The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Student Performance and Persistence in an Aerospace Engineering Curriculum

Kathryn Wingate; Aaron Johnson; Kayla Brooks

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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: Aerospace Division Technical Session: Student Success
Page Count: 19
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41815
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41815
Download Count: 453

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Paper Authors

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Kathryn Wingate

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Assistant teaching professor in the Aerospace Engineering department at University of Colorado Boulder

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Aaron Johnson University of Michigan

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Aaron W. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. He believes in a strong connection between engineering education research and practice, and his research leverages his experience teaching engineering science courses to bridge the gap between theoretical, well-defined coursework and ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Aaron holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to re-joining Michigan, he was an instructor in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Aaron enjoys reading, collecting LEGO NASA sets, biking, camping, and playing disc golf.

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Kayla Brooks University of Colorado Boulder

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Kayla Brooks is a data analyst at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Abstract

STEM industries have experienced significant growth over the past decades, resulting in numerous stable, well-paying jobs. Therefore, STEM degrees hold the potential to facilitate upward economic mobility for Americans who come from low socioeconomic (SE) backgrounds. However, literature indicates that students from low SE backgrounds are less likely to pursue secondary education, and specifically have lower enrollments in engineering programs. When students from low SE backgrounds do enroll in engineering degrees, they still face a number of barriers resulting in inequitable outcomes such as decreased persistence into the engineering profession, lower academic achievement, and six-year graduation rates. Therefore, understanding the barriers that exist for undergraduate engineering students from low SE backgrounds is critical to making systemic changes that strengthen these students’ STEM graduation rates and persistence into the engineering profession.

Studies have found that high school math and physics performance are predictors of persistence in STEM degrees. However, academic resources are not homogenously distributed in the US; in fact, 16% of students attend a high school that does not offer calculus, and this number is disproportionately larger amongst students with low SE backgrounds. A recent study has found engineering students from low SE backgrounds have significantly lower GPAs at the end of their sophomore year. Other literature indicates that success in sophomore engineering courses is critical for persistence in STEM majors, and often requires a strong foundation in mathematics.

Most SE studies have used GPA as a student outcome metric as opposed to grades in specific engineering courses. While GPA is a good summary metric, it can be diluted as it is a mix of performance across STEM and humanities courses. Furthermore, other metrics such as persistence into the engineering profession and graduation rates only show that there are inequitable outcomes; they cannot shed any insight into why these outcomes are occurring. To begin to answer this question, researchers need to understand student performance and outcomes throughout their undergraduate education.

We propose to address these research gaps by looking at how SE status impacts performance in specific aerospace courses in the sophomore and junior years at a large R1 aerospace department. Specifically, we plan to determine:

RQ1. Over the past decade, how many undergraduate students in the program qualify as low SE status?

Over the past decade, what is the relationship between SE status and students’: RQ2. Performance and persistence throughout the aerospace curriculum? RQ3. GPA at graduation and six-year graduation rate?

Citation
Format

Wingate, K., & Johnson, A., & Brooks, K. (2022, August), The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Student Performance and Persistence in an Aerospace Engineering Curriculum Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41815

TY - CPAPER
AB - STEM industries have experienced significant growth over the past decades, resulting in numerous stable, well-paying jobs. Therefore, STEM degrees hold the potential to facilitate upward economic mobility for Americans who come from low socioeconomic (SE) backgrounds. However, literature indicates that students from low SE backgrounds are less likely to pursue secondary education, and specifically have lower enrollments in engineering programs. When students from low SE backgrounds do enroll in engineering degrees, they still face a number of barriers resulting in inequitable outcomes such as decreased persistence into the engineering profession, lower academic achievement, and six-year graduation rates. Therefore, understanding the barriers that exist for undergraduate engineering students from low SE backgrounds is critical to making systemic changes that strengthen these students’ STEM graduation rates and persistence into the engineering profession.

Studies have found that high school math and physics performance are predictors of persistence in STEM degrees. However, academic resources are not homogenously distributed in the US; in fact, 16% of students attend a high school that does not offer calculus, and this number is disproportionately larger amongst students with low SE backgrounds. A recent study has found engineering students from low SE backgrounds have significantly lower GPAs at the end of their sophomore year. Other literature indicates that success in sophomore engineering courses is critical for persistence in STEM majors, and often requires a strong foundation in mathematics.

Most SE studies have used GPA as a student outcome metric as opposed to grades in specific engineering courses. While GPA is a good summary metric, it can be diluted as it is a mix of performance across STEM and humanities courses. Furthermore, other metrics such as persistence into the engineering profession and graduation rates only show that there are inequitable outcomes; they cannot shed any insight into why these outcomes are occurring. To begin to answer this question, researchers need to understand student performance and outcomes throughout their undergraduate education.

We propose to address these research gaps by looking at how SE status impacts performance in specific aerospace courses in the sophomore and junior years at a large R1 aerospace department. Specifically, we plan to determine:

RQ1. Over the past decade, how many undergraduate students in the program qualify as low SE status?

Over the past decade, what is the relationship between SE status and students’:
RQ2. Performance and persistence throughout the aerospace curriculum?
RQ3. GPA at graduation and six-year graduation rate?

AU - Kathryn Wingate
AU - Aaron Johnson
AU - Kayla Brooks
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Student Performance and Persistence in an Aerospace Engineering Curriculum
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41815
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41815
ER -