Persistence and performance for Latino community college students in STEM majors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine Latino community college student persistence and academic performance as it relates to students who study in STEM fields. The main focus of this research was to determine whether using a learning-coach intervention model in engineering courses would improve student persistence and academic performance. This quantitative research used institutional data consisting of 364 participant cases to examine whether teaching methodologies that employed the use of learning coaches as a regular component of engineering curriculum would improve student semester-to-semester persistence and overall grade point averages.

The findings revealed that for those engineering courses that included a coaching intervention as part of the curriculum, participating students achieved better persistence and better academic performance when compared to students who participated in courses that did not include a coaching intervention. Statistical analyses revealed that when students participate in courses that include a coaching intervention, those students will achieve statistically significant better persistence rates and higher overall grade point averages.

The results of this research provide a greater understanding to educators and policymakers so that they may adequately address the issue of declining persistence rates and poor academic performance for Latino community college students who study in STEM fields. Based on the results of this study, recommendations are made for changes to practice that would encourage the incorporation of coaching intervention models throughout STEM course curriculum so that improvements in overall student success in STEM studies can be achieved.