Targeted Infusion Project: Keeping the STEM Gate Open (KSTEM-GO) - The Effects of Standards-Based Grading on the Achievement, Retention, and Agency of Black Female Students

Spelman College, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), through Targeted Infusion Projects supports the development, implementation and study of evidence-based innovative models and approaches for improving the preparation and success of HBCU undergraduate students so that they may pursue science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) graduate programs and/or careers. Spelman College seeks to understand how assessment practices in post-secondary mathematics courses can impact Black female students' academic achievement on assessments, retention in subsequent courses, and mathematical identity and agency. This project investigates the standard-based grading approach to assessment, and is designed to provide data helpful in understanding Black female student achievement, experience, and retention in precalculus courses, as well as retention in STEM majors, and ultimately individual identity and agency within mathematics. Results from this project will add important insights to the wider body of knowledge about standard based grading in higher education. Undergraduate level mathematics courses traditionally employ a points-based grading (PBG) system in which final grades are a percentage of total points earned. Standards-based grading (SBG) is an approach to assessment in which students are provided clear learning objectives and grades are directly based on students' ability to demonstrate full proficiency of these objectives. By comparing data from two sections of a SBG precalculus course and two sections of a PBG precalculus course, the proposed project seeks to understand Black female student achievement, experience, and retention in the SBG precalculus sequence courses, retention in STEM majors, and ultimately identity and agency within mathematics. The specific aims are to: 1) redesign Spelman College’s current point-based grading Precalculus I course into a standards-based grading course, 2) implement the redesigned standards-based grading Precalculus course, and 3) document student and instructor experiences in the standards-based grading Precalculus course, perform student follow-up focus groups and interviews, and collect retention data for STEM majors. Results from this project will add important insights to the wider body of knowledge about SBG in higher education and provide resources for other Mathematics faculty and departments who may be interested in how SBG might enhance their pedagogical and/or curricular initiatives. 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.