Factors influencing the academic success of Latinx students matriculating at 2-year and transferring to 4-year US institutions—implications for STEM majors: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

This systematic review identifies factors that prior studies have identified as supporting the academic success of Latinx transfer students, who matriculate at 2-year institutions with respect to earning a 4-year baccalaureate degree in a STEM field. Since the students matriculate at a 2-year institution, they must, at some point in their academic career, transfer to a 4-year institution to earn the baccalaureate degree. Search and screening procedures identified 59 qualifying studies describing factors supporting persistence, transfer, or graduation of Latinx students matriculating at 2-year institutions. To synthesize findings, we coded the 31 quantitative, 22 qualitative, and six mixed methods studies according to unified themes. Nearly half the quantitative studies explored student characteristics alone, while some qualitative studies explicitly sought to identify assets Latinx students bring to higher education. None of the quantitative students utilized assets-based frameworks such as Yosso (Race Ethn Educ 8:69–91, 2005) to guide their analysis. All types of studies contributed to the conclusion that quality interactions with peers and staff support success of Latinx STEM transfer students. Specific details and strategies for institutions and their staff to support these interactions are described.

The influence of expressive and instrumental social capital from parents on women and underrepresented minority students’ declaration and persistence in engineering majors

“…Social capital provides an assets-based (also called anti-deficit) framing by its focus on the assets present in students' social networks. Our research adds to the growing body of assets-based literature on underrepresented students in STEM (Castro, 2014;Johnson, Brown, Carlone, & Cuevas, 2011;Martin & Garza, 2020;Pawley, 2019;Rahm & Moore, 2016;Syed, Azmitia, & Cooper, 2011;Winterer, Froyd, Borrego, Martin, & Foster, 2020) by highlighting the capital present in their families, and by illustrating how underrepresented students use parental social capital to declare and then persist in undergraduate engineering majors. Following Harper's recommendation to use anti-deficit frameworks to "explore and better understand the enablers of minority student achievement in STEM" (Harper, 2010, p. 64), our work considers this research question: In what ways does social capital provided by parents contribute to White women and women and men underrepresented minority students' decisions to pursue and persist in engineering undergraduate degree programs?…”

“Looking at Myself in the Future”: how mentoring shapes scientific identity for STEM students from underrepresented groups

“…A 2007 review of strategies to increase diversity in STEM found that mentoring programs are widely utilized and can lead to higher grade point averages (GPAs), increased self-efficacy, and more clearly defined academic goals (Tsui, 2007 ). A recent review of factors contributing to academic success among Latinx STEM majors similarly identified mentoring, including peer mentoring, as a key driver of success for this population (Winterer et al, 2020 ).…”

Critical Incidents for Hispanic Students on the Path to the STEM Doctorate

“…Similarly, we found agreement with Contreras Aguirre et al's (2020) work that found that positive relationships with faculty could similarly support students on their STEM pathway. While prior research studies have indicated the importance of faculty mentoring and contact with instructors (Martin et al, 2019;Winterer et al, 2020) and we found that was an important factor for some of our Fellows, the presence of such a supportive faculty member was inconsistently present for our students and instead they more often relied on families, peers, and the cultural capital (or CCW) they brought with them to succeed.…”

“…In a review of 59 studies on what institutional factors could support academic success in Hispanic college students, Winterer et al (2020) found eight factors that influence success, listed in order by those with the greatest number of studies supporting the factors. The factors identified were “peer interactions, cultural climate, advising, coursework articulation, academic integration, support services, asset-based factors, and outreach” (p. 8).…”

“…Despite the many studies that have outlined the basic contours of barriers and supports for Hispanic participation and success in STEM, there remain calls for additional research. Crisp and Nora (2012) noted the need for deeper research into the “socio-cultural variables influencing Hispanic students’ decisions to major and persist in STEM (p.12).” Winterer et al (2020) suggest that key barriers and supports have been clearly identified, however, there is a need for research that emphasizes how “institutional policies, practices, and programs” are experienced by individual students (p.20). Qualitative research with deep rich narratives is well suited to gain that greater degree of description of participant experiences.…”