Search results

With Complete College America and renewed interest in performance‐based funding models for higher education, colleges are focused on improving retention, progression and graduation rates. Many schools bring lower‐achieving students to campus for a pre‐first‐year program called Summer Bridge to give them an introduction to college. These summer programs have varying levels of library involvement. The authors aim to compare the level of library involvement at their institution with that of libraries where similar programs exist.

The authors searched for schools with summer bridge programs, read through their program descriptions to find ones that were similar to their own situation (e.g. not STEM‐focused or Upward Bound), and sent a survey to 103 libraries. In total, 42 responded.

Of the responding libraries 88 percent have face‐to‐face instruction with the summer bridge participants, however only 33 percent of the libraries did any assessment of this contact. Ten of the respondents teach credit‐bearing information literacy courses, but none offers this to the summer bridge students.

Many states require institutions to demonstrate student success in order to compete for limited state funds. Libraries have an important role to student success and librarians should strategically place themselves within that conversation. This article provides some possible means to help with summer bridge students.

A search through library and education literature reveals that little has been written about library involvement with programs that are not Upward Bound affiliated. This case study and its survey respond to a gap in the literature of both fields.

This study examines the impact of participation in a STEM Enrichment Summer Bridge Program, funded by the NSF Houston-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, on undergraduate student success outcomes, particularly for under-represented students.

The study uses propensity score matching and logistic regression analysis to examine the effects of participation in the STEM enrichment program on graduation and retention in STEM after matching on baseline socio-demographic and pre-college characteristics.

The analysis found that program participation had a significant effect on increasing both the graduation rates and retention of under-represented minority students in STEM fields. In addition, results indicated that program participation had a particularly strong impact for Pell-eligible students in terms of course grades.

Data obtained for this study were limited to a single Hispanic-serving/Asian-serving institution, and therefore are not necessarily representative of the graduation and retention trends of the larger population of underrepresented minority (URM) students across the nation.

This study uniquely adds to the existing body of literature surrounding the retention of URM students in STEM fields by accounting for baseline variables, such as pre-college academic achievement and socio-demographic characteristics, that could lead to bias in estimating results. Specifically, this study addresses limitations of previous studies by comparing participants and non-participants of the STEM enrichment program who are matched on a selection of baseline characteristics.

This evaluation examines the impact of the academic and social connection efforts of the Multicultural Center for Academic Success (MCAS) Summer Bridge (SB) program on the academic performance and retention of its student participants. Specifically, the SB program incorporates academic and social connection theoretical frameworks provided by Vincent Tinto (1975) and Doug Guiffrida (2006), and this study seeks to ascertain the program’s impact on student performance and retention.

The study used an adaptation of the Pascarella and Terenzini (1980) Institutional Integration Scale Survey and focus-group interviews of past SB participants to provide data. Additionally, the study conducted a comparative analysis between SB participant grade point averages and persistence rates with general population students or students of color, a dominant demographic within the MCAS SB program.

The study finds a correlation between the academic and social connection efforts of the center, and the academic performance and retention percentages of its student participants.

Intervention strategies to increase participation and success in STEM areas vary depending on the specific goals of programs and presumably, their funding. Matyas (1991) focused on minority engineering programs and found that successful programs tend to contain the following elements: (a) assistance with admission procedures;, (b) assistance with student matriculation; (c) academic support services; (d) student study center; (e) linkage of students with minority student organizations in engineering; and (f) summer engineering jobs. A recent, systematic review by a panel of experts identified eight design principles that underpin exemplary and promising higher education-based STEM interventions: (a) institutional leadership; (b) targeted recruitment; (c) engaged faculty; (d) personal attention; (e) peer support; (f) enriched research experience; (g) bridging to the next level; and (h) continuous evaluation (BEST, 2004).

This paper's aim is to examine the value of library participation in institutional governance in the implementation of a comprehensive model for student success at a research university.

The paper provides a case study comparing the historical and current governance structure in a high research university, the relationship between a new governance structure and the implementation of a comprehensive student success model and the inclusion of the library in creating, implementing and participating in student success initiatives.

Participation in university shared governance enhances the library's role in contributing to student success, retention, progression and graduation.

The paper contributes to the discussion of the value of academic libraries to student success efforts in retention, progression and graduation for university students.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how to examine the effectiveness of a pilot summer bridge program for elementary algebra using propensity scores. Typically, selection into treatment programs, such as summer bridge programs, is based on self-selection. Self-selection makes it very difficult to estimate the true treatment effect because the selection process itself often introduces a source of bias.

By using propensity scores, the authors can match students who participated in the summer bridge program with equivalent students who did not participate in the summer bridge program. By matching students in the treatment group to equivalent students who do not participate in the treatment, the authors can obtain an unbiased estimate of the treatment effect. The authors also describe a method to conduct a sensitivity analysis to estimate the amount of hidden bias generated from unobserved factors that would be needed to alter the inferences made from a propensity score matching analysis.

Findings suggest there is no significant difference in the pass rates of the subsequent intermediate algebra course for students who participated in the summer bridge program when compared to matched students who did not participate in the summer bridge program. Thus, students who participate in the summer bridge program fared no better or worse when compared to similar students who do not participate in the program. These findings also appear to be robust to hidden bias.

This study describes a unique way to estimate the causal effect of participating in a treatment program when there is self-selection into the treatment program.

This paper aims to highlight the potential of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) summer bridge programs to promote college persistence by fostering a positive science identity among participants that is culturally consistent with the values and experiences of African American students.

This case study included demographic data, journals, a focus-group interview and program evaluation reports. Carlone and Johnson’s (2007) grounded model of science identity provided a culturally sensitive framework for examining science experiences of minority students.

In a program that emphasized the academic readiness of students pursing bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering programs, the salience of students’ science identity was intricately related to their commitment to STEM.

Understanding the program’s cultural components was not a specific objective of the study, but emerged as an important feature of students’ experiences and commitment to degree completion.

The program could assist students’ development of a science identity through the deliberate inclusion of activities and experiences that are culturally congruent with the students’ racial/ethnic identity.

Little empirical research is available to assess bridge programs for African Americans pursuing STEM degrees. Analyzing students’ transition from high school to college, within the context of a summer bridge program, affords a better understanding of how students navigate the early social and academic aspects of college and how participation in bridge helps plug the leaky pipeline to careers in STEM.

Bridge programs constitute institutionalized interventions to provide equitable educational opportunities for low-income, first-generation, and disadvantaged traditional undergraduate students (Gullatt & Jan, 2003). These are typically pre-college transition programs that serve to facilitate college access and readiness. This chapter discusses the role of bridge programs at American colleges and universities and the recommends integration of the Dynamic Student Development Metatheodel (DSDM) student success model (Frederick, Sasso, & Barratt, 2015). This chapter outlines the typology of bridge programs at the federal, state, and campus levels and highlights the target populations of these programs. Evaluation and outcomes regarding the efficacy of these programs are also highlighted. Implications and considerations for practice are provided integrating specific constructs from the DSDM to inform the further development of bridge programs to increase student development.

Louisiana State University (LSU)’s Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) is an award-winning office devoted to developing effective, educational approaches that incorporate guidance and exploration, increase students’ academic standing, and support measures to improve the institution’s diversity, predominantly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments. Through the incorporation of three main factors, Mentoring, Education, and Research, OSI has developed a holistic development model that offers students strategies to overcome those factors that affect their persistence in STEM. OSI houses several programs with a diverse population of students ranging from the high school to doctoral levels. Although varied in student population, these programs unite under the holistic development model to provide support and opportunities to students at each critical educational juncture. OSI’s holistic approach has successfully supported over 135 high school, 560 undergraduate, and 100 graduate students. Of the 560 undergraduate students served, 51% were underrepresented minorities and 55% were women. The undergraduate initiatives have garnered 445 bachelor’s degrees, with 395 degrees from STEM disciplines, and an impressive overall graduation rate ranging from 64% to 84%. Through all of the remarkable work performed in OSI, the greatest accomplishment has been the capacity to offer students from mixed backgrounds tools and strategies to thrive at any point in their academic career.