Increasing Community College STEM Student Success and Persistence through Engaged Communities of Support
Authors: McFarland Jenny , Leoni Deann , Fleming M.Thomas , Goodman Nate 
Published: June 2021

The past decade has seen simultaneous increases in post‐secondary tuition, diversity in the U.S. population and demand for a STEM‐educated workforce. Community colleges (CCs) are an underutilized source of women, first generation and underrepresented students in STEM fields. Half of the people who enter STEM fields start at community colleges (CCs) but only a fraction of the federal funding is awarded to CCs and few studies of STEM undergraduates include CC students. More research is needed on CC STEM students. There is strong evidence that too few STEM‐interested students persist to degree attainment and too often underrepresented and under‐resourced community college students fail to persist in a STEM degree pathway.

The RiSE (Relationships in Science Education) project is a student‐centered, faculty‐driven program at Edmonds Community College (EdCC). RiSE is focused on increasing STEM student success by creating and reinforcing STEM student resources, building an intentional STEM student community and providing wrap‐around support (including tutoring, advising, transfer assistance). Although students have been the primary target of this project, faculty have been critical to its success and faculty communities are part of this program. Faculty have come together in a Core Leadership Team, STEM based education research Journal Club, and Faculty Colloquium series to discuss research and share best practices in pedagogy and student support. Through student events, undergraduate research, engaged evidence‐based instruction, and a STEM Study Room, faculty have become increasingly engaged with students and have built a community that supports all students.

We posed two overarching questions of the multi‐year RiSE project: (1) What impact has RiSE had on STEM student persistence (completion of transfer degrees), success (GPA) and STEM identity? (2) To what extent have STEM faculty been engaged and impacted by the RiSE program? We used a mixed methods approach to address these research questions. We analyzed six years of quantitative data on student participation and faculty engagement in elements of RiSE. We periodically surveyed students and faculty and analyzed this quantitative self‐report data. We used a qualitative phenomenological approach to code and analyze written reflections and semi‐structured interviews of faculty. We also analyzed student records to quantitatively measure the impact on student performance. Students involved in RiSE have a higher GPA (0.2 higher) and increased persistence (21%) compared to similar STEM students. RiSE has prompted faculty from across STEM disciplines to change teaching approaches to include more research‐based, active learning methods and become more engaged in the STEM community.

Community college students go on to major in sciences in FASEB disciplines: biochemistry, molecular biology, and physiology and continue on to medical, pharmacy or graduate schools. Our students are a critical source of much needed diversity at 4‐year institutions and professional schools. Institutions must do more to intentionally support and value our CC STEM transfer students to increase their success and persistence thru undergraduate and graduate programs.

Support or Funding Information

Supported by NSF DUE 1068399.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.