Operation STEM: Increasing Success and Improving Retention among Mathematically Underprepared Students in STEM.

IntroductionIn 2013, Cleveland State University (CSU) implemented a comprehensive program, called Operation STEM (OpSTEM), funded by two National Science Foundation grants, federal work study, and CSU. Its purpose is to increase retention and graduation rates among mathematically underprepared Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students by helping them complete the precalculus-calculus sequence successfully. OpSTEM provides support to all mathematically underprepared students, and it also creates a special cohort of under-resourced students that become OpSTEM scholars and receive additional supports. OpSTEM Scholars are predominantly freshmen pursuing STEM majors who are members of minority groups that are underrepresented in STEM, first-generation college students, and/or women.The impetus for OpSTEM was the abundance of research suggesting that there are too few STEM graduates and that these graduates are frequently members of groups that are overrepresented in STEM fields. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report that projected a deficit of one million STEM graduates over the next decade. It suggests that while too few students graduate with STEM degrees, there is no shortage of students who enter college desiring to complete a STEM degree. On a nationwide level, fewer than 40% of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree(PCAST, 2012).Not only are there problematically low retention and graduation rates STEM fields, but retention and graduation rates differ drastically between under-represented minority students and white and Asian students. Data from the 2004 Freshman Survey and the 2010-2011 National Student Clearinghouse of 56,499 2004 STEM aspirants show that 44.5% of white and Asian students completed a STEM degree within six years while 25% of African American, Latino, and Native American students completed a STEM degree within six years (Figueroa et al, 2017). At Cleveland State University (CSU), things are no different. In 2009 there were 151 freshmen who were enrolled in a STEM major at CSU. As of 2015, 51 of them had graduated with a STEM major within six years (33.8%). Additionally, underrepresented minorities continue to receive less than a proportional number of STEM degrees. In 2009, African American students made up 21.9% of the incoming first-year class but only 9.2% of those who graduated within six years, and only 6.8% of those who graduated with a STEM major within six years.According to the PCAST report, the most efficient way to increase STEM professionals is to better retain the students who intend to major in STEM fields. Even a modest increase in retention (from 40% to 50% nationwide), would generate most of the needed STEM professionals (2012). Furthermore, the PCAST report states that lowperforming students with a high interest and aptitude in STEM careers often have difficulty with the math required in introductory STEM courses with little help provided by their universities (2012). In order to increase retention and graduation in STEM fields, it is essential to work toward solutions to these problems.With these goals in mind, CSU applied for and received a NSF STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) grant in 2012. Using that grant together with funding in 2013 from the NSF Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, CSU created Operation STEM (OpSTEM), a program that combines a summer institute, project-based instruction, mandatory supplemental instruction in precalculus and calculus, mentoring, and peer support to increase retention and graduation among primarily underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students who intend to major in a STEM field.Success with STEM students emerging from CSU programs provides the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan community with a transformative pipeline of skilled workers who are typically underrepresented in STEM disciplines in the 21st century. …