The effects of a Math Summer Bridge Program on college self-efficacy and other student success measures in community college students

This study uses Astin's (1999) Inputs-Environment-Outcomes (I-E-O) framework to investigate if a developmental math summer bridge program had a significant effect on six (6) student success measures; three pertaining to mindset/behaviors leading to student success: (1) college self-efficacy (CSE); (2) sense of belonging; and (3) engagement and satisfaction; and three measuring student success: (4) persistence; (5) graduation; and (6) cumulative GPA for students enrolled in a community college in Hawaii. This study had three parts to its design: (1) pre/post experiment; (2) cross-sectional; and (3) comparison group. Nine hundred and fifty-seven (957) students were included in this study and their survey responses and/or student records were measured through repeated measures and between-groups ANOVA techniques. The findings indicate that the WCC Math Summer Bridge (MSB) Program has a significant and long-lasting effect on the mindset/behaviors leading to student success (CSE and engagement and satisfaction), which translates to these students having higher persistence and graduation rates, as well as higher cumulative GPAs than non-MSB students. A new framework was created to better understand the interconnected relationship that each of these outcomes have with one another and how a multi-faceted intervention can lead to exponential growth, setting students on a higher trajectory for success. The implication for practice is that academic communities and multi-faceted interventions are integral for helping students who place into developmental math courses not only pass these courses, but also do well in their other coursework, persist, and graduate. It is suggested that further research be done in identifying a more valid inventory to measure sense of belonging for community college students, as well as conduct qualitative and mixed-methods research to better understand the students' perspective/experience while going through the MSB program and how they perceived its impact on their success.