. As I read this book, I became engrossed in the conceptual framework of his compelling argument which challenges us to 'put up or shut up'. Dr. Koch couched this call to action with historical knowledge and contemporary argument for why there is no time to waste if we believe that education is the great equalizer.”
Aaron Thompson, President, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
“Transforming the Gateway Course Experience should be required reading for Postsecondary educators of all types, full stop. Dr. Koch’s contribution brings a combination of quantitative analysis and relatable institutional examples to clarify the issues and link them to two important underlying dynamics: the role of gateway courses in influencing student sense of belonging, and the ever-present 'weed-out culture mentality'. Most critically, he presents a clear, three-phase plan to dramatically improve the student (and faculty) experience, resulting in greater, and more equitable outcomes.
Patrick Methvin, Director, Gates Foundation Postsecondary Success
“Well written, insightful, and compelling! Koch gets readers to think critically about our practices related to gateway courses, which are a critical aspect of student success. This is a must read for educators wanting to improve undergraduate education and ensure a socially-just experience for all students.”
Dan Friedman, Assistant Vice President for University 101 Programs & the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina
“Proponents of increasing student success in higher education should feel compelled to focus on courses, the building blocks of the curriculum, as the site for needed transformation. Transforming the Gateway Course Experience: A Call to Action describes compelling rationale and identifies tested tactics and proven maneuvers to equip leaders and disciplinary associations to act and plan for the constant nature of course redesign work at the gateway to the major -- a site where too few students are welcomed into and supported to join the field and thrive.”
Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director, National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Indiana University School of Education, Center for Postsecondary Research
“Could there be a connection between college gateway courses and our nation’s racial history? For Andrew Koch the answer is yes. Koch provides educators with eye-opening evidence that there is indeed a color line notably witnessed in DFWI grades in college gateway courses where the hopes and dreams of far too many racially minoritized students literally come to an end. Everything is in this book for educators to move away from adhering to myths about who can and can’t succeed, as well as from what Koch calls tyrannical practices that do nothing more than perpetuate inequitable learning outcomes. This is the most promising book I have read that can truly change the futures of millions of students, especially those who remain underrepresented and underserved.”
Laura I. Rendón, Professor Emerita, University of Texas-San Antonio; Author of Sentipensante Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice & Liberation, 2nd Edition, Routledge, 2023
"Transforming the Gateway Course Experience is a must-read for educators committed to transforming postsecondary education. The book highlights the critical role of gateway courses in student success, exposing systemic inequities and offering practical solutions. Key takeaways for me include the importance of addressing readily accessible data, fostering a sense of belonging, and implementing evidence-based teaching practices across curriculum. This book provides a roadmap for transforming educational outcomes and advancing equity in higher education."
Mac Powell, President, Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC)
“This is a significant, urgent, challenging and practical book. Drew Koch draws on a vast dataset to demonstrate that those of us who teach and lead in higher education are largely responsible for persistently high student failure rates in introductory courses, particularly for students of color and first-generation or low-income undergraduates. Koch then shows us how we can change – individually and institutionally - to enable more students to learn and thrive in gateway courses, which is an essential step towards success in college.”
Peter Felten, Executive Director, Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University; Co-author, Connections Are Everything: A College Student’s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education (2023)
“Transforming the Gateway Course Experience is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the significant role that gateway courses play in reproducing inequity and elitism in postsecondary education. Koch captures the systemic issues that have led to gateway course failure broadly and provides evidence-based alternative approaches that can be widely adopted.”
Stephanie Sowl, Program Officer, ECMC Foundation
"Drew Koch's decades of experience in institutional improvement efforts provides the basis for the insights and passion found in this examination of inequalities inherent in gateway courses, which have excluded rather than elevated too many, and how to address these barriers. Transforming the Gateway Course Experience: A Call to Action is an essential read for those seeking to improve student success."
Richard Arum, Professor of Sociology and Education, University of California, Irvine, USA
"Higher education admissions is important. But as Drew Koch points out, what do we learn if we devote as much attention to who graduates? I always ask new questions when I listen to Drew Koch. And I always learn from him.”
James Grossman, Executive Director of the American Historical Association
