Student Success Analysis from Running a Pre-College Computer Science and Math Summer Program

Abstract

This Research to Practice Work in Progress Paper studies the high attrition rate problem of first-time computer science Freshmen students at most universities. The problem is worsened given the growing demand of Information Technology workers and due to the limited instruction of computer science related content being taught within the high school education curriculum. The result is that incoming college students who are majoring in computer science or in related STEM fields are unprepared. Additionally, the means to adequately meet the employment demand is less likely with the low percentage of workers from under-represented minority (URM) groups in jobs within the computer science related industry. Much research has been done on predicting and improving student's success, particularly with the first programming and algorithms course known as CS1 and being ready to take Calculus. The problem is difficult to understand due to the many factors that exists, such as students having different education backgrounds, not knowing what a computer science education entails, and student support systems at a new school. At our university, for three summers, we offered our incoming engineering students a pre-college 4-week summer experience to better prepare them for their first year. The student population targeted were from under-represented minority groups, first-generation, low-income, and women. The goal of the program was to better prepare the students for success by engaging and advising them with both, computer science and math content by bringing them together as a cohort, which is essential during their first critical year in a computer science engineering field of study. The goal of this paper is to study the attrition rates and gain insight on student success predictors for entering Computer Science students. Research has shown that pre-college programs can benefit student success. By targeting students from underrepresented minority groups our summer program integrates computer science and math concepts to better prepare students for “Day 1” of college. The research work employs the student involvement theory to promote student success and retention. With COVID-19 restricting students to online learning, challenges in student-faculty and student-student contact have significantly made an impact. In addition to online survey/interview data, math and computer science course completion rates were collected from our 87 summer cohort participants to compare with the rest of the students. Triangulation of all the data collected yielded some insights and confirmed others on predictors for student success and persistence. Specifically, the summer students were disproportionately affected by COVID-19, compared to the general population (i.e., they were readily not able to collaborate with their peers and approach faculty).