Overview

The STEM Transfer Partnership (STP) initiative established by Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) is creating systemic change within STEM degree pathways in the State of Washington through collaboration between teams of faculty and staff from nine pairs of 2- and 4-year institutions across the state. The teams are supported by CCRI to work together to improve STEM transfer processes. A major goal of this work is to create a more diverse STEM workforce and help fill STEM positions in Washington.

In September 2021, CCRI invited applications from 2- and 4-year institutional pairs, offering each pair $50,000 in funding to support participation and implementation of STEM transfer interventions. After acceptance into the program, teams completed a survey about current needs and future goals, participated in multiple convenings, analyzed their current and future partnership levels, and drafted action plans. CCRI supports the statewide initiative through coaching, technical assistance, convenings. and other resources.

Teams worked within institutions for 18 months to understand the challenges to low-income STEM transfer students’ bachelor’s degree completion. Information collected from institutional teams provided a number of different contexts, which led to different areas of focus to address their goals. Most teams worked to improve transfer maps to a bachelor’s degree and increase access to that information. The increased information access took various forms, such as enhanced websites, STEM transfer orientation sessions at a 4-year institution, and off-boarding modules for transfer students at a 2-year institution.

Progress Report (2024)

In February 2024, the initiative issued a progress report as part of its ongoing formative assessment. The report describes factors that are propelling change and progress made for effective pathways, and improving understanding and access in five key areas:

• Understanding and Access (providing resources for increased understanding and access to necessary coursework for transfer students’ bachelor’s completion)
  • Enhancing transfer pathway maps between partner institutions
  • Improving websites with transfer degree information
  • Creating off-boarding transfer modules
  • Devising and implementing STEM transfer orientation sessions
  • Changing prerequisites or corequisite courses
  • Offering gateway engineering courses
• Coordination of Advising (improved coordination of advising structures and increased information flow across institutions)
  • Hosting regular cross-institutional advisor meetings
  • Facilitating 4-year advisor meetings with 2-year students
  • Hosting drop-in joint advising or shared advising day
  • Hiring joint advisor
  • advisor meetings with 2-year students
  • Hosting drop-in joint advising or shared advising day
  • Hiring joint advisor
• Pass Rates, Cultivating STEM Identity (more students have access and potential for success by improving pass rates, cultivating STEM identity and self-efficacy, and reducing financial barriers)
  • Implementing active learning in upper-division gateway course and labs
  • Creating transfer focused course at 4-year institutions
  • Co-creating intro to major course
  • Revising intro Engineering 100 course
  • Adding undergraduate research opportunities
  • Initiating STEM lecture speaker series
  • Creating a joint scholarship
  • Informing students of early transfer and scholarship options at 4-year institutions
• Connections (providing linkages across institutions to improve students’ understanding of 4-year systems and sense of belonging)
  • Connecting and engaging faculty from 4-year institutions with students at 2-year through talks, events, and activities; organizing student visits to 4-year partner institutions)
  • Building peer mentorship programs across institutions
  • Creating a STEM transfer cohort
  • Connecting MESA/TRIO advisors across institutions
  • Creating more student connections to STEM disciplines and careers
• Data Use (data used to increase understanding and removal of barriers to transfer and completion)
  • Submitting data on transfer student rates to apply for STP
  • Creating data-sharing agreements
  • Collecting and analyzing student input to understand barriers, supports needed, and results of initiatives

Background

STEM refers to the field and in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The STEM acronym was introduced in 2001 at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)

STEM students typically have a complex path to travel on their way to a baccalaureate degree, and more complicated when students transfer among institutions. Transfer partnerships are a proven strategy to improve transfer student outcomes—through intentional, strategic relationships created to promote greater access and success for low-income students pursuing degrees. Specially designed STEM transfer partnerships have the potential to remove the many barriers that prevent or slow down  persistence and completion of STEM degree programs.

Partners

17 Washington State colleges and universities

University of Washington’s Community College Research Initiatives is a program of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. CCRI studies the experiences of underserved student groups that use community colleges as their entry point to higher education and the role institutions play in equitable student educational and employment outcomes.

Funder

Ascendium Education Group

References

Cate, L., Wetzstein, L., & Kovacich, K. (2022, August). Structuring STEM Transfer Partnership Success (STEM Transfer Partnership Series, Data Note 1). Seattle, WA: Community College Research Initiatives, University of Washington. Retrieved from https://www.uw.edu/ccri/stpdatanote1

https://www.washington.edu/ccri/