STCC grant programs boosting student performance, data shows

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Data shows that grant-funded efforts to reduce equity gaps and increase performance for low-income and students of color at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) appear to be working.

In the fall of 2016, STCC launched the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program, which is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title III federal grant. The program is a type of academic support in which peer tutors, or SI Leaders, assist students both in and outside of the class in primarily science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classes with high enrollment and lower-than-average pass rates.

The program began in fall of 2016 with six SI leaders assisting in seven courses and nine sections. Two and a half years later -- the spring of 2019 -- the program has expanded to 29 SI leaders in 26 courses and 39 sections, far exceeding the goals of the grant.

Jane Lerner, M.Ed, Title III and SI Director at STCC, and Ashley Pease, M.S., Title III Project and Data Coordinator, cited data that shows students who engage with the SI Leaders tend to perform better academically than students who don’t use the program. In classes where SI leaders are available, about 50 percent of the students are engaging with them, regardless of their ethnicity.

Breaking the data down by ethnicity, about 50 percent of African-American students and 47 percent of Hispanic students are using the program, Pease said.

“We compared those who are utilizing SIs against those who aren’t,” Pease said. “Out of all the students who have utilized SI, regardless of race or ethnicity, 80.2 percent of students have received a C-minus or better,” Pease said. “Only 68.7 percent of the students who did not utilize the SI program received a C-minus or better. It’s a considerable difference between the two groups.”

Of all the students who used the SI program:

• 14.4 percent of received grades worse than a C-minus
• 5.5 percent of students withdrew

Of all the students who did not use the SI program:

• 19.2 percent received grades worse than a C-minus
• 12.1 percent withdrew

“It’s showing the students are getting higher grades, there are fewer people getting below a C-minus and there are fewer people withdrawing if they actually participate in the SI program,” Pease said.

Lerner said becoming an SI Leader at STCC is open to currently enrolled students. They must get a recommendation from the faculty member they are going to work with – and ideally they should have taken a class with the person. They must attend every class they’re supporting and meet regularly with the faculty member. Each SI Leader must offer group reviews outside of class time twice a week and be available for one-on-one sessions. Training is the cornerstone of this program, requiring all SI Leaders to attend a weekly training meeting throughout each semester.

“Peer support programs work really well because for many students it’s less threatening to talk with a peer than to a faculty member,” Lerner said. “Many of our students may not have had a lot of opportunities to interact with one of their teachers in high school or even their faculty here, so they don’t see that as an option. Having a peer they can go to for support and assistance is a wonderful first step in helping students learn how to advocate for themselves.  Since the SI Leader has no role in evaluating or grading students, they can just support their peers.”

HSI-STEM grant closing equity gaps

Another grant-funded project that was launched in recent years also appears to be boosting academic performance among underserved populations.

In 2016, STCC received a five-year, $3.4 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education (HSI STEM) to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students to enter, persist, complete, and transfer in STEM fields of study.

Called the Hispanic and Low-Income Transformed Education in STEM (HiLITES) Project, the grant was designed to redesign how STEM courses are delivered to, and how services are provided for students.

“We are specifically looking at retention and graduation for students who are Hispanic and low income, which comprise the majority of our students here at STCC,” said Felicia Griffin-Fennell, Ph.D., director of the HSI-STEM grant.

Griffin-Fennell cited a teaching strategy called Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), a student-centered instructional approach. Students work in self-managed teams of four. The instructor acts as a facilitator rather than a source of information.

“POGIL emphasizes greatly on the growth of critical thinking within students,” Griffin-Fennell said. “One of our professors has been utilizing POGIL in his classes since fall 2017. He launched the teaching strategy in his Organic Chemistry 1 class.  We looked at outcomes in this course section in comparison with previous fall semesters for the same course. We found that in comparison with the previous year, the fall of 2017 was statistically better in terms of student performance.”

The class grade point average for the section of Organic Chemistry I in which POGIL was implemented (2017FA) was significantly higher (3.88) than the class grade point average for the Fall 2016 section (2.75) and trended higher than the Fall 2015 section (3.21). In addition, the distribution of overall grades was significantly lower for the POGIL section than for previous sections, with grades clustering at the higher range of the scale.

Students who took the POGIL section of Organic Chemistry I rated more agreement with the statement, “I believe hard work pays off” at the end of the semester than at the beginning of the semester. POGIL has been rolled out into other Chemistry courses, including Survey of Chemistry, at STCC.

Griffin-Fennell said more community colleges are beginning to see the benefits of using POGIL in classrooms.

About Springfield Technical Community College

Founded in 1967 and located on 35 acres of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, STCC is a major resource for the economic vitality of Western Massachusetts. As the only technical community college in Massachusetts, STCC, a designated Hispanic Serving Institution and an Achieving the Dream Leader College, offers a variety of career programs unequalled in the state. STCC’s highly regarded transfer programs in business, engineering, liberal arts, science and technology continue to provide the most economical options for students pursuing a four-year degree. With an annual enrollment of more than 5,000 day, evening, weekend and online students, STCC is a vibrant campus rich in diversity.

For more information about STCC, visit www.stcc.edu. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@S_T_C_C) and Instagram (@stccpics).

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jim Danko, (413) 755-4812, jdanko@stcc.edu

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