Nichole M. Ramirez

Academic predictors of cooperative education participation

Cooperative education (co-op) programs in engineering provide students with relevant professional experience before they finish their undergraduate degree. Most programs and employers have academic eligibility requirements that make it difficult to infer whether successful employment outcomes are due to the selection of higher performing students or the causal effect of co-op participation. The goal of this study is to determine factors that are associated with participation in engineering cooperative education programs, controlling for eligibility. Longitudinal and multivariate data from six different institutions, each with large engineering programs where co-op participation is not mandatory, were studied with stepwise logistic regression. Results show that cumulative GPA at the end of the second semester is the strongest predictor of co-op participation. While institutional differences, year of matriculation, ethnicity, major discipline, and high school variables are also significant, gender is not related to co-op participation. The results from this paper will provide useful information for colleges, co-op administrators, and employers about who participates in co-op programs.

Gaining Access or Losing Ground?: Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students in Undergraduate Engineering, 1994–2003

Expanding access to engineering for underrepresented groups has by and large focused on ethnicity/race and gender, with little understanding of socioeconomic disadvantages. In this study, we use economic, human, and cultural capital theories to frame and then describe access to undergraduate engineering degree programs and bachelor’s degrees. Using individual student-level data from 10 universities from the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD) and aggregate school-level data (i.e., free-lunch status) from the Common Core of Data between 1994 and 2003, we first describe students who enter engineering programs by peer economic status (PES) with attention to gender, ethnicity/race, and SAT Math score. Second, a subset of the data is analyzed to describe access to bachelor’s degrees in engineering by PES using graduation rates. The findings show an increase in access to engineering degree programs by disadvantaged students, but that access to engineering bachelor’s degrees may be constrained, and especially for underrepresented ethnic/racial groups. The data highlight variable PES differences that accrue in engineering at entry and upon graduation (6 years later) across ethnic/racial groups; these differences have implications for broadening participation. Recommendations for future research and improving engineering access at the secondary and postsecondary levels are discussed.

Student Choice and Persistence in Aerospace Engineering

This longitudinal multi-institution study examines student outcomes and demographics in aerospace engineering in the United States over the period of 1987 to 2010. This large sample allows adoption of an intersectional framework to study race/ethnicity and gender together. In this paper, the demographics of students who choose aerospace engineering, their six-year graduation rates, trajectories of students entering and leaving aerospace engineering, and the “stickiness” of the discipline are examined. Hispanic men and women starting in engineering choose aerospace engineering at the highest rates (13.3 and 12.0%, respectively). Aerospace engineering graduation rates lag other disciplines, at best, by nine percentage points among Hispanic females and, at worst, by 24 percentage points among Black females. Retention in aerospace engineering is low for all students, but it is particularly so for Black men and women (both less than 12%). The result is an average of one Black woman graduate per program every 1...

Modeling student perceived costs and benefits to cooperative education programs (Co-ops) and pathways to participation

Cooperative education programs alternate education and practice, resulting in increased grade point averages, greater confidence in choice of career, and relatively higher post-graduation salaries. This study examines perceived benefits and barriers for students who choose not to participate in co-ops. Since students who participate in co-ops are more likely to persist in STEM fields, and there are differences in participation rates by race/ethnicity (i.e. Black and Hispanic students participate at lower rates), it is critical to understand the reasons for non-participation. Co-op and non-co-op students from a large Midwestern U.S. research university were surveyed and the responses are disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity. Choice Theory provides a theoretical framework to model perceived benefits and costs of co-op participation. Decision tree modeling is used to describe the different pathways to co-op participation and examine relationships between student backgrounds and pathways. Constant comparative analysis is used to study open-response questions. Future work will include follow up interviews with students from this survey to gain a more nuanced understanding. Findings have implications for the diversification for the engineering labor force.