The effects of calculus workshop groups on minority achievement and persistence in mathematics, science, and engineering

Among the most successful academic intervention programs has been the calculus workshop model developed for African-American students at the University of California, Berkeley, by Uri Treisman. The present research represents the first longitudinal investigation of the effects of workshop participation upon persistence and achievement of underrepresented minority students enrolled in mathematics, science, and engineering majors. Based on the Academic Excellence Workshop Program at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, 133 workshop and 187 non-workshop minority students, including 86 % of Latino ethnicity, were individually tracked throughout their academic careers over a period of five years. There were no statistically significant differences between workshop and non-workshop groups in pre-college academic measures, including SATV, SATM, HSGPA, and precalculus diagnostic test, suggesting no initial academic advantage by either group. Multiple linear path analysis was used to estimate the effects of workshop participation upon achievement and persistence.;This study demonstrates that an intervention program promoting academic excellence and peer interaction in academic contexts can directly affect student performance in technical majors independently of pre-intervention cognitive factors. The data strongly suggest that achievement among underrepresented minority students in mathematics, science, and engineering disciplines may be less associated with pre-college ability than with in-college academic experiences and expectations.;Within three years after entering the institution, forty percent of the non-workshop students had withdrawn or been academically dismissed from the institution, compared to five percent of the workshop students. Non-workshop students required an average of one full quarter more to complete their three-quarter calculus sequence due to course failure or withdrawal. Ninety-one percent of the workshop students still enrolled in mathematics, science, and engineering majors after three years had completed their mathematics requirement, compared to fifty-eight percent of the non-workshop students. Interviews with former workshop students indicated that participation in the workshop sessions was of critical importance in adapting to and attaining the level of performance required in their technical courses, as well as building peer communities within their subsequent upper-division courses. Moreover, University fiscal data indicated that the cost of the calculus workshop program was less than the institutional or state costs of course-repeating for the non-workshop students.