Non-STEM and STEM math tracks to be studied at LACCD’s Pierce College with a goal of advancing opportunity and equity in STEM participation at community colleges.

As community colleges around the country move toward eliminating developmental education, students are increasingly eligible to take a college-level Statistics/Liberal Arts Math (SLAM) OR Business and Science Technology, Engineering and Math (BSTEM) course. This new study, funded by the National Science Foundation, will first investigate the extent to which students are tracked into SLAM and BSTEM pathways along racial/ethnic, gender, first generation status and family income lines.

Then, in partnership with Pierce College, part of the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the research team will design, implement and evaluate a low-touch behavioral ‘nudge’ that encourages students in college statistics to enroll in a BSTEM math course in the subsequent semester. The ‘nudge’ is geared is to validate students STEM potential, encourage them to meet with a math instructor or counselor to determine their STEM aspirations, and invite them to participate in a week-long, non-credit intersession Bridge2BSTEM workshop. 

The workshop will provide students the opportunity to explore their STEM interests, learn about STEM careers, establish a growth mindset toward math, and receive academic support for switching to BSTEM courses. 

“This project was conceptualized with Eddie Tchertchian at Pierce College and is aligned with the equity mission of this Hispanic-Serving Institution. We’re excited that this grant will enable the research team to continue to support this decades-old research practice partnership between USC and LACCD,” stated USC’s Tatiana Melguizo, who will serve as Principal Investigator for the project.

The researchers hope to learn more about whether offering SLAM courses as a course default may inadvertently track racially-minoritized students and women out of STEM fields, as well as casual evidence on the potential effectiveness of nudging students to explore their STEM interests, and develop a model for a statistics-to-STEM bridge experience that community college math departments can adopt. 

Melguizo will serve as Principal Investigator on the project, with Edouard A. Tchertchian from LACCD’s Pierce College, Federick Ngo (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and Cheryl Ching (University of Massachusetts, Boston) serving as co-PIs.