DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39086.v1
title: Utility Value Intervention Study in Postsecondary Gateway Science Courses, United States, 2017-2021
title: Version 1

description: The Utility Value Intervention (UVI) Study in Postsecondary Gateway Science Courses, funded by Institute of Education Sciences (IES) as a large-scale intervention study, aimed to assess the effectiveness of the utility value intervention in enhancing students' academic progress (reflected in course grades) and persistence (continued enrollment in science courses and sustained interest). Specifically, the study sought to determine whether the intervention had the greatest positive impact on first-generation college students (FG), underrepresented minority students (URM), first-generation underrepresented minority students (FG-URM), and students with multiple high-risk identities.
This research was conducted within physics and chemistry courses and implemented as a multi-cohort double-blind randomized controlled trial, involving a total of 7,863 undergraduate participants across six different student cohorts and two science departments. Upon entry into the study, all students were randomly assigned to either the UVI treatment group or a control group. Randomization was stratified based on underrepresented ethnic minority status, first-generation college status, and gender to ensure balanced representation of these subgroups in both treatment and control conditions.
Students remained in their assigned condition throughout the study, even if they enrolled in both physics and chemistry courses. The number of cohorts was determined to ensure an adequate sample size for assessing the intervention's effectiveness across various student subgroups with diverse socio-demographic characteristics. Given the study's implementation within the quarter system, Cohorts 1, 3, and 5 commenced in the fall quarter, while Cohorts 0, 2, and 4 began in the winter quarter.
description: The goal of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the utility value intervention in fostering students' academic progress (i.e., course grades) and persistence (i.e., continued enrollment in science courses and interest). It was of interest whether the greatest positive impact could be found for first-generation college-going (FG), underrepresented minority (URM) and first-generation underrepresented minority students (FG-URM) and students with intersecting high-risk identities.
description: The study took place within physics and chemistry courses. This intervention was conducted as a multi-cohort double-blind randomized control trial with a cumulative 7,863 undergraduates across six different student cohorts and two participating science departments. All participating students were assigned to either the UVI treatment condition or a control condition at their first entry to the study. Randomization of students was stratified on underrepresented ethnic minority status, first-generation college-going status and gender to ensure equivalent numbers of the subgroups of interest in the treatment and control conditions. Students remained in the same condition across time and subjects in case they enrolled in both the physics and chemistry course. The numbers of cohorts were determined necessary to provide a sufficient sample size to assess the differential efficacy of the intervention across targeted student subgroups with differing socio-demographic student characteristics. As the study was conducted within the quarter system, Cohorts 1 and 3, 5 began in the fall quarter and Cohort 0, 2 and 4 began in the winter quarter.
Implementation and data collection for Physics was conducted across all existing cohorts, whereas implementation and data collection for Chemistry was conducted during the pilot cohort as well as Cohorts 1,3 and 4. These differences were due to differing course size and resulting sample sizes in the two subjects. It also needs to be noted that the intervention was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic from Spring 2020-Winter 2021.
The targeted science courses were taught in a two-quarter sequence and therefore the intervention was conducted over two quarters within each cohort. Within each quarter, students received two writing assignments (either treatment or control). Baseline and post-test data were collected at the beginning and end of each quarter.
description: The Surveys datasets include measures on motivational attitudes, career-related values, persistence intentions, self-reported socio-demographic background. The Writing Assignments datasets include scoring information for quality and language use. The Rosters datasets include course-related information including intervention condition and course grade. The Student Record datasets include institutional data on students' socio-demographic background, college admission information, study- related enrollment data for targeted courses.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Chemistry Roster Public Data
DS2: Chemistry Surveys Public Data
DS3: Chemistry Surveys Restricted Data
DS4: Chemistry Writing Assignments Public Data
DS5: Physics Roster Public Data
DS6: Physics Surveys Public Data
DS7: Physics Surveys Restricted Data
DS8: Physics Writing Assignments Public Data
DS9: Student Record Public Data
description: Undergraduate students enrolled in gateway undergraduate physics and chemistry courses.
description: web-based surveyThe research team encourages interested researchers to contact the project team with any questions and to share their intent of working with the data. The project manager Anna-Lena Dicke can be reached at adicke@uci.edu.For additional information, please visit the study website.