Broadening Participation in Engineering: Workshop on Reducing Attrition in Precalculus Pathways

Clemson University, Clemson SC

Investigators

Abstract

There are many pathways to an engineering degree and all of them pass through calculus. In South Carolina, there is a significant racial and socioeconomic disparity between engineering students who place below calculus and those who enter college calculus-ready. Engineering ­intending students from underrepresented minority backgrounds are significantly more likely to place below calculus than their white counterparts. That disparity translates into a dramatic gap in engineering degree completion rates. Narrowing the gap and broadening participation in engineering by reducing attrition rates along the precalculus pathway to an engineering degree requires that secondary schools, two-year colleges, and four-year colleges work together to identify barriers and develop coordinated action plans for surmounting those barriers. The project will bring together 30 action teams of three people from selected secondary and post-secondary institutions across South Carolina for a two-day workshop. The project is designed to meet three goals: 1. Identify common barriers to success within institutions and between institutions, 2. Establish cross-institutional collaborations, and 3. Build upon existing best practices to develop specific action plans for reducing attrition among precalculus students. The project will contribute to understanding the specific focal predictors most relevant to precalculus pathways to engineering degrees for South Carolina students, particularly those who are first-generation college students and/or from racially underrepresented or low socioeconomic backgrounds. The data collected from the workshop will help us understand the barriers to engineering success as perceived by faculty and administrators in secondary and post-secondary colleges. Action plans developed during the workshop will establish a range of potential pilot studies for addressing specific barriers at specific points along the pathways, and will set the stage for larger-scale interventions to reduce attrition. These action plans may serve as pilot projects or proof of concept for statewide interventions to broaden the engineering participation of first-generation college students, racially underrepresented minorities, and students from lower-income families. The lessons learned from the project and from subsequent interventions may be transferable to other systems with similar demographics. Themes that emerge will increase our understanding of the complex interactions between high school course selection, choice of higher education institution, and placement and performance in the first college math course.