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Reducing the Loss of Community College Students who Demonstrate Potential in STEM

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Abstract

Community colleges serve nearly half of all undergraduates, including a disproportionate share of African American and Hispanic students, and are a key point of access to higher education for students who face socioeconomic disadvantages or other obstacles to participation in higher education. Community colleges stand to play a pivotal role in strengthening the nation’s workforce and increasing opportunity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. However, a troublingly large fraction of community college students who complete advanced STEM courses ultimately leave college without postsecondary credentials. Utilizing data from the California Community College system, we investigated four hypothesized explanations for why students who have demonstrated potential to succeed in STEM fields by completing an advanced course in math, chemistry, or physics did not complete college. We found that students who left college tended to enter the STEM curriculum at lower levels of skills, struggled in non-STEM coursework, and did not take or were unable to pass STEM courses in other fields. They also were more likely to be White and more likely to be male. We conclude with recommendations for institutional policy and practice and for future research.

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Notes

  1. A total of 9,081 students completed calculus I and PS&E I but not general chemistry I; 25,165 students completed calculus I and general chemistry I but not PS&E I; 2,200 students completed general chemistry I and PS&E I but not calculus I; 19,635 students completed all three courses.

  2. For the purpose of calculating a non-STEM GPA variable that would be most relevant to our focus on students who were successful in calculus I, general chemistry I, or PS&E I, we included all courses taken by these students except courses in core STEM transfer fields. Specifically, we excluded from our calculation courses taken in biological sciences but not biotechnology and biomedical technology; information technology and computer science; general engineering but not engineering technology; mathematics but not mathematics skills courses; and general physical sciences, physics, and chemistry, but not the physical science fields with a smaller place in the curriculum of the CCC system colleges like astronomy, geology, and earth science.

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  1. Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Peter Riley Bahr

  2. Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA

    Jon McNaughtan & Grant R. Jackson

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Bahr, P.R., McNaughtan, J. & Jackson, G.R. Reducing the Loss of Community College Students who Demonstrate Potential in STEM. Res High Educ 64, 675–704 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09713-8

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