Panhandle Pipeline: Assessing the Impact of Mandatory vs Self-selected Structured Activities on STEM Undergraduate Student Success

Amarillo College, Amarillo TX

Investigators

Abstract

Community colleges play a critical role in the effort to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of the STEM workforce. Amarillo College's Panhandle Pipeline (P2) project supports this initiative by recruiting, retaining, and improving the performance of students obtaining degrees in STEM fields and by promoting transfer of community college students to 4-year universities to complete baccalaureate degrees in STEM. The project provides scholarships to over sixty recent high school graduates and adult returning students who exhibit academic promise in STEM programs and demonstrate financial need. Planned P2 student activities include field research experiences, mentoring, tutoring, academic advising, and career counseling. The goals of the P2 project include generating evidence of the effectiveness of requiring student participation in structured activities in comparison to allowing students to self-select the structured activities in which to participate. The research team at this Hispanic Serving Institution will implement a longitudinal randomized controlled trial over the five-year project, with students stratified by gender and age (18-22 vs. 23 and over), and randomly assigned within each stratum to either a treatment group requiring participation in a prescribed set of activities, or to a control group, with access to the same activities, but self-directed participation. Analyses will consider student demographic, baseline academic characteristics, and student subgroup (high school dual credit students, returning adult students, and currently enrolled students with undeclared or general studies majors). Results from the project will be disseminated via education journals such as the Community College Journal of Research and Practice and New Directions for Community Colleges and STEM-related conferences such as the American Society of Engineering Education, and the Texas Association of Minority Engineers.