2014 - Persistence and Performance for Latino Community College Students in STEM Majors

Attribution: Sanchez, Andrew C.
Researchers: Andrew C. Sanchez
University Affiliation: California State University, Long Beach
Email:
Research Question:
1) Do coaching intervention models in STEM courses contribute to student semester-to-semester persistence for Latino community college students who participate in these courses, when compared to students who don't participate? 2) Do Latino community college students who participate in college STEM courses with coaching intervention models perform better, as measured by final course GPA, when compared to students who do not participate?
Published: No
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: N/A
Journal Entry: N/A
Year: 2014
Findings:
  1. The coaching intervention models in STEM courses did contribute to student semester-to-semester persistence for Latino community college students. The intervention group had a retention rate of 90% while the non-intervention group had a retention rate of 79%.
  2. Students that participated in the coaching intervention also performed better in comparison to students that did not have the coaching intervention.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
Scholarship Types: DissertationKeywords: Coaching InterventionCommunity CollegeCommunity College StudentsLatinosPerformancePersistenceSTEM MajorRegions: CaliforniaMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Quasi-ExperimentSecondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Chi-squareDescriptive StatisticsIndependent t-testWelch Two-Sample t-Test Sampling Frame:Latino STEM students
Sampling Types: Non-Random - PurposiveAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • The author utilized Social Cognitive Theory as his theoretical framework.
  • Pre-existing institutional data collected by Los Angeles Harbor College, a community college, was used for this study. The data encompasses a time period of three academic years. The data focuses on Los Angeles Harbor College which is a community college. Their student body is 48% Hispanic, 18% Caucasian, 16% African-American, and 18% Asian. 35% of all students are low income, over 40% of incoming new students are underprepared in English, and close to 80% of students are underprepared in math.
  • The survey focused on STEM students that self-identified as Latino or Hispanic.
  • The author compared results between students who received an academic intervention and students who did not receive an academic intervention. In total, the sample included 364 participants, all of whom were in STEM engineering courses. Of these students, 64%, 235, self-identified as Latino or Hispanic.
  • The dependent variable was whether or not students persisted in STEM from semester to semester.
  • The key independent variable was whether or not a student used a coaching intervention.Other variables included gender, math placement, English placement, GPA, if the student received a tuition free grant, age.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:Community College and STEM
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts