This study examined the effectiveness of the Murguia Learning Institute's (the Institute) faculty development initiative which took place in Spring 2006 designed to improve mathematics teaching skills at a community college. The goal of enhancing teaching is to increase student success; therefore, the study focused on productive grade and retention rates in developmental mathematics and college algebra courses at a community college. Central to the investigation was to evaluate whether the Institute effectively improved mathematics teaching that could be measured by student outcomes. The researcher employed an ex post facto study to examine the impact of the Institute on these rates. He collected productive grade and retention rates from the developmental mathematics and college algebra courses of the 49 tenure/tenure track mathematics instructors' who taught at the college during the Fall of 2005 and Fall 2006. Out of the 49 instructors, 22 attended the Institute. From a series of two by two repeated measures analysis of variance, the data showed no statically significant difference between those who participated in the Institute and those who did not on the basis of over-time changes. However, the Time effect on developmental mathematics productive grade rates and developmental mathematics retention rates were statistically significant and showed that for both groups, the indices increased from pretest to posttest.

In order to clarify and embellish the quantitative study, six randomly selected participants in the MLI were interviewed using a Critical Incident Survey technique. The interviews confirmed four of the best practice themes identified in the literature on faculty development. These were the need (1) to understand students, (2) for pedagogical knowledge (3) to identify participant learning needs, and (4) for additional faculty development initiatives.