To produce more community college STEM transfers to four-year institutions and more STEM baccalaureates, the math and science divisions at three southern California institutions created Talent Expansion in Science and Technology: An Urban Partnership (TEST:UP). This collaborative program involves California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), a four-year, comprehensive university and Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) and Santa Ana College (SAC), two of CSUF's feeder community colleges. TEST:UP includes joint initiatives to engage, recruit, and retain STEM students and ultimately expand the numbers of STEM transfers to CSUF and other four-year schools. TEST:UP is a coordinated network of administrators, faculty, and staff working closely together to: 1) improve counseling, guidance, and mentoring opportunities and enhance knowledge of STEM careers for students at the two-year institutions, with the aid of a traveling 'academic success coach'; 2) offer STEM learning communities at all three institutions; 3) improve student engagement, learning, and success in pivotal math and science introductory courses at the community colleges through academic excellence workshops (AEWs), supplemental instruction (SI), and tutoring programs; and 4) develop a teaching intern program for CSUF STEM graduate students interested in two-year college teaching careers. All three TEST:UP campuses are institutionalizing effective TEST:UP program components, making permanent changes in their approaches to STEM education and advisement. Additional local colleges are being invited to join the collaboration, extending its influence.
TEST:UP was a collaborative program, initiated in fall 2008, among three Hispanic Serving Institutions—California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), a four-year, comprehensive university, and Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) and Santa Ana College (SAC), two of CSUF's feeder two-year community colleges. All three campuses are located within 23 miles of each other and have diverse student bodies with enrollments exceeding 30,000 students. Through TEST:UP, our program sought to: 1) increase the recruitment and retention of STEM majors at Mt. SAC and SAC; 2) produce more STEM associate degrees and STEM transfers to four-year schools; 3) improve the retention and persistence of transfers and entering freshmen majoring in STEM fields at CSUF; 4) increase the number of students obtaining baccalaureate degrees in STEM disciplines at CSUF and other four-year institutions; and 5) improve mentoring and teaching skills of CSUF graduate students seeking community college teaching careers. We exceeded our goals on increasing declared STEM transfers from and STEM degrees awarded at the community colleges. Improved retention rates for STEM students at CSUF reflect the impact of all retention efforts.We have observed much improved passing rates and GPA’s with Supplemental Instruction (SI) at all three institutions, and significant steps have been taken to institutionalize these programs.The number of community college STEM transfers to four year institutions can be very hard to measure. We have not found information from the National Clearinghouse to be reliable. We depend on student exit interviews and transcript requests to get an estimate of this critical variable. Joint discussions with our campuses and NSF acknowledged this dilemma. We achieved very substantial (~1 year) reduction in time to graduation for STEM transfer students. As an example of establishment of best practices, the core elements of the NSF TEST:UP program were adopted to submit for and receive a $6 million Department of Education HSI-(STEM)2 grant where CSUF is collaborating with three additional local HSI community college partners (Cypress, Citrus, and Santiago Canyon Colleges) to build on improvements in STEM transfer success. Therefore, CSUF has now partnered with five local HSI community colleges to facilitate STEM awareness and success for transfer students. TEST: UP has assisted 1,055 students on the Mt. SAC (572) and SAC (483) campuses with developing academic plans for transfer. The half time Mt. SAC and SAC advisors have recruited participants in the TEST: UP program on their respective campus through class visits, information tables, career day fairs and STEM week events. The CSUF Coordinator for STEM Transfer Student Services and her STEM Peer Advisors have advised 643 of the 2,148 STEM transfer students from all community colleges since the program started in 2008. Since 2008, the STEM Advisors at SAC presented information to 925 students on STEM careers, student success in STEM, and pathways to STEM majors . Mt. SAC presented similar information to 1,490 students. A rudimentary on-line early warning system was developed in 2010 to identify at-risk STEM students in within their first semester at CSUF.The data clearly indicate that transfer students are less likely to take advantage of intrusive interventions as compared with first time freshmen.On the other hand, when the transfer students show up for the intervention, they are considerably more successful as students. A pre-transfer survey was developed in fall 2010 and administered in December 2010 to 594 students in STEM classes at SAC and 529 studentsat Mt. SAC. The survey was aimed at assessing preparedness for transfer to a four-year institution, and identifying key stumbling blocks, both real and perceived, in the STEM transfer process.A post-transfer survey was developed for administration to STEM transfers who come to CSUF, and was being administered on-line in spring 2011.A representative sampling of 532 transcripts for STEM transfer students who came to CSUF’s College of NSM in the 2006-2010 time period was undertaken in 2011-2012 with preliminary analyses conducted by the STEM Student Services Coordinator.The data were analyzed more rigorously in 2012-2013 by the Center for Research and Educational Access (C-REAL) at CSUF.
