170 likes | 348 Views
MIDFIELD: Retention, migration, critical mass. Webinar facilitator Matthew Ohland Engineering Education Purdue University. Engineering retention is the highest. Engineering retains ~57% compared to business (~55%) social sciences (~51%) arts and humanities (~50%)
E N D
MIDFIELD:Retention, migration, critical mass Webinar facilitator Matthew Ohland Engineering Education Purdue University October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
Engineering retention is the highest • Engineering retains ~57% compared to • business (~55%) • social sciences (~51%) • arts and humanities (~50%) • science, technology, and math (~41%) • computer science (~38%) • Engineering majors typical of other majors • racial/ethnic distribution at matriculation • retention and graduation rates by gender and ethnicity • grade distribution • engagement (from NSSE) October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
The institution matters • The institution a student attends accounts for a lot of the variability in retention rates • High of ~67% for 8th-semester engineering students to a low of ~37%. • The fraction leaving the university also varied widely. October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
Few migrate into engineering • 93% of engineering students in the 8th semester started in engineering • Engineering students go to business, STM, social sciences. • STM attracts others (40%), but not engineering • What can you do to welcome students to engineering after they matriculate? October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
Women are as likely to persist as men • Once women get to college, they persist at about the same rate as men (56% for women and 58% for men to the 8th semester) • The top three 8th-semester destinations (Engineering, TOLEDO, and Business) attract men and women in about the same percentages, and represent a combined total of 82% of women and 86% of men matriculating as engineers October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
Destinations of students matriculating in engineering from 1987-1999: A comparison by gender at the 8th semester. All nine MIDFIELD institutions, “native” (non-transfer) students. October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
Men and women leave for different reasons • If women are leaving engineering because they feel isolated, aren’t they leaving because they’ve realized something that’s true of the profession? • If women are leaving because they don’t believe they will succeed, what are you doing to convince them otherwise? • What can you do to change the climate of engineering education? • What can you do to change the climate of the profession? October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board
Not all graduation rates are considered equal! Consider two points on the same diagonal in the figure to the right. A point up and to the left shows a population that leaves early (hopefully with options). A point down and to the right indicates a population that is languishing.
Disaggregation by race makes a significant difference Persistence for Black students seems to be in three clusters of institutions
Plots like this by institution can show where there are disparities for particular race-gender combinations. October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board 2009 EEC Grantees Meeting Workshop
Acknowledgements • Supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. REC-0337629 (now DRL- 0729596), EEC-0646441, and GSE 0734085/0734062 • Multiple graphs reproduced with permission from the Journal of Engineering Education • Ohland, M.W., S.D Sheppard, G. Lichtenstein, O. Eris, D. Chachra, R.A. Layton (2008). Persistence, Engagement, and Migration in Engineering. Journal of Engineering Education 97(3). October 1, 2009, Webinar to WEPAN Executive Board