Persistence and the Pandemic: Retention of Historically Underrepresented First-Year Engineering Students Before and After COVID-19

Sequoia Callahan; Blaine Pedersen; Lerah Lockett; Camille Burnett; Bimal Nepal; Karen Rambo-Hernandez

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 13: Work-in-Progress Postcard Session #2
Page Count: 9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41652
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41652
Download Count: 595

Camille S. Burnett, Ph.D., ACUE, is Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education and Director of the SMaRTS (Science, Mathematics, Reading, Technology, and Social Studies) Curriculum Resource Lab in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Prairie View A&M University. She has almost 20 years of combined experience in the K-12 and higher education settings. She is also the principal investigator for funded capacity-building projects to enhance her institution's infrastructure for STEM teacher preparation. Her current research focuses on high school students’ understandings of mathematical functions, STEM education and teacher preparation, and best practices in teaching.

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Bimal Nepal Texas A&M University

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Dr Bimal Nepal is Professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in manufacturing, distribution, supply chain management, and engineering education.

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Karen Rambo-Hernandez Texas A&M University

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Dr. Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez is an associate professor at Texas A&M University in the College of Education and Human Development. Her research focuses on the assessment of educational interventions to improve STEM education, and access for all students— particularly high achieving and underrepresented students— to high quality education. Along with her research teams, she has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and received over $3.4 million in grant funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education Javits Grants. Dr. Rambo-Hernandez was the District Teacher of the Year in Coppell, Texas, in 2006 and received the National Association of Gifted Children’s Early Scholar Award in 2019.

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Abstract

Motivation This Work in Progress paper will describe patterns across race/ethnicity of first-year engineering student retention before and after the spring 2020 emergency transition to remote learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic at a large public R1 university in the Southwest. The results of this study are expected to inform faculty and administration as they consider making policy changes in teaching and learning to improve the persistence of engineering students. Background Engineering programs have some of the lowest retention rates among all degree majors, and drop-out rates from the first to second year in engineering programs are particularly high [1]-[3]. Among the many different factors contributing to students leaving engineering programs, student demographics— particularly race/ethnicity— have been found to be consistently related to retention [1], [3]. The individualistic culture of many engineering programs, along with the general underrepresentation of students from diverse backgrounds within engineering programs, play a large part in the higher drop-out rates observed among historically underrepresented students [1], [3]. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the sudden shift to emergency remote learning, has universally affected students in higher education; many studies report decreases in engineering students’ well-being, academic performance, and learning outcomes as a result of COVID-19 [4], [5]. However, few have analyzed the pandemic’s impact on student persistence in engineering [6]. The current study describes the pattern of retention rates for three sequential cohorts of engineering students between the spring semester of the students’ first year to the following fall semester across racial and ethnic subgroups. We hypothesized that drop-out rates would be higher for the first-year students who experienced the emergency COVID-19 transition as compared to two previous first-year cohorts; we also hypothesized that drop-out rates would be higher for students who identify with an underrepresented racial or ethnic subgroup than for White students. Methods Through an institutional grant, we accessed administrative data for all engineering students from a large public R1 university in the Southwest from fall 2014 to spring 2021. We extracted three first-time student cohorts who were intending to major in engineering in fall 2017 (n = 3,452), fall 2018 (n = 3,559), and fall 2019 (n = 3,448). Those who joined in fall 2019 were the COVID cohort, and those who joined in fall 2017 and fall 2018 were the pre-COVID cohorts. Next, from the fall student data, we identified all first-time students who continued in engineering in the following Spring semester (spring 2018, spring 2019, and spring 2020). Finally, we calculated the proportion of students within racial and ethnic subgroups who dropped out of engineering between the spring of their first year and the fall of their sophomore year. Of note, the 2019-2020 COVID cohort generally demonstrated less financial need than the two previous cohorts. This work in progress focuses on descriptive statistics— inferential analyses will be conducted in the near future. Results Contrary to our hypothesis, drop-out rates within the four largest racial demographic subgroups in the COVID cohort were lower than or remained relatively the same as drop-out rates in the pre-COVID cohorts. The greatest differences are seen within Black students who demonstrated a drop-out rate of 4.41% in the COVID cohort, compared to the 12.20% and 17.34% drop-out rates observed in the pre-COVID cohorts. Decreases are also observed in Hispanic/Latino students (pre-COVID cohorts: 13.96%, 9.65%; COVID cohort: 6.03%) and White students (pre-COVID cohorts: 10.14%, 9.56%; COVID cohort: 6.62%), while Asian students remained relatively stable (pre-COVID cohorts: 5.11%, 6.06%; COVID cohort: 5.51%). Discussion Contrary to our hypotheses, the results indicate lower drop-out rates during COVID-19, and this pattern was seen across several racial/ethnic groups. This potential decrease could be due to several reasons, which are all speculation. The university instituted multiple initiatives (e.g., pass/fail options for grading), students may have opted to stay in school rather than dropping out because the job market was bleak [7], and federal stimulus initiatives may have made it easier for students to return to school. However, the financial need for the COVID cohort was less than the financial need of the two pre-COVID cohorts, and these results do not adjust for between cohort differences, which may obscure the pandemic’s effects on first-year engineering student retention. Our future analyses include comparing adjusted dropout rates (e.g., accounting for financial need) and replicating this study with engineering students from a historically Black university as well as by first generation students and student financial need. References [1] B. N. Geisinger and D. R. Raman, “Why they leave: Understanding student attrition from engineering majors,” Int. J. Eng. Educ., vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 914–925, 2013. [2] R. García-Ros, F. Pérez-González, F. Cavas-Martínez, and J. M. Tomás. “Effects of pre-college variables and first-year engineering students’ experiences on academic achievement and retention: A structural model,'' Int. J. Technol. Des. Ed., vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 915–28, Sep. 2018. [3] B. L. Yoder, “Engineering by the numbers: ASEE retention and time-to-graduation benchmarks for undergraduate engineering schools,” American Society for Engineering and Education, Departments and Programs. Washington, DC, 2016. [4] K. Beddoes and A. Danowitz, “Engineering students coping with COVID-19: Yoga, meditation, and mental health,” in 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, July 26, 2021. [5] M. García-Alberti, F. Suárez, I. Chiyón, and J. C. Mosquera Feijoo, “Challenges and experiences of online evaluation in courses of civil engineering during the lockdown learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic”, Educ. Sci., vol. 11, no. 59, 2021. [6] S. J. Ely, “Impact of COVID 19 on self-efficacy and retention of women engineering students,” in 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, July 26, 2021. [7] A. W. Bartik, M. Bertrand, F. Lin, J. Rothstein, and M. Unrath, “Measuring the labor market at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis,” working paper, NBER, Cambridge, MA, July 2020.

Citation
Format

Callahan, S., & Pedersen, B., & Lockett, L., & Burnett, C., & Nepal, B., & Rambo-Hernandez, K. (2022, August), Persistence and the Pandemic: Retention of Historically Underrepresented First-Year Engineering Students Before and After COVID-19 Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41652

TY - CPAPER
AB - Motivation
This Work in Progress paper will describe patterns across race/ethnicity of first-year engineering student retention before and after the spring 2020 emergency transition to remote learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic at a large public R1 university in the Southwest. The results of this study are expected to inform faculty and administration as they consider making policy changes in teaching and learning to improve the persistence of engineering students.
Background
Engineering programs have some of the lowest retention rates among all degree majors, and drop-out rates from the first to second year in engineering programs are particularly high [1]-[3]. Among the many different factors contributing to students leaving engineering programs, student demographics— particularly race/ethnicity— have been found to be consistently related to retention [1], [3]. The individualistic culture of many engineering programs, along with the general underrepresentation of students from diverse backgrounds within engineering programs, play a large part in the higher drop-out rates observed among historically underrepresented students [1], [3].
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the sudden shift to emergency remote learning, has universally affected students in higher education; many studies report decreases in engineering students’ well-being, academic performance, and learning outcomes as a result of COVID-19 [4], [5]. However, few have analyzed the pandemic’s impact on student persistence in engineering [6]. The current study describes the pattern of retention rates for three sequential cohorts of engineering students between the spring semester of the students’ first year to the following fall semester across racial and ethnic subgroups. We hypothesized that drop-out rates would be higher for the first-year students who experienced the emergency COVID-19 transition as compared to two previous first-year cohorts; we also hypothesized that drop-out rates would be higher for students who identify with an underrepresented racial or ethnic subgroup than for White students.
Methods
Through an institutional grant, we accessed administrative data for all engineering students from a large public R1 university in the Southwest from fall 2014 to spring 2021. We extracted three first-time student cohorts who were intending to major in engineering in fall 2017 (n = 3,452), fall 2018 (n = 3,559), and fall 2019 (n = 3,448). Those who joined in fall 2019 were the COVID cohort, and those who joined in fall 2017 and fall 2018 were the pre-COVID cohorts. Next, from the fall student data, we identified all first-time students who continued in engineering in the following Spring semester (spring 2018, spring 2019, and spring 2020). Finally, we calculated the proportion of students within racial and ethnic subgroups who dropped out of engineering between the spring of their first year and the fall of their sophomore year. Of note, the 2019-2020 COVID cohort generally demonstrated less financial need than the two previous cohorts. This work in progress focuses on descriptive statistics— inferential analyses will be conducted in the near future.
Results
Contrary to our hypothesis, drop-out rates within the four largest racial demographic subgroups in the COVID cohort were lower than or remained relatively the same as drop-out rates in the pre-COVID cohorts. The greatest differences are seen within Black students who demonstrated a drop-out rate of 4.41% in the COVID cohort, compared to the 12.20% and 17.34% drop-out rates observed in the pre-COVID cohorts. Decreases are also observed in Hispanic/Latino students (pre-COVID cohorts: 13.96%, 9.65%; COVID cohort: 6.03%) and White students (pre-COVID cohorts: 10.14%, 9.56%; COVID cohort: 6.62%), while Asian students remained relatively stable (pre-COVID cohorts: 5.11%, 6.06%; COVID cohort: 5.51%).
Discussion
Contrary to our hypotheses, the results indicate lower drop-out rates during COVID-19, and this pattern was seen across several racial/ethnic groups. This potential decrease could be due to several reasons, which are all speculation. The university instituted multiple initiatives (e.g., pass/fail options for grading), students may have opted to stay in school rather than dropping out because the job market was bleak [7], and federal stimulus initiatives may have made it easier for students to return to school. However, the financial need for the COVID cohort was less than the financial need of the two pre-COVID cohorts, and these results do not adjust for between cohort differences, which may obscure the pandemic’s effects on first-year engineering student retention.
Our future analyses include comparing adjusted dropout rates (e.g., accounting for financial need) and replicating this study with engineering students from a historically Black university as well as by first generation students and student financial need.
References
[1] B. N. Geisinger and D. R. Raman, “Why they leave: Understanding student attrition from
engineering majors,” Int. J. Eng. Educ., vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 914–925, 2013.
[2] R. García-Ros, F. Pérez-González, F. Cavas-Martínez, and J. M. Tomás. “Effects of pre-college variables and first-year engineering students’ experiences on academic achievement and retention: A structural model,'' Int. J. Technol. Des. Ed., vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 915–28, Sep. 2018.
[3] B. L. Yoder, “Engineering by the numbers: ASEE retention and time-to-graduation benchmarks for undergraduate engineering schools,” American Society for Engineering and Education, Departments and Programs. Washington, DC, 2016.
[4] K. Beddoes and A. Danowitz, “Engineering students coping with COVID-19: Yoga, meditation, and mental health,” in 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, July 26, 2021.
[5] M. García-Alberti, F. Suárez, I. Chiyón, and J. C. Mosquera Feijoo, “Challenges and experiences of online evaluation in courses of civil engineering during the lockdown
learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic”, Educ. Sci., vol. 11, no. 59, 2021.
[6] S. J. Ely, “Impact of COVID 19 on self-efficacy and retention of women engineering students,” in 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, July 26, 2021.
[7] A. W. Bartik, M. Bertrand, F. Lin, J. Rothstein, and M. Unrath, “Measuring the labor market at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis,” working paper, NBER, Cambridge, MA, July 2020.

AU - Sequoia Callahan
AU - Blaine Pedersen
AU - Lerah Lockett
AU - Camille Burnett
AU - Bimal Nepal
AU - Karen Rambo-Hernandez
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Persistence and the Pandemic: Retention of Historically Underrepresented First-Year Engineering Students Before and After COVID-19
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41652
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41652
ER -