Community Colleges in the Evolving STEM Education Landscape Summary of a Summit (2012) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: Effective Outreach, Recruitment, and Mentoring into STEM Pathways: Strengthening Partnerships with Community Colleges--Becky Wai-Ling Packard
Appendix B: Effective Outreach, Recruitment, and Mentoring into STEM Pathways: Strengthening Partnerships with Community Colleges--Becky Wai-Ling Packard
Pages 57-80
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Specifically: 1. Outreach efforts need to target students and their families so they can learn about the many career options within STEM fields as well as tri-level partnerships and pathways that link high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions.
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3. Several mentoring initiatives improve student retention, including developmental bridge programs, science scholar programs, peer-led supplemental instruction, and undergraduate research experiences.
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Community col leges attract students from all backgrounds, especially those underrepresented in STEM, by the hundreds of thousands. Indeed the community college is the most typical entry point into higher education today, rep resenting about 50 percent of college students (Bailey and Alfonso, 2005; Engle and Tinto, 2008; U.S.
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. On the positive side, community college students generally report having positive experiences in STEM education with dedicated teachers and smaller class sizes that encourage students to continue their educa tion (Patton, 2006)
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. To conclude, feasibility is a major factor to consider when conceptualizing why we do not see more students pursuing or completing STEM majors via community colleges.
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Second, I address effective recruitment into STEM by focusing on efforts to make STEM degrees feasible and relevant. Third, I review highly effective mentoring practices that improve retention in STEM within community college pathways to a four-year degree.
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The more relationship-building there is between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, the more
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. Having a scientist or college science students in the classroom, from both community colleges and four-year institutions, can communicate a powerful message on this front.
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Thus, I recommend the importance of sustaining this program and disseminating its models more broadly. Summary of Author's Outreach Recommendations • elect compelling role models who are step-ahead peers or alumni S • oordinate outreach efforts across states and through national-level C consortia • rovide funding for outreach when efforts are organized across states, P stakeholders, and levels of education • mbed community colleges and four-year institutions into communities by E working closely with high schools and sending united messages about access • nvest in STEM teacher education as a form of outreach for teachers and I students RECRUITMENT: CREATING STEM PATHWAYS FROM HIGH SCHOOL INTO COLLEGE Recruitment goes one step further than outreach; beyond sparking an interest or expanding career knowledge, the goal is to enroll students in their first course or to pursue a STEM major.
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. However, 2Although scholar cohort programs and developmental bridge programs are also effective recruiting mechanisms, I choose to highlight these approaches in the mentoring section of this paper in order to describe a comprehensive range of effective mentoring initiatives together.
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For example, a striking 95 percent of students at the Hidalgo Independent School District in Texas, a rural high-poverty district serving mostly Hispanic students, earned college credits while enrolled in an early college high school (Nodine, 2011)
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Summary of Author's Recruitment Recommendations • ompress timetables for college completion using dual enrollment and C STEM-specific early college high schools, thereby increasing feasibility of STEM college pathways • rioritize completion of a college-level math course through recommended P sequences • xpand eligibility for dual-enrollment programs to a wider range of students E including students with lower grade point averages • ift restrictions so that college courses can count toward high school re L quirements and college credits • Provide governmental incentives to companies to provide STEM internships • rovide grant incentives for colleges and universities to redesign introduc P tory courses using interdisciplinary and service-learning approaches so students can see themselves within STEM pathways MENTORING: COMPREHENSIVE NETWORKS AT TRANSITION POINTS Typically, mentoring is described as a term depicting a close one-toone relationship, often formalized and intensive, where an older, more
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. A constellation mentoring strategy, or having a set of strategically assembled mentoring relationships from different sources that provide a range of mentoring functions along one's pathway, is recommended to promote persistence and career success.
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However, the authors suggested that some institutions do not find developmental bridge programs to be economically viable, so these elements are sometimes integrated into existing developmental courses or learning community approaches already used by the institution. Related research has discussed the impact of college success courses or extended orientation programs; researchers have been surprised at the positive impact on persistence above students who do not
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Science scholar cohorts have been studied and are shown to promote persistence, particularly among first-generation college students and low-income students (Myers, Brown, and Pavel, 2010) , as well as promote graduate school attendance in STEM fields (DesJardins et al., 2010)
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Although the program is still under study, the Brandeis coordinators reported it shows early signs of success; when science posse students thinks about leaving STEM, they do think twice because of what that means for their peers, and the program sees more frequent STEM majors within these cohorts as a result. Academic Peer Mentoring Academic mentoring is critical for student success.
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Career Mentoring Experiences Numerous studies have documented the positive influence of undergraduate research experiences as a critical career-related mentoring expe rience (Gregerman, n.d.; Kim and Schneider, 2005; Seymour et al., 2004)
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• tate-level higher education offices should require mentoring and retention S plans for new programs • nstitutions should invest in their institutional research offices in order to I study the effectiveness of bridge programs, college success, and supple mental instruction on retention within disciplinary majors CONCLUDING COMMENTS We know that students and their families need access to information about STEM college programs and career opportunities. By forming partnerships across high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions, and by coordinating outreach efforts, we can reach more students, grow knowledge, and spark interest.
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. Because additional research is needed to continue to identify the design principles that improve effectiveness when programs are brought to scale, community colleges will need assistance to build capacity for institutional research efforts in order to contribute to the emerging knowledge base.
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. Community colleges as gateways and gatekeepers: Moving beyond the access "saga" toward outcome equity.
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. Hispanic community college students and the transfer game: Strikes, misses, and grand slam experiences.
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. Using community colleges to build a STEM-skilled work force.
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Washington, DC: American Association of Community Colleges. Available: http:// www.aacc.nche.edu/Resources/aaccprograms/Documents/stemfaculty.pdf [Decem ber 1, 2011]
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postsecondary education institutions, 2003-04: With a special analysis of community college students (NCES 2006-184)
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