Improving STEM outcomes

For students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors, the road to college-level coursework can be a long one. If an entering student places below college-level math, then the student must complete at least one or more developmental courses before college-level work is accessible to them. This is not true with co-requisites. At LaGuardia Community College (LCC), a college within the City University of New York, students can take a co-requisite STEM course that allows them to access college-level work immediately while receiving supplemental support for basic material. This path allows the student to start accumulating college-level credits from day one instead of waiting to pass developmental courses.

At LCC, students who take a co-requisite STEM course consistently pass the course at higher rates than students who went through the traditional sequence. The co-requisite STEM pass rate is anywhere from 9 to 22 percentage points higher than the pass rate for students who took a STEM course following the completion of a traditional developmental sequence. This Points of Interest shows that students who take a co-requisite STEM course have higher success rates than students in the traditional developmental sequence.