Female African American and Latino students from working class families are significantly underrepresented in science and technical fields, especially computer science and engineering. Since over fifty percent of first generation, lower-income income Latinos and African American women use two year colleges as an entry point to the four year degree, and so few actually complete that pathway, research is needed to better understand this pathway and the experience of ethnically diverse working class women within the pathway. This study uses a mixed methods short-term longitudinal sequential design. Two cohorts are followed over a 15 month time period: 1) 75 community college students accepted as transfers to 4-year colleges to pursue STEM degrees, and 2) 75 recent high school graduates entering community college for the first time. Data sources include ethnographic interviews at the organization level and with key adult supporters across contexts of home, college and workplace, individual interviews, and quantitative surveys of mentoring, cultural capital, and procedural knowledge. Growth curve models trace cultural capital and mentoring over time, and qualitative data are used to identify key factors that influence the persistence of the participants at an individual and organization level. In-depth case studies increase understanding about the process of acquiring and sustaining mentoring and related capital, and how these three major contexts function in concert with one another in the lives of working class students.
Intellectual Merit: At the four year post-secondary level, there is a substantial body of research examining students? decisions to switch away from science and technology fields while pursuing their four-year college degrees. Although this past research has provided a critical foundation for examining retention, this study contributes significant new knowledge about working class women and the variability within their transitions along the community college pathway to the four year STEM degrees. Given the complexity of working class women?s educational pathways, and the field?s lack of research focused on this population and community college STEM pathways, this study offers new knowledge about the factors that contribute to persistence of working class women of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Broader Impacts: Knowledge from this study influences the retention of working class women, with a large proportion of students of color by offering organizations (colleges and universities) strategies to assist these women in their pursuit of STEM education. In addition, the study includes several female undergraduate students, including many students of color and first generation college students, in a research experience. Existing partnerships between community colleges and four year colleges are fostered and strengthened. Dissemination includes the development of a website for use in public schools, reports for public audiences, white papers, and journal articles.
Project Summary for GSE 0734000 Becky Wai-Ling Packard, Mount Holyoke College Nationwide, nearly 50% of college students use the community college as an entry point to a four-year degree, and even more first-generation college students and racial-ethnic minority students use this pathway than their peers. Indeed, community colleges enroll our nation’s most diverse students, those most underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce. Although women earn the majority of associate’s degrees within community colleges—about 500,000 per year-- only 5% of women earn degrees in STEM fields. Careers in STEM typically require a four-year degree, and earn more than careers in other fields. With support from the National Science Foundation, we followed the experiences of nearly 200 Massachusetts community students who were interested in science and engineering fields and aspired to transfer to a four-year institution. We also interviewed a smaller cohort of students who eventually transferred to learn about their experiences. Intellectual merit: We generated new knowledge about factors that influence the recruitment and retention of women and men into STEM fields. Factors included the need for early advising in community colleges about transferrable credits in math and science, on-going advising and academic supports for science transfers in four-year institutions, alignment of curriculum between community colleges and four-year institutions. Our publications also documented the barriers of financial pressures such as the need to work while going to school and marginality in four-year institutions. These factors are largely absent from the literature focused on STEM persistence in four-year institutions because community college transfers are an understudied group. Broader impacts: We provided scientific research training to many women students including women of color, transfer students, and first-generation college students. We worked to strengthen partnerships between community colleges and four-year institutions in Massachusetts using outreach strategies such as newsletters to students, a dissemination website, peer-reviewed publications, a national summit (i.e., a presentation at a National Academy of Science summit on the community college’s role in science education and a contribution in the resulting volume), public media (Academic Minute, Op/Ed in the New York Times), and lectures at many campuses. The project raises the visibility of the experience of women and men from working class, first-generation college backgrounds, and the importance of community colleges in the STEM workforce. A subsequent grant through the S-STEM program, builds upon this research and focuses on improving the community college transfer pathway to our institution (a women’s college), was granted and is currently in process.
