A comprehensive investigation of hispanic student success in gate

University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- 2020 A Comprehensive Investigation of Hispanic Student Success in Gateway STEM Courses at Five State of Florida Institutions Renee Becker University of Central Florida Part of the Higher Education Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.edu/etd2020 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact STARS@ucf. STARS Citation Becker, Renee, "A Comprehensive Investigation of Hispanic Student Success in Gateway STEM Courses at Five State of Florida Institutions" (2020).

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-.edu/etd2020/17 A COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION OF HISPANIC STUDENT SUCCESS IN GATEWAY STEM COURSES AT FIVE STATE OF FLORIDA INSTITUTIONS by RENEE Y. State University of New York College at Brockport, 2001 M. State University of New York University at Albany, 2003 M. University of Rochester, 2008 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2020 Major Professor: Thomas Cox © 2020 Renee Becker ii ABSTRACT National employment data forecasts a significant need for graduates in the STEM disciplines for middle-income American jobs.

If the American labor force is to keep pace with the global economy, it is critically important that American higher education increase STEM degree production. Currently, minority populations lack access and thus opportunity for success in higher education, but, among them, Hispanic peoples account for about 59 million Americans, are the youngest demographic, and have the highest growth rate of any ethnic group. Hispanic students are inadequately represented in higher education enrollment numbers, graduation rates, graduate degree attainment, and STEM degree attainment. While only 14% of American institutions of higher education are designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), 64% of Hispanic American college students attend an HSI.

As a result, HSIs are in a unique position to improve student success in STEM disciplines. A statistical analysis of the grades of Hispanic and White students in introductory STEM courses at three Florida HSI universities, University of Central Florida, Florida International University, and Florida Atlantic University, and two non- HSI universities, University of West Florida and Florida Gulf Coast University, revealed 1) White students significantly outperformed Hispanic students in CHM 2045 at UWF, FGCU, and UCF and 2) White students significantly outperformed Hispanic students in MAC 2311 at UWF and FGCU and 3) Hispanic students at the HSIs (FAU and FIU) earned significantly higher grades in CHM 2045 compared to the Hispanic students at non-HSIs (UWF and FGCU). All other comparisons revealed no statistically significant difference in mean course grades. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES.

x LIST OF TABLES. xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. xiii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION. 1 Statement of the Problem.

6 Significance of the Study. 10 Null and Alternative Hypotheses. 11 Definition of Terms. 13 Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution.

13 First Generation College Student. 13 Hispanic Serving Institution. 14 STEM Gateway Course. 14 iv Student Success.

15 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW. 17 Higher Education Students in the 21st Century. 18 Hispanic Student Success: The Research. 23 First Generation College Student Status.

30 Demographics of Faculty. 31 STEM: The History and Current State. 35 Gateway STEM Courses. 37 v Hispanic Serving Institutions.

42 Florida State University System. 50 Critical Race Theory. 51 Latin Critical Theory. 52 Focus on Race and Racism.

52 Contesting Dominant Ideologies. 53 Focus on Social Justice. 54 Recognition of Experiential Knowledge. 55 Focus on Historical Context.

57 CHAPTER THREE: METHOD. 60 Null and Alternative Hypotheses. 64 vi University of West Florida. 65 Florida Gulf Coast University.

65 University of Central Florida. 66 Florida Atlantic University. 67 Florida International University. 68 Population and Participants.

70 Data Collection Methods. 71 Reliability and Validity. 72 Alignment of Research Questions to Data Collection. 75 Limitations and Delimitations of the Study.

79 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS. 79 Research Question One. 82 vii University of West Florida. 83 Florida Gulf Coast University.

85 University of Central Florida. 88 Florida Atlantic University. 90 Florida International University. 93 Research Question Two.

95 University of West Florida. 96 Florida Gulf Coast University. 98 University of Central Florida. 101 Florida Atlantic University.

103 Florida International University. 106 Research Question Three. 108 Research Question Four. 115 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION.

117 Findings by Research Question. 118 Research Question One. 118 viii Research Question Two. 121 Research Question Three.

123 Research Question Four. 124 Data Related Limitations. 125 Geographical-Demographical Limitations. 128 Recommendations for Practice.

130 Recommendations for Future Research. 135 APPENDIX A – INTRODUCTION EMAIL. 138 APPENDIX B – THANK YOU EMAIL. 141 APPENDIX C – REMINDER EMAIL.

143 APPENDIX D – IRB APPROVAL. 147 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Percentage distribution of highest level of education attained by socio-economic status. Percent distribution of undergraduates' parents' highest educational attainment.

Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question One, UWF. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question One, FGCU. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question One, UCF. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question One, FAU.

Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question One, FIU. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Two, UWF. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Two, FGCU. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Two, UCF.

Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Two, FAU. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Two, FIU. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Three. Histogram of dependent variable for Research Question Four.

114 x LIST OF TABLES Table 1 STEM Graduation Rates by Race/Ethnicity & Level of Degree. 9 Table 2 Percent Distribution of Degrees Attained by Race/Ethnicity. 19 Table 3 Percent Distribution of STEM Degrees Attained by Race/Ethnicity. 19 Table 4 Financial Aid Offered Based on Ethnicity for 2011-2012 Academic Year.

20 Table 5 Degree Completion Rate Comparison for Low Income and First-Generation College Students. 24 Table 6 Degree Completion Rates by Family Income as a Percent of the Federal Poverty Threshold. 25 Table 7 Population Demographics for the United States of America and the State of Florida. 48 Table 8 Fall Enrollment in Degree-granting Higher Education Institutions for the United States of America and the State of Florida by Ethnicity.

48 Table 9 Six Year Graduation Rates for the United States and the State of Florida. 49 Table 10 Percent of Full-time Faculty at State University System of Florida Universities and United States Public Universities……………………………………………………………….49 Table 11 Institutional Summary of Enrollment Data. 69 Table 12 Research Questions and Source Information. 74 Table 13 Data Analysis Distribution of Research Questions.

76 Table 14 Assumptions for Research Questions One and Two. 80 Table 15 Assumptions for Research Questions Three and Four. 81 Table 16 Group Statistics for Research Question One, UWF. 84 Table 17 Group Statistics for Research Question One, FGCU.

87 xi Table 18 Group Statistics for Research Question One, UCF. 89 Table 19 Group Statistics for Research Question One, FAU. 92 Table 20 Group Statistics for Research Question One, FIU. 94 Table 21 Group Statistics for Research Question Two, UWF.

97 Table 22 Group Statistics for Research Question Two, FGCU. 100 Table 23 Group Statistics for Research Question Two, UCF. 102 Table 24 Group Statistics for Research Question Two, FAU. 105 Table 25 Group Statistics for Research Question Two, FIU.

107 Table 26 Group Statistics for Research Question Three. 110 Table 27 Pairwise Comparison Results for Research Question Three. 112 Table 28 Group Statistics for Research Question Four. 115 Table 29 Summary of Mann-Whitney U Test Results for Research Question One.

119 Table 30 Percent of Hispanic Student and Faculty at UWF, FGCU, UCF, FAU, and FIU. 121 Table 31 Summary of Mann-Whitney U Test Results for Research Question Two. 122 Table 32 State of Florida Hispanic Demographics by County. 127 Table 33 State of Florida Hispanic Disaggregated Demographic by County………….128 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CRT Critical Race Theory FAU Florida Atlantic University FGCU Florida Gulf Coast University FIU Florida International University HACU Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities HBCU Historically Black Colleges and Universities HEA Higher Education Act HHEC Hispanic Higher Education Coalition HSI Hispanic Serving Institution INA Immigration and Nationality Act LatCrit Latin Critical Theory PWI Primarily White Institutions SES Socioeconomic Status STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics SUSF State University System of Florida UCF University of Central Florida UWF University of West Florida xiii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION General Background The recession that began in December of 2007 quickened the shift to American jobs requiring a postsecondary education, especially in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010).

The impact of this recession has been felt by all American citizens, but specifically by minority groups for which unemployment rates have been slow to rebound. In 2010, the unemployment rate for White and Hispanic Americans was 8. The economic recovery of the past several years has been accompanied by falling unemployment rates, but the Hispanic American unemployment rate still trails the White unemployment rate by 26% (BLS, 2017). The 2016 labor force statistics indicated that, while 90% of employed White and Black Americans have at least a high school diploma, only 74% of Hispanics have a high school diploma (BLS, 2017).

A concurrent challenge for America is access to higher education for minority populations. Hispanics account for about 59 million or 18.1% of the American population and have the highest growth rate of any ethnic group (Massey, Durand, & Malone, 2003; USCB, 2018a).5% of American college students identify as Hispanic (NCES, 2016).3% of post-baccalaureate students identify as Hispanic, demonstrating an even wider education gap than in undergraduate enrollment (NCES, 2016c). Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) was made a federal designation in the 1990s and federal funding was attached to the designation. To be a federally designated HSI, an institution has to confirm that the Hispanic student enrollment is at least 25% of the overall student 1 enrollment and that 50% of the Hispanic students are either low income and/or first-generation college students (Gasman, Nguyen, & Conrad, 2015).

In the past decade, there has been a 78% increase in the number of institutions classified as HSIs (Ayala, 2017). In 2017, HSIs accounted for approximately 14% of all public and private institutions of higher education and served 64% of all Hispanic American students (Ayala, 2017). Hispanic student enrollment increased 65% between the years of 2000 and 2015 (NCES, 2016c). Access to higher education has increased dramatically but Hispanic student success has not (NCES, 2016a).

The Hispanic demographic is not well represented in overall graduation rates, graduate degree attainment, and STEM degree attainment (NCES, 2016a; 2016h). In response, educators, student service professionals, and administrators have devoted considerable time and effort to study factors that affect Hispanic student success, generally either secondary or post-secondary school factors. Although there may be far more research on post- secondary school factors, in fact, manipulation of secondary school factors may yield a greater impact. Research into secondary school factors that affect Hispanic student declaration of a STEM major has shown that high-school teachers can have both an enormously positive and a negative effect on declaration of majors and Hispanic student success in the STEM circuit (Moller, Banerjee, Bottia, Stearns, Mickelson, Dancy, Wright, & Valentino, 2015).