Researchers at the University of Maryland and Berkeley are studying the implementation of the Compass program to determine to what extent and how it increases retention of physics majors, especially women and under-represented students. Compass includes a two-week summer experience, follow-up fall and spring courses, a lecture series and a mentorship program all focused on building community, stoking students' interest in physics, and developing students' disciplinary identities and ways of thinking, partly by involving them in research. The project entails quantitative research focusing on retention in physics, especially looking at women and underrepresented minority students, and qualitative research investigating the idea that Compass works by helping students forge an identity as a member of a physics community, defined by both social and intellectual norms.
Compass was originally developed by Berkeley graduate students, and won the American Physical Society's 2012 Award for Improving Undergraduate Education. This research probes a possible solution to one of the most pressing problems in physics education, that of disturbingly and persistently small numbers of women and underrepresented minorities among physics majors. The research has the potential to shed light not only about whether these programs increase retention for all groups and for underrepresented groups, but also about how they work (or not), via analysis of classroom video and clinical interviews. It evaluates not only the effectiveness of a promising model for retaining underrepresented students in physics, possibly applicable to other STEM disciplines, but also a dissemination strategy wherein a participant/leader in a program at one institution helps to develop or sustain a similar program as a graduate student or faculty member at another university. Since physics departments often financially support their 1st- and 2nd-year graduate students anyway, leveraging those students' experiences and expertise by funding one or more graduate students to lead Compass-like programs may be a powerful way to disseminate.
