The STEP special project examines the challenges facing principal investigators and evaluators in efforts to assess the impact of individual STEP Type 1 projects and to define, construct, and conduct appropriate comparison group studies. The project empirically tests the feasibility and usefulness of collecting, analyzing, and sharing a common set of data to evaluate the impact of activities at the individual project level and to assess the effectiveness and impact of a set of proven practices across a well defined set of institutions for comparison purposes. The project pairs an interrupted time series design with a case control design to identify relevant distinctions between the experiences of students who are participating in project activities and the experiences of students who are not participants. The research integrates institutional administrative data with survey data from student participants to examine the effectiveness and impact of first-year experiences on student success. The project develops and provides a set of strategies and data resources from which institutions with similar characteristics can draw to assess the impact of the STEP program on baccalaureate degree attainment. Working closely with STEP Type 1 projects, this effort has the potential to develop strategies for the design and execution of evaluation efforts across multiple projects; provide project level data for project improvement and documentation of successes; provide information on project challenges and opportunities; provide strong evidence for project impact; and provide high quality data resources for other researchers interested in student retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
