Nicholas Bowman, professor of higher education and student affairs at UI’s College of Education, and researcher affiliate in the Center for Social Science Innovation (CSSI), recently published a study examining the impact of STEM course placement on the short- and long-term academic success of undergraduate students.
The study, titled “The Impact of Course Placement in STEM Sequences on Students’ Short-Term and Longer-Term University Success Outcomes,” was published in the journal The Review of Higher Education and was covered in an article by CSSI.
The following excerpt is from the article:
“Many universities, including the University of Iowa, offer first-year students lower-level introductory science, technology, and math courses. These courses, which some students may test out of, are designed to provide critical foundational knowledge for future major-required courses.
However, prior research has indicated that lower-level courses can be counterproductive to student success, offering redundant course material that leaves students unengaged and unsatisfied in their STEM major.
Bowman and his co-authors, Frederick Ngo of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Jeongmin Ji of the University of Iowa, investigated the potential double-edged nature of lower-level courses for a group of 11,000 undergraduates enrolled at a Midwest public university between 2012 and 2019. All students took either a lower-level or higher-level introductory computer science, math or chemistry course. For the students that began in the lower-level course, they proceeded to the higher-level, major-required course the following semester or year.
The researchers measured students’ academic success through five dimensions: college grades, academic good standing, credits earned, retention, and graduation.
The results showed that the students that began in the lower-level course had strong short-term academic success. These students received higher grades in the upper-level course and had higher first-year GPAs than their peers who only completed the upper-level course. They were also less likely to be placed on academic probation and earned more credits within the major.
However, students who started in the lower-level course displayed weak long-term academic performance.
Unlike their peers who started in the upper-level course, students in the lower-level course were less likely to receive any bachelor’s degree from the university. Those who started in the lower-level chemistry or computer science course were also less likely to receive a bachelor’s degree in their intended STEM major.”