Abstract
Limited attention has been placed on the relationship between developmental math and STEM outcomes in community college. We therefore examine one particular experience during the transition from high school to college called math misalignment, which occurs when college students are placed lower in math than is warranted given their high-school course-taking history and record of achievement. Drawing on analysis of linked high school and community college student records, we find that a majority of students in the study sample experienced math misalignment in community college. Moreover, math misalignment especially hindered STEM-aspiring students from pursuing STEM pathways. STEM-aspiring students who experienced math misalignment were less likely to complete STEM courses than STEM-aspiring students who were directly placed in transfer-level math. This study underscores the importance of aligning academic standards across high-school and postsecondary institutions as a means of improving STEM participation.
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Notes
These authors specified that this growth is mostly driven by occupations related to computer and information systems.
Aligning with the California state graduation requirements, LUSD students are required to complete at least 3 years of math and 2 years of science courses to obtain a high school diploma (California Department of Education 2018). At LUCCD, students are required to pass intermediate algebra (algebra 2 equivalent) with a C or higher in order to obtain an Associate’s degree. However, in order to transfer to a California State University (CSU) or a University of California (UC) in one of the STEM majors, students must complete 60 semester units or 90 quarter units. This information was obtained through the assist.org website. The specific criteria vary depending on the major. For example, to transfer with a Biology major, students need 40 major-specific units and in Biochemistry, students need 44 major-specific units.
These parameters resulted from a suit of validation studies conducted by the research arm of the Chancellor’s Office (Bahr et al. 2019; Research and Planning Group 2018). The Chancellor’s Office provided this set of default placement rules if colleges wish to bypass their own AB 705 validation efforts.
Prior to 2014, all students in grades 9 through 11 were required to take the math and science California State Tests (CST) if they attend a California public school. The state set five performance level on the CST based on a range of cut scores, and they are: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic. In 2014–15, California implemented a new testing scheme aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The data used in this study cuts off at 2014. We include students’ CST scores in math and science as well covariates capturing the math and science course taken in 10th and 11th because the CST tests students take directly corresponds to their course.
We identified completing transferable credits within 2 years of enrollment as a relevant timeframe because community colleges, in spirit, offer 2-year programs leading to an associate’s degree or transfer. According to the California Master Plan for Higher Education, community colleges in California are supposed to provide education during the first 2 years of undergraduate education (University of California Office of the President n.d.). Since the establishment of the plan, however, research suggests that students exhibit erratic enrollment patters and tend to remain enrolled for longer than 2 years (e.g., Crosta 2014). For this reason, we also examine the total number of STEM credits completed overall.
All missing values except HS GPAs are imputed with a zero and included with the extra dummy indicator in all specifications.
The racial-ethnic composition of underrepresented minorities in this study are Black, Hispanic, and Native American students as identifiable in the current data. Bahr et al.’s 2017 study on the STEM pathways in California Community Colleges also defined underrepresented minorities as Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Like the U.S. Census’ definition of Hispanics, we define Hispanics as “a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” It is also important to note that Asian is a broad categorization that encompasses many different ethnicities, including Asian groups that are also underrepresented in STEM. However, the current data do not allow for disaggregating Asians.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation Eager Grant (2015-1544254), the University of Southern California Russell Endowed Fellowship, and the Haynes Foundation. Opinions are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting agency or of the authors’ home institutions. We would like to thank the discussant and participants at the 2018 Association for Education Finance and Policy Conference and the anonymous reviewers for valuable feedback on this paper.
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Park, E.S., Ngo, F. & Melguizo, T. The Role of Math Misalignment in the Community College STEM Pathway. Res High Educ 62, 403–447 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09602-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09602-y
Keywords
- STEM
- Community college
- Developmental math
- Fixed effects
- Inter-sector alignment