Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education

Weatherton, Maryrose; Schussler, Elisabeth E.

doi:10.1187/cbe.20-09-0223

Cited by 46 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…While a potentially normative argument, it fails to acknowledge how students (particularly marginalized students) describe and measure their academic success. 74 …”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While a potentially normative argument, it fails to acknowledge how students (particularly marginalized students) describe and measure their academic success. 74 Another critical limitation of the work worth addressing is the labels used to categorize students by socially constructed identities of race or ethnicity. The categorical data collected for this study was subject to regulation by the United States federal government.…”

Section: ■ Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advancing Equity in STEM: The Impact Assessment Design Has on Who Succeeds in Undergraduate Introductory Chemistry

Rosa

Scharlott

Schafer

et al. 2022

JACS Au

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What we as scientists and educators assess has a tremendous impact on whom we authorize to participate in science careers. Unfortunately, in critical gateway chemistry courses, assessments commonly emphasize and reward recall of disaggregated facts or performance of (often mathematical) skills. Such an emphasis marginalizes students based on their access to pre-college math preparation and misrepresents the intellectual work of chemistry. Here, we explore whether assessing intellectual work more authentic to the practice of chemistry (i.e., mechanistic reasoning) might support more equitable achievement. Mechanistic reasoning involves explaining a phenomenon in terms of interactions between lower scale entities (e.g., atoms and molecules). We collected 352 assessment tasks administered in college-level introductory chemistry courses across two universities. What was required for success on these tasks was rote math skills (165), mechanistic reasoning (36), neither (126), or both (25). Logistic regression models predict that the intellectual work emphasized on in an assessment could impact whether 15–20% of the cohort passes or fails. Whom does assessment emphasis impact most? Predicted pass rates for those often categorized as “at-risk” could be 67 or 93%, depending on whether their success was defined by rote calculation or mechanistic reasoning. Therefore, assessment transformation could provide a path toward advancing the relevance of our courses and educational equity.

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“…While a potentially normative argument, it fails to acknowledge how students (particularly marginalized students) describe and measure their academic success. 74 …”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ■ Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancing Equity in STEM: The Impact Assessment Design Has on Who Succeeds in Undergraduate Introductory Chemistry

Rosa

Scharlott

Schafer

et al. 2022

JACS Au

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“…Students of color often conceptualize "success" as tied to their ability to give back to their communities, which is different from traditional conceptualizations of success (McGee and Martin, 2011;Pérez Huber et al, 2018;Lopez, 2020;McGee, 2020a). As a result, we recommend that researchers adopt definitions of excellence within STEM contexts based on the conceptualizations of their population of interest and then use those definitions in analyses (Pérez Huber et al, 2018;Weatherton and Schussler, 2021).…”

Section: What Analytical and Interpretive Choices Can Be Made To Focus On Excellence?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, we recommend that researchers adopt definitions of excellence within STEM contexts based on the conceptualizations of their population of interest and then use those definitions in analyses ( Pérez Huber et al. , 2018 ; Weatherton and Schussler, 2021 ).…”

Section: Critical Questions: Integrating Quantcrit Approaches In Stem...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Critical Approaches into Quantitative STEM Equity Work

Pearson

Castle

Matz

et al. 2022

LSE

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“…This becomes even more important for URM students who often face unique challenges that their non-minority counterparts may not experience. Due to the lack of representation of minorities in scientific higher education [ 18 ], BIPOC students often face stereotypes that undermine our intelligence and our ability to succeed in such environments. These stereotypes readily create environments that perpetuate our imposter syndrome and diminish our sense of belonging.…”

Section: Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Visions by WIMIN: BIPOC Representation Matters

et al. 2021

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Racial, ethnic, and gender representation in an academic setting means that teachers, professors, and other leaders reflect the demographics of the student body in the educational and professional spaces that they serve. This form of representation, which is often intersectional, strengthens communities and improves student outcomes, from as early as primary and secondary education, through to college education and beyond. Representation matters because it can shape the reputation and self-image of women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) within environments dominated by over-represented majorities (ORMs). From the perspective of BIPOC women trainees, the lack of BIPOC faculty who are visible minorities, particularly at the most senior level positions, often conjures questions of whether academia is a realistic career path for aspiring minority students. This article focuses on the key component of representation in the United States (U.S.), highlighting our vision for a solution for the so-called “leaky pipeline” for BIPOC in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic with action items to end it.

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Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education

Cited by 46 publications

References 79 publications

Advancing Equity in STEM: The Impact Assessment Design Has on Who Succeeds in Undergraduate Introductory Chemistry

Advancing Equity in STEM: The Impact Assessment Design Has on Who Succeeds in Undergraduate Introductory Chemistry

Integrating Critical Approaches into Quantitative STEM Equity Work

Visions by WIMIN: BIPOC Representation Matters

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