Achieving Equitable Persistence in STEM with a Data-informed Student-centered Transformation of the First-year College Experience

Cuny Hunter College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to develop and deploy a set of effective success practices to transform first-year STEM education in order to attain equitable educational outcomes in STEM, both at Hunter College and other Hispanic-serving institutions. While many Hispanic students enter Hunter College interested in STEM, relatively few persist and graduate in their chosen STEM majors due to challenges during their first year. With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program), the project team will deliver several STEM success initiatives intended to enhance first-year STEM education and determine which policies and practices are the most effective for supporting STEM success at Hunter College. The effective practices will be embedded across STEM disciplines at Hunter College, thereby transforming its educational landscape. The project’s results will be disseminated broadly, enabling other campuses to deploy similar best practices. This is expected to reduce equity gaps and improve STEM outcomes for Hispanic students at Hunter College and other HSIs, thereby contributing to a larger and more diverse STEM workforce. This project aims to enhance the first-year experience among STEM students by deploying and studying the effectiveness of a range of pedagogical practices. These include gateway STEM course revisions, faculty pedagogical development, course-based research experiences, STEM-focused learning communities, STEM-readiness activities, and STEM-focused co-curricular supports. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to examine four key questions. First is how these enhancements relate to students’ short- and long-term academic success, motivation, belonging, and commitment to STEM. Second is how students’ motivation and self-concept as science learners relate to their success and persistence in STEM. Third is how students’ perception of institutional climate relates to their success and persistence in STEM. Fourth is how contextual and situational factors relate to success across these different initiatives. The new knowledge generated from this project will be disseminated to faculty, researchers, policy makers, and institutional leaders within Hunter College and the wider higher education community, via presentations, publications, and conferences. The anticipated benefits of this project include a greater sense of belonging and motivation among diverse STEM students; increased persistence and success in STEM among Hispanic students; equitable outcomes for students in their chosen STEM discipline; an enhanced STEM educational experience; increased collaboration between STEM and STEM education faculty; and increased stakeholder commitment to transformative STEM educational practices. This project will also generate knowledge on the institutional transformation process itself by deepening understanding of how intra-institutional teams can function to support students. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.