The Effect of Developmental Math on STEM Participation in Community College: Variation by Race, Gender, Achievement, and Aspiration

Abstract

We use regression discontinuity design to examine the impact of placing into developmental math on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) participation in community colleges and whether these relationships differ for underrepresented racially minoritized (URM), women, STEM-oriented, and STEM-aspiring students. Results show that lower math placement was a deterrent to both math progression and STEM participation, especially for those at the margin of placement in transfer-level math. Subgroup analyses suggest that lower math placement may have supported women, and to a lesser extent URM students, in completing transferable STEM credits. For STEM-oriented students, we find suggestive evidence that lower placement deterred them from accumulating transferable credits. We discuss how community colleges can support these students and bolster the community college STEM pathway.

“You Shall Not Pass”: Predicting Attrition and Completion of an Iraqi Academic Preparatory Program

“…Especially regarding gender, several studies have reported that not only do more women than men attend university, but more women than men are likely to graduate (Dayioğlu & Türüt-Aşik, 2007;Hyde & Kling, 2001;McDaniel, 2012). Gender and racial identity are also important factors to consider in understanding the relationship between developmental education and academic momentum (Park & Ngo, 2021). Due to the vast cultural differences between Iraq and the United States with respect to gender and ethnic identity, these two constructs received particular attention in this study.…”

“…Because one of the challenges of providing developmental education in undergraduate coursework is students' frustration with the amount of time they must spend in developmental courses, which are not credited toward their respective degrees (Eberly, 2018;Park & Ngo, 2021;Rutschow & Schneider, 2011), some scholars have argued for accelerating developmental education sequences to increase students' academic momentum (e.g., Daugherty et al, 2019;Hodara & Smith Jaggars, 2014). Schudde and Keisler (2019) and Boatman (2021), for example, both found a strong relationship between participating in accelerated developmental education and key indicators of academic momentum, including completing college-level math courses and total credit accumulation.…”

“…Developmental education is distinguished from remediation in that it pairs academic coursework with additional supports such as advising and counseling . Despite over 40 years of research on developmental education, primarily based in the United States (Boylan et al, 2017), there is still a great deal of debate over the effectiveness of developmental education in promoting student success Park & Ngo, 2021).…”

College student experiences with computer-assisted instruction in a developmental mathematics course

“…This problem is evident in the attrition rate of students from science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors. Despite growing demand by U.S employers and financial incentives by the private and public sectors to increase STEM degree production, the number of STEM graduates from U.S. postsecondary institutions continues to fall short of market demand (E. S. Park & Ngo, 2021). There is evidence to suggest students' early course load and progress strongly impact academic momentum (Adelman, 2006;Wang, 2015).…”

“…It is not enough for faculty to teach mathematical rules and methods to create a foundation for the mastery of mathematical operations (Tularam, 2018). The literature acknowledges the problems postsecondary education has faced with the traditional teacher-led approach to developmental education (Jaggars et al, 2015;E. S. Park & Ngo, 2021;Rutschow & Mayer, 2018).…”