This study of 309 participants utilized a mixed-method approach to identify cognitive and non-cognitive contributors to student persistence and attrition from engineering technology programs at a mid-Atlantic community college. The quantitative component of the study utilized linear discriminant analysis techniques on 13 independent variables to predict participant membership in either of 3 groups: those students who persisted, those who dropped out, or those who switched out of engineering technology programs. The complementary qualitative component used focus groups to triangulate the quantitative component and strengthen the study findings. The study revealed that math placement test scores and high school math/science preparation were the most significant predictors of student persistence. Student financial status also figured prominently in participants' decisions to depart the college altogether.
This monograph provides college academic administrators, institutional researchers, professional and learned societies, and academic advisors with information to improve understanding of the paths students take through engineering programs in higher education. The evidence used in this study comes principally from the 11-year college transcript history (1982-1993) of the High School & Beyond/Sophomore Cohort Longitudinal Study, as well as the high school transcripts, test scores, and surveys of this nationally representative sample. This is the first national tracking study of students in any undergraduate discipline that identifies attempted major fields from the empirical evidence of college transcripts. A "curricular threshold" of engineering was defined, and the careers of students described with reference to that threshold. While 16 long-term "destinations" of students who reached the threshold are identified, they are collapsed into four for purposes of analysis: (1) thresholders, who never moved beyond the requisite entry courses; (2) migrants, who crossed the threshold of the engineering path, began to major in enginering, but switched to other fields or left college altogether; (3) completers, some of whom continued on to graduate school by age 30; and (4) two-year-only students, whose college experience was confined principally to engineering tech programs in community colleges. Findings are presented in seven parts: (1) "Engineering Paths as Established by Students"; (2) "The Content of Their Curriculum"; (3) "Engineering and Science: Confusing Signs along the Path"; (4) "Antecedents of the Engineering Path"; (5) "Choosing the Engineering Path"; (6) "Learning Engineering: Migration and Traffic"; and (7) "Experiencing Engineering: Classroom Environments, Credit Loads, and Grades." A concluding section presnts suggestions for changing the image of engineering among high school students and potential college majors, particularly women. Suggestions are also provided to other disciplines for undertaking similar tracking studies, particularly in fields where men have been a distinct minority. Contains 131 references and an appendix. (AA)
Community colleges play an important role in starting students on the road to engineering careers, but students often face obstacles in transferring to four-year educational institutions to continue their education. Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers, a new book from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, discusses ways to improve the transfer experience for students at community colleges and offers strategies to enhance partnerships between those colleges and four-year engineering schools to help students transfer more smoothly. In particular, the book focuses on challenges and opportunities for improving transfer between community colleges and four-year educational institutions, recruitment and retention of students interested in engineering, the curricular content and quality of engineering programs, opportunities for community colleges to increase diversity in the engineering workforce, and a review of sources of information on community college and transfer students. It includes a number of current policies, practices, and programs involving community collegeâ€"four-year institution partnerships.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine Latino community college student persistence and academic performance as it relates to students who study in STEM fields. The main focus of this research was to determine whether using a learning-coach intervention model in engineering courses would improve student persistence and academic performance. This quantitative research used institutional data consisting of 364 participant cases to examine whether teaching methodologies that employed the use of learning coaches as a regular component of engineering curriculum would improve student semester-to-semester persistence and overall grade point averages. The findings revealed that for those engineering courses that included a coaching intervention as part of the curriculum, participating students achieved better persistence and better academic performance when compared to students who participated in courses that did not include a coaching intervention. Statistical analyses revealed that when students participate in courses that include a coaching intervention, those students will achieve statistically significant better persistence rates and higher overall grade point averages. The results of this research provide a greater understanding to educators and policymakers so that they may adequately address the issue of declining persistence rates and poor academic performance for Latino community college students who study in STEM fields. Based on the results of this study, recommendations are made for changes to practice that would encourage the incorporation of coaching intervention models throughout STEM course curriculum so that improvements in overall student success in STEM studies can be achieved.
This quantitative study tested factors related to the persistence intentions of engineering technology students at a large, Midwestern, urban institution in 2018. This work sought to determine if three forms of social support promoted intent to persist either directly or indirectly through the mediating variable sense of belonging. The three specific social supports considered were family support, faculty support and off-campus community support. The data collected for this study did not support the anticipated high rates of attrition for engineering technology student participants that has been reported for students in STEM fields. The student participant intent to persist rate was 88%, measured campus persistence data supported the student responses at 87% of students persisting to the next semester. The student participants in this study included transfer students from engineering degree programs, transfer students who had earned associate degrees as well traditional engineering technology majors. Those students who transferred into an engineering technology program may have previously made persistence decisions and are therefore are less affected by social support factors. The Pearson product-moment coefficient and one-way ANOVA analysis were used to assess the research questions. The findings of the study were that the three social support factors had a statistically significant impact on the sense of belonging of students. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to identify statistically significant differences between groups when considering gender, age group, major and student origin. A saturated analytic model was developed to test the social support factors effect on sense of belonging and intent to persist. The path results were not statistically significant for intent to persist due to the minimal number of students not intending to persist limiting the analysis. The direct effect of the social support factors and the indirect effect through sense of belonging could not be established with the present data. The path analysis verified the relationship that predicted sense of belonging from faculty support, family support. The analytic model was trimmed to provide a sense of belonging model that provided good fit to the data.
The lack of student persistence is a burgeoning issue and over the last 40 years has become a national concern among researchers, administrators, policymakers and practitioners. Given the low persistence rates of first-year students at America's community colleges, leaders are searching for useful and successful strategies that will aid in closing the gap in student attrition. Successful completion of a degree or certificate is often considered the great economic equalizer in today's society from a public and cultural perspective. The purpose of this research study was to empirically investigate the odds ratio associated with predicting persistence that exists between first-time freshmen students who lived in campus housing and those who live off-campus at a large-city community college referred to as LCCC. Specifically, the focus of this study was to determine whether living in on-campus housing, receiving needs-based federal financial aid (Pell Grant), ethnicity, gender and enrolling in one or more developmental education courses are predictors of persistence. This study was predicated on the collection of quantitative data from a large-city community college's student information system from the years 2010 through 2013. The researcher has concluded based on the data analysis of this research study the results were statistically insignificant for those students living on-campus when compared to those students living off-campus. An analysis of Ethnicity as a predictor of persistence revealed that in the short-term African-American students actually persisted at higher rates than their counterparts. However, in three of the last four semesters analyzed, African-Americans persisted at significantly lower rates than White students. Lastly, an analysis of the students who were enrolled in Developmental Education (Remedial) courses suggested that the odds are significantly lower concerning persistence versus their counterparts. However, it must be noted that both Hispanic students and those receiving needs-based financial aid (Pell) attrition was no worse than their counterparts. Based on the complex nature of both the community college student and the unique opportunity for them to live on-campus, additional data is required in order to measure and evaluate whether housing status promotes improved academic persistence. The reported research studies pertaining to community colleges and living on-campus are meager at best. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/155442
