University of Maryland College Park will continue and expand the National Study of Living-Learning Programs (NSLLP) longitudinally to understand better the role of living learning programs in facilitating the persistence and success of college women in STEM majors. Related research questions include an investigation of the specific L/L environments most strongly related to persistence and success for women in STEM, and the examination of the long-term impact of L/L participation on women's persistence in college and in STEM disciplines.
Living-learning (L/L) programs are one of the most promising interventions in higher education designed to foster success for women in STEM majors. Through mentoring, support, and collaboration, L/L programs are residence hall-based efforts that blend curricular and co-curricular activities that facilitate greater student integration, achievement, and retention.
Until the development of the National Study of Living-Learning Programs (NSLLP), research on L/L program effectiveness was largely limited to single-program assessments on individual college campuses. The 2004 NSLLP includes the responses of nearly 24,000 students representing 34 universities across the United States. Over 1,650 female STEM majors participated in the NSLLP, about half of whom were involved with one of 41 different L/L programs that cater to women in STEM in either single-sex (e.g., the Women in Science & Engineering Program) or co-educational (e.g., the Science, Technology, & Society House) settings. However, because the majority of the NSLLP respondents were first-year students (which is common for L/L participants), it is premature to evaluate the enduring effects of L/L participation on outcomes such as persistence, academic achievement, and student learning.
The proposed research design uses a mixed methods approach: a longitudinal follow-up survey of the women who responded to the NSLLP in 2004; site visits at three to five campuses that are providing high-to-modestly performing STEM related L/L options for women based on data from the 2004 NSLLP; and an expanded data collection with new participating institutions in order to create ongoing trend data on women in STEM.
Intellectual Merits of the Proposed Activity: This study will advance higher education research by identifying the specific college environment factors that facilitate the academic achievement, persistence, and learning outcomes for women in STEM disciplines. In light of prior research focused on personal qualities (e.g., self-efficacy) of women who persist in STEM, this study will contribute to the literature by illuminating how institutional interventions may also facilitate women's success in STEM. Most importantly, the study's findings will be based on a multi-institutional sample, which can provide results of L/L impact across campus contexts that can therefore be generalizable to and replicable at different types of university settings. The research team conducted the initial NSLLP study.
Broader Impacts of the Proposed Activity: On a practical level, this study will help campus officials prioritize limited and strategic resources to those programs with documented benefits for women in STEM. In addition, for those campuses interested in developing effective L/L programs for women in STEM, this study's findings can serve as a blueprint for best models and practices. Finally, from a societal standpoint, this research will help institutions understand how to retain and graduate underrepresented groups in STEM majors.
