As the field of chemistry education moves toward greater inclusion and increased participation by underrepresented minorities, standards for investigating the differential impacts and outcomes of learning environments have to be considered. While quantitative methods may not be capable of generating the in-depth nuances of qualitative methods, they can provide meaningful insights when applied at the group level. Thus, when we conduct quantitative studies in which we aim to learn about the similarities or differences of groups within the same learning environment, we must raise our standards of measurement and safeguard against threats to the validity of inferences that might favor one group over another. One way to provide evidence that group comparisons are supported in a quantitative study is by conducting measurement invariance testing. In this manuscript, we explain the basic concepts of measurement invariance testing within a confirmatory factor analysis framework with examples and a step-by-step tutorial. Each of these steps is an opportunity to safeguard against interpretation of group differences that may be artifacts of the assessment instrument functioning rather than true differences between groups. Reflecting on and safeguarding against threats to the validity of the inferences we can draw from group comparisons will aid in providing more accurate information that can be used to transform our chemistry classrooms into more socially inclusive environments. To catalyze this effort, we provide code in the ESI for two different software packages (R and Mplus) so that interested readers can learn to use these methods with the simulated data provided and then apply the methods to their own data. Finally, we present implications and a summary table for researchers, practitioners, journal editors, and reviewers as a reference when conducting, reading, or reviewing quantitative studies in which group comparisons are performed.

Chemistry education research has sought to understand why students struggle in organic chemistry courses. Beyond the volume and difficulty of the material taught in this course, there are also affective factors, such as attitude toward chemistry, that can influence how students perform. Studies have documented cases in which students of underrepresented minority backgrounds in science fields have less positive attitudes than their majority peers. Thus, in this study, we investigated whether the significant positive attitude gains found in a flipped classroom compared to a traditional lecture course extended to the Black female students in the sample when compared to the rest of their peers. Our study employs measurement invariance testing, which reveals whether an instrument's internal structure holds for different groups, to support valid comparisons. The study documents that Black female students began the course with lower attitude scores than their peers. Results of this study indicate that, while Black female students experience similar attitude gains to the rest of their peers in the flipped classroom, initial attitude differences are not completely erased by this single experience. Our study also uses structural equation modeling to describe the relationship between attitude and achievement in this flipped organic chemistry classroom. The attitude− achievement relationship was successfully modeled by a reciprocal causation framework in which emotional satisfaction had a small but significant and positive relationship with subsequent achievement measures. In light of the observed relationship between attitude and achievement, this finding suggests that continued research into both attitudinal and achievement factors for students from populations underrepresented in the sciences is warranted.

Some students struggle with chemistry because they do not find the relevance between chemistry content and their lives or they perceive their intelligence as fixed. Social-psychological interventions (SPIs), brief interventions that target students’ subjective experiences, were developed to address these issues. As a result, SPIs have been associated with gains in students’ academic performance, attitude, and persistence in various instructional settings; however, only a limited number of studies have explored SPIs within a chemistry context. This study evaluated the effectiveness of two SPIs, a growth mindset intervention (GMI) and a utility value intervention (UVI), on promoting students’ academic performance and attitude in a general chemistry course with a large class size. This study also explored a theoretical explanation for the relationship among SPIs, attitude, and academic performance. Each SPI was designed to facilitate instructional adoption and was implemented by posting three prompts incorporated into homework assignments. The results show that the UVI led to a consistent improvement in student achievement, and among students who begin the course with lower attitudes toward chemistry, the UVI led to an improvement in students’ emotional satisfaction and utility value. The UVI’s improvement in academic performance was also observed with a group of students who have been underrepresented in the sciences, although a smaller sample size prevented finding statistical significance. The GMI improved academic performance relative to a comparison group but not to the extent observed with the UVI. The cost-to-benefit ratio associated with adopting SPIs within chemistry instruction seems highly favorable and thus warrants strong consideration among chemistry instructors.

Over a decade has passed since faculty members’ goals for the undergraduate chemistry instructional laboratory were first investigated on a large, national scale in the United States. This study revisits these goals, using data from a 2022 national survey of chemistry faculty members in the United States (n = 521) to investigate current objectives, including how those goals vary with course, institutional context, and receipt of funding for improving undergraduate chemistry courses. A modified version of the Faculty Goals for Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Instrument was used to measure goals, with psychometric evidence providing support for its use across the studied contexts, with the exception of the general chemistry laboratory. Goals were associated with course and receipt of funding but not institution type, both with regard to institutions’ highest chemistry degree awarded and approval from the American Chemical Society to award certified bachelor's chemistry degrees. Results suggest that faculty members may adopt a distinct set of goals not immediately associated with the practice of chemistry in the general chemistry laboratory. Further, goals increasingly focus on providing research experience and cultivating disciplinary knowledge and skills with progression through the chemistry curriculum; this focus increases more abruptly when moving from large-enrollment lower-level courses to small-enrollment upper-level courses. Findings imply a need for increased efforts focused on (1) evaluating goals for the general chemistry laboratory, including whether those goals contribute to overarching curricular objectives, (2) promoting adoption of evidence-based pedagogies in large-enrollment contexts to better align instruction with the practice of chemistry, (3) supporting faculty members in procuring funding to improve courses, and (4) refining professional societies’ evaluation criteria for undergraduate chemistry programs.