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STEM Programs at Community Colleges
In this report, Hanover Research summarizes the obstacles that prevent students from entering STEM fields or completing degrees in STEM fields. We also review strategies that can be used at community colleges to attract students to STEM majors and encourage them to persist to graduation.
Introduction and Key Findings
The recent economic downturn, in combination with increasing economic competition on the global stage and complex environmental problems, has highlighted the need to strengthen the ranks of the United States’ science and technology workers. This need has been recognized by the federal government, which has been instrumental in spurring wide-reaching action affecting education at all levels. For example, the Educate to Innovate Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education, launched by President Obama in November 2009, is designed to foster partnerships between companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies in order to “motivate and inspire young students to pursue STEM field careers” (Adam, 2011).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that jobs requiring science, engineering or technical training will increase by more than 24 percent by 2014 to 6.3 million
(Adam, 2011). However, current enrollment in STEM programs in the United States is not high enough to adequately fill these positions. For a number of reasons which are discussed throughout this report, a lower proportion of students pursue programs in STEM fields than other fields. Additionally, a large proportion of students who begin their academic careers in STEM fields do not attain a degree.
As institutions that traditionally serve populations that are underrepresented in the mathematics and science disciplines, community colleges are uniquely positioned to address this shortage of qualified STEM graduates. In the pages that follow, Hanover Research provides information regarding some of the challenges that students typically face when enrolling and persisting in STEM programs as well as the practices that higher education institutions (and community colleges, specifically) can adopt in order to help their students overcome these challenges.
The Key Findings from our research are presented below.
Key Findings
A large proportion of students who begin programs in STEM fields either change to non-STEM majors or leave post-secondary education altogether without a degree or certificate. Attrition rates are higher among some groups of students than others. For example, although Caucasian, African American and Hispanic students enroll in STEM fields at similar rates, Caucasian students are more likely to complete a STEM program than African American and Hispanic students.
Students who enroll in community colleges tend to be at a financial and academic disadvantage compared to their peers at four-year institutions. This affects their enrollment and persistence in STEM fields in two ways. First, they are less likely to enroll in STEM fields because STEM fields often
require a longer—and more expensive—course of study than certain non-STEM alternatives. Secondly, non-STEM tracks typically require a certain level of mathematics attainment that many beginning community college students have not reached prior to enrollment. Very few of these students are able to successfully complete the remedial courses that act as “gateway courses” to STEM tracks, and are thus unable to begin their STEM majors.
Another obstacle that minority students sometimes face is an unwelcoming or cultural insensitive institutional environment. STEM programs can host a number of gender, ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic biases that passively and actively exclude certain students. These biases may
discourage minority students from pursuing STEM majors even if they are academically qualified.
In order to increase STEM-track enrollment and attainment, the National Academies suggests that institutions focus their STEM recruitment and retention efforts on minority students, who represent a growing proportion of the national population. Further, studies suggest that improvements to programs that increase completion rates for minority students have the potential to make the academic experience better for all students by
increasing diversity of thought and experience within STEM fields.
Practices to increase STEM recruitment and retention tend to fall into five major categories: financial support; academic skills; academic direction; instructional and academic support; and an inclusive and welcoming institutional environment. Some of the more successful practices currently being used to increase STEM enrollment and persistence include bridge programs (with opportunities for scholarships), the compression of program timetables, and innovative pedagogical methods such as peer and drop-in tutoring. Further, practices implemented in isolation are generally not as effective as comprehensive strategies that use a combination of practices.
Section One: Obstacles Preventing Students from Enrolling and
Persisting in STEM Majors
Student populations at community colleges tend to share several characteristics that distinguish them from student populations at four-year institutions. Community colleges, for instance, are the typical entry point for first-generation, low-income, racial-ethnic minority, and non-traditional-aged students. Additionally,
community college students tend to be financially disadvantaged compared to their peers at four-year institutions (Packard, 2011, p.2. and Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 1). Potential barriers for community college STEM students include (Packard, 2011, p. 7):
Limited knowledge about college navigation Financial barriers (both time and cost)
Limited academic preparation in mathematics and science and the need for developmental courses
Misalignment of core courses across community colleges and four-year institutions
Delayed, inconsistent advising, orientation, and mentoring
Constraints affecting the academic and social integration of working students Self-doubt regarding capabilities
Cultural fit with professional identity of four-year institution Limited sustainability of programs designed to improve retention
Partially due to these obstacles, graduation rates at community colleges hover around roughly 30 percent, and only approximately 20 percent of students wishing to transfer from a community college to a four-year institution are able to do so (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 2). The low rate of academic success of students at community colleges compounded with the high attrition rates across STEM fields means that community colleges face a particularly difficult challenge when it comes to attracting students to and ensuring persistence in STEM fields. Below, we discuss three of the most commonly-cited reasons why community college students choose not to pursue STEM degrees.
Insufficient Levels of Proficiency
Most STEM degrees require significant proficiency in mathematics that community college students have often not attained through their high school courses. Approximately 60 percent of community college students enroll in at least one remedial course in English or mathematics. However, only 31 percent of students placed in remedial mathematics courses are ultimately able to pass, and less than a quarter of community college students who take remedial courses receive a degree within eight years. (Redden, 2010). Further, few students who require
STEM fields (“U.S. Must Involve Underrepresented Minorities in Science and Engineering,” 2010).
There are many reasons for low passing rates in developmental or remedial mathematics courses. Students, for instance, may have improper attitudes and expectations toward mathematics coursework and use of technology; poor attendance, time management, study and test-taking skills; and/or decreased access to college support services such as tutoring or mentoring programs (Gaston, 2009, p. 13). Similarly, at the institutional level, staffing patterns can often negatively affect student success. For example, developmental mathematics courses are typically taught by adjunct faculty, who are usually less able to provide one-on-one support to students and have less access to professional development activities than their full-time counterparts (“100% Math Initiative,” 2006, p. i).
Further, some students must take multiple remedial mathematics courses before reaching college-level proficiency in mathematics. Students faced with taking even three or four remedial mathematics courses may find that the time it will take them to receive their degree actually becomes a disincentive for continuing the program (Redden, 2010). For this reason, the American Association of Community Colleges notes that “student persistence can hinge on math, particularly if those students are in developmental courses” (Whissemore, 2011).
Developmental or remedial mathematics courses are not the only ones that pose a challenge to students beginning STEM tracks at community colleges. Students in
beginning science courses, such as general chemistry, also experience high failure rates, largely because these courses are often the first science courses at
two-year institutions that require a high level of quantitative reasoning skills. If students have minimal backgrounds in mathematics and/or science, these introductory science courses can often prove prohibitively challenging (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 2). A study conducted by Crisp, Nora, and Taggart, for instance, found that students who took Biology I or higher during their first college semester were less likely to switch to or declare a STEM major than their peers who did not enroll in a beginning science course (2009). Given these data, community colleges will have to develop measures and practices to assist students in completing remedial courses in order to increase enrollment and persistence in STEM courses. Some of these measures and practices are discussed in Section Two of this report.
Institutional Environment
African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans together constitute 29 percent of the national population—a figure which is increasing yearly. However, these minorities represent less than one-tenth of the college-educated science and engineering workforce. The literature surrounding minorities in STEM fields is quick to note that underrepresented minorities aspire to earn STEM degrees at the
same rate as other groups (Hrabowski, 2010). Indeed, as the figure below
demonstrates, White, Black and Hispanic students enter STEM fields at roughly the same rates. However, as previously indicated, White students are much more likely to
complete a STEM degree than their Black or Hispanic peers. Figure 1.1: STEM Entrance by Ethnicity Ethnicity Total (% of students) Mathematics (% of students) Physical Sciences (% of students) Biological/Agricultural Sciences (% of students) Engineering/ Engineering Technologies (% of students) Computer/ Information Sciences (% of students) White 21.5 1.1 1.6 6.5 8.4 5.7 Black 20.8 1.8 ! 0.5 ! 6.1 6.4 7.6 Hispanic 22.8 1.3 ! 0.7 ! 8.7 6.8 6.7 Asian/Pacific Islander 47.4 1.1 ! 4.3 15.9 15.0 14.9 American Indian/Alaska Native 19.1 ! # 3.4 0.9 7.1 ! 8.5 !
Source: Chen and Welso, 2009, p. 8.
! = Interpret data with caution (estimates are unstable) # = Rounds to zero.
Students belonging to underrepresented minorities may be deterred from persisting in STEM majors by gender, ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic biases that, “while
not necessarily blatant [. . .] can pose subtle but lasting emotional damage” to these students (Brown, 2011, p. 328). These biases may be firmly entrenched in academic institutions. Some researchers argue, for instance, that not only do academic materials and staff members usually represent a specific and narrow cultural standpoint, but students who do not have “similar contextual learning and communication styles” to those of their professors are less likely to achieve success in STEM fields (Brown Jr., 2011, p. 3). Therefore, if community colleges aim to actively recruit and retain minority students, they must ensure that professors teaching in STEM fields are accommodating of all backgrounds and learning styles.
Financial Concerns
As mentioned above, many community college students have limited financial means, and must work or support families while they study. This financial burden can make longer academic programs—such as STEM programs—less appealing than shorter programs typically characteristic of non-STEM fields (Packard, 2011, p. 5). For this reason, community colleges should consider offering financial incentives to students interested in STEM fields in order to increase the likelihood that these students will have the financial means to persist in their degree programs. Recommendations for ways in which community colleges can offer financial assistance to STEM students can be found in Section Two of this report.
Section Two: Strategies to Attract and Retain STEM Students
According to a recent article in Science Educator, “almost one half of U.S. students
receiving B.S. and M.S. science degrees [in 2004] attend community colleges during their academic careers, yet for the large majority of community college students in the sciences, a four-year degree in a STEM discipline remains an unrealized goal (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 1).” This observation highlights the importance of the role that community colleges play in educating STEM students as well as the work that these institutions still face in increasing the number of successful STEM graduates in their programs.
As noted in Section One of this report, colleges seeking to increase overall participation in STEM fields typically tend to focus on developing programs and initiatives targeted toward minorities, largely because this subset of students selects majors in STEM fields at the same rate as other groups but is less likely to complete STEM degrees (“U.S. Must Involve Underrepresented Minorities in Science and Engineering to Maintain Competitive Edge,” 2010). Indeed, a recent report by The National Academies argues that minorities should be the primary focus of institutions’ efforts to increase STEM completions, since in order to “reach a
national target that 10 percent of all 24-year-olds hold an undergraduate degree in science or engineering disciplines, the number of underrepresented minorities would need to quadruple or even quintuple.”(“U.S. Must Involve…,” 2010).
Higher education institutions should therefore strive to create programs that provide underrepresented minority students in STEM fields with strong financial, academic, and social support. Indeed, practices to increase recruitment and retention for all
students tend to fall into the following five major categories (Nestor-Baker and Kerka, 2009, p. 3):
1. Financial support 2. Academic skills 3. Academic direction
4. Instruction and academic support
5. An inclusive and welcoming institutional environment and the connection of students to that environment
In the pages that follow, we discuss these practices in greater detail and also profile two programs that have effectively increased STEM completion and persistence rates. When applicable, we also provide information regarding how these practices can be specifically implemented to help minority or otherwise underrepresented students pursuing degrees in STEM fields.
Financial Support
As noted in Section One, community college students often struggle to fund their education. Students who have fewer financial resources may be unable to complete the longer programs of study typically required by STEM disciplines, and therefore may either drop out or simply pursue a degree that requires less of a time or financial commitment. In response to this problem, many community colleges have adopted
bridge programs, which facilitate student transfers from community colleges to
four-year institutions. Such programs are designed to ensure that STEM students continue work in their discipline beyond the initial two community college years (Adam, 2011). Additionally, these programs generally include scholarship components which provide students with financial support necessary for pursuing
longer programs of study at four-year institutions (Whissemore, 2011). Programs like the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program can assist with funding for such endeavors.
Academic Skills
Many students enter community college not only with limited funds, but with deficiencies in academic preparation. One way of ensuring that neither finances nor lack of academic skills prohibits STEM program completion among community college students is to compress graduation requirements—particularly in remedial courses. By combining two or more remedial courses into one course,
community colleges can help to reduce time-to-completion for STEM degrees—a strategy which may help attract students who view STEM disciplines as being too time and cost prohibitive.
Several institutions have adopted this practice of compressing multiple remedial mathematics courses into fewer courses. South Texas College, for example, has compressed arithmetic, introductory algebra, and intermediate algebra into two courses instead of three. The courses require more in-class and computer lab time, but reduce total academic time spent on remedial mathematics (Redden, 2010). Similarly, the Community College of Denver offers a FastStart option that allows students to take two remedial courses in a single semester, and also offers a self-paced computer-based class that students can complete over the course of more than one semester
(Redden, 2010).
Some community colleges have also partnered with local high schools in order to offer dual enrollment programs in which students can take remedial or entry-level courses on a compressed timetable. Through this type of offering, students are able to complete some collegiate-level program or graduation requirements prior to entering college, thereby reducing the amount of time-to-degree. Recent research within New York and Florida school systems suggests that offering these dual enrollment courses to students with lower grade point averages (e.g. students who would not typically consider
pursuing higher education at a typical four-year institution) could help produce students who are “more motivated to persist in college as a result of gaining college credit while in high school” and could help to strengthen the overall impact of dual enrollment courses (Packard, 2011, p. 14).
Academic Direction
Many employers now require applicants to hold bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees rather than the associate degrees or certificates typically awarded by community colleges. However, low-income, first-generation college students – who make up a relatively high proportion of community college students – are “four times more likely to leave college during their first year than their peers, and more than three times less likely to transfer to a four-year school in a six year time frame (Packard, 2011, p. 5).” For this reason, it is especially important for educators and administrators to find ways to facilitate transfers from community colleges to four-year colleges.
As previously noted, this can often be accomplished through bridge programs which serve the dual purpose of increasing opportunities for student transfers and providing students with financial incentives to complete their four-year degrees. In order for bridge programs to be effective, however, community colleges must engage in significant high school and community outreach. These outreach efforts serve not only to spark interest in STEM, but also to emphasize pathways and career options within STEM fields as well as existing partnerships between community
colleges and four year institutions.(Packard, 2011, p. 2). For this reason, coordinated approaches to outreach between high schools, community colleges and four-year institutions are necessary in order to improve the rates of successful transfers
in STEM fields (Whissemore, 2011).
Community colleges may also consider creating new administrative positions to serve STEM students and better facilitate transfers between institutions. A Campus Developmental Mathematics Coordinator, for instance, could “oversee and
coordinate curriculum development, instructor professional development, and linkages with other campus units that can provide support to developmental mathematics students” (“100% Math Initiative,” 2006, p. v). Community colleges should also consider developing mathematics centers that provide tutoring and advising services for students engaged in STEM fields.
Instruction and Academic Support
As developmental courses tend to act as a barrier to students who might otherwise enter STEM fields, it is especially important that instruction at these levels be robust.
Developmental mathematics instructors must vary their classroom methodologies to reflect their students’ differing learning styles, and explore
real world applications of the material presented to students. They should also
emphasize the importance of homework completion and quality, teach basic
study skills (such as note-taking), and participate in training and professional development provided by their campuses (“100% Math Initiative,” 2006, p. v).
There are a number of strategies that community colleges can use to encourage persistence in STEM fields through academic support. Innovative pedagogies, such as
learning communities, might reach students who have typically underperformed in
science by promoting interpersonal interaction, collaborative learning and the sharing of information. Research suggests that learning communities can improve student attitudes toward learning, enhance the overall learning experience, and significantly increase student motivation in STEM courses (Freeman, Alston, and Winborne, 2008). Learning communities can also help promote the formation of self-supporting groups, more active involvement in classroom learning, enhanced quality of student learning, and higher persistence rates for participating
students when compared to their peers (Olds and Miller, 2004).
Institutional Environment
Many colleges and universities already work to increase diversity in STEM fields. However, while some institutional strategies have succeeded in increasing enrollment of
minority students, these initiatives do not always succeed in increasing the rate at which these students graduate. In order to address this problem, community colleges
must adopt methods for increasing the quality of the educational experience for female and minority students (Brown, 2011, p. 324). One important step
community colleges can take in the process of reducing attrition of underrepresented minority students in STEM fields is to hold focus groups comprising students,
faculty members, and college leaders to engage in dialogue about the possible causes of the problem (Hrabowski, 2008). These focus groups may be useful in identifying areas within the college’s program offerings, operations, or overall climate that can be improved in order to foster a greater sense of community and belonging among minority or female STEM students.
Additionally, many community colleges have started offering mentoring programs
designed to aid underrepresented student populations. Minority role models— particularly advanced students or members of the academic faculty—can play an instrumental role in increasing student satisfaction with the educational experience and encouraging persistence to graduation (Cole and Espinoza, 2008). These mentoring initiatives require not just the presence of minority staff members, but also the active efforts of all staff members to provide mentoring services, engage students in professional development activities, and frame learning and research objectives in accessible, relevant cultural contexts.
Case Studies
The recommendations discussed in the above sections reflect only a small subset of measures community colleges can take to improve student enrollment and retention rates in STEM fields. Additionally, we note that initiatives that combine two or more strategies—such as bridge programs combined with scholarships—are often more successful than initiatives that implement certain strategies in isolation. In the following case studies, we illustrate ways in which two community colleges have implemented comprehensive arrangements that have successfully increased the rates at which students persist in and graduate with STEM degrees.
Brooklyn Community College
Between 2006 and 2008, Brooklyn Community College (BCC), which forms part of the City University of New York (CUNY), piloted an immersion course in general chemistry during six-week winter and summer sessions in an effort to reduce
the drop-out and failure rates of students enrolled in the challenging course. BCC administrators theorized that students might better focus on their studies during these six-week sessions because they would be enrolled in fewer courses during this time. Instructors, too, would be able to devote more time to the students, as they would have a smaller course load. The faculty members leading the course also increased their advising and mentoring availability for the duration of the program by limiting their research hours (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 5).
Two major aspects of the program – Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) and drop-in tutoring – distinguished this chemistry immersion course from traditional courses in the field. In the PLTL component of the program, students who had previously been successful in the course led groups of six to eight current students through faculty-designed workshops “faculty-designed to promote exploration of the course material outside the traditional lecture environment” (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 6). In this way, the program shifted the course focus away from traditional education and toward more active student learning and problem solving. One of the main benefits of this learning approach was that students developed superior critical thinking skills, which may ultimately help minimize “transfer shock” upon transfer to a four-year college.
The course’s second distinguishing characteristic—drop-in tutoring—also had a positive impact on student achievement. Throughout the course, students were encouraged to attend after-class drop-in tutoring sessions with course faculty or
PLTL leaders. Immersion course participants attended tutoring sessions at a higher rate than their peers in traditional courses. Additionally, the highest attendance for tutoring sessions was found when the tutors also served as PLTL leaders, indicating that “tutoring is more important to students when it is connected to other components of the course” (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 7).
Results
BCC administrators found that student passing rates in the immersion chemistry courses were higher than in the traditional twelve-week sections. Interestingly,
“the percentage of students receiving a letter grade A was not significantly higher for students in the immersion groups,” suggesting that “the program has a particular effect on students at risk of failing the course” (Lloyd and Eckhardt, 2010, p. 5). Finally, the number of students who eventually attained STEM degrees was nearly twice as high in the immersion group as in the traditional group (38 percent versus 19 percent). Researchers Patrick Lloyd and Ronald Eckhardt theorize that the greater graduation rate among the immersion students is likely due to the fact that general chemistry is the terminal chemistry requirement for biology majors at BCC, and that “by increasing the pass rates in general chemistry, [the college] may have eliminated the major barrier to graduation for the majority of [biology] students” (2010, p. 6). Due to the success of the six-week course in general chemistry, BCC decided to implement some of the same methods – specifically, PLTL and drop-in tutoring – in many of its regular twelve-week courses.
University of Nebraska at Omaha and Metropolitan Community College
The National Science Foundation’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) provides funds to institutions seeking to “increase the number of American students studying, and graduating in, the STEM areas” (Heidel, et al., 2011). The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and Metropolitan Community College (MCC) received a STEP grant in 2003. Over the course of five years, the number of UNO STEM graduates increased at a higher rate than the number of total university graduates (38 percent as
compared to 32 percent). Gains were made primarily in biology, followed by chemistry and mathematics.
As part of the STEP grant, UNO and MCC formed an articulation agreement that
allowed students to transfer all academic courses from one institution to the other. MCC created six pre-STEM associate degrees, and students who were within 50 hours of completing the associate degree could apply for an UNO Bridge Scholarship ($500 per quarter at MCC and $1,000 per semester at UNO) if they transferred to a STEM major at UNO. As of the spring of 2011, all 15 of the former MCC students who received a bridge scholarship had either graduated with or had persisted in their STEM degree (Heidel, et al., 2011).
As part of the STEP grant, UNO and MCC also offered walk-in tutoring for STEM students through the Math-Science Learning Center. This center employed
upper-level mathematics and science students who were available to tutor lower-upper-level STEM students in need of additional academic support. In order to create faculty interest in
the learning center, tutors were selected and trained by university professors. This concerted effort to engage both students and faculty members in working toward a higher rate of STEM completion has ensured that the learning center established under the STEP grant is institutionally sustainable even now that the grant period
has ended. Indeed, as of 2011, the center still receives an average of 1,700 visits per week (Heidel, et al., 2011).
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