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Toward a Practical Set of STEM Transfer Program Momentum Metrics

By John Fink, Taylor Myers, Daniel Sparks & Shanna Smith Jaggars

Nearly two decades into the “completion agenda” in higher education, many community colleges have adopted collegewide reforms designed to improve stubbornly flat rates of student success and address persistent equity gaps. The longer-term effects of such collegewide reforms may take years to observe. In the meantime, college leaders need to know whether changes they make in the short run are associated with longer-term student success. Measuring the progress and effects of institutional reform is particularly vital in economically important STEM fields. Drawing on administrative records from transfer-intending community college starters across three states, this study develops and explores potential indicators of early STEM program momentum. The authors find that a relatively simple set of STEM momentum metrics—notably early completion of calculus or non-math STE coursework specified in statewide STEM transfer pathways and, to a lesser degree, the prerequisites to such courses—are reliable indicators of subsequent STEM transfer and bachelor’s degree attainment. The study’s findings provide support for the use of the STEM momentum metrics to formatively evaluate reforms aimed at strengthening STEM transfer outcomes and closing equity gaps in STEM bachelor’s degree attainment.

A version of this paper appears in Research in Higher Education.

A CCRC brief summarizes findings from this study.

Download CCRC Working Paper No. 127
October 2021
View journal article
October 2023
  • Evaluating the Potential of Community College Guided Pathways Reforms to Increase Undergraduate STEM Student Success

Related Publications

July 2022

A Strategy for Estimating the Effects of Whole-College Guided Pathways Reforms in Community Colleges

November 2021

Measuring STEM Momentum: Early Indicators of STEM Transfer Success for Community College Students

February 2021

Can Dual Enrollment Algebra Reduce Racial/Ethnic Gaps in Early STEM Outcomes? Evidence From Florida

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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