Dissertation

An examination of the role of college-level mathematics in stem major persistence

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between first-term college-level mathematics course and STEM major persistence. The study utilized data from a medium-sized, 4-year, open access, public institution on the West Coast of the United States. The data consisted of students enrolled at the institution of study between the Fall 2008 and Fall 2013 terms who declared STEM majors at matriculation. Decreasing logistic regression was used to identify significant variables likely to increase in a student’s persistence in a STEM major through their sixth college term. Findings indicated that students with a high school GPA of 3.00 or higher and students who passed a first-term college-level mathematics course were at significantly greater odds of being retained.

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