Ensuring Early Mathematics Success for STEM Majors

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The Ensuring Early Mathematics Success for STEM Majors (EEMS) initiative integrates academic support and intervention services to increase graduation rates among 1) STEM majors who transfer from other institutions, 2) incoming freshmen at risk of failing first-year mathematics courses, and 3) students in the general population who underperform in first-year and subsequent mathematics courses. In order to improve student performance and reduce the risk of course failure, attrition, or increased time to degree the EEMS initiative includes summer bridge programs for transferring STEM majors and entering freshman STEM majors at risk of failing first-year mathematics courses and Peer-led Team Learning (PLTL) for all STEM majors. The EEMS Initiative seeks to increase persistence rates among the identified at-risk groups to match the current first-year STEM major persistence rate (80.9%), which will produce an increase of at least 66 STEM graduates per year. Underrepresented minority students are overrepresented among these at risk students, suggesting the program will have a proportionally larger impact on retention and graduation rates for this group. In addition to traditional journal and conference venues for dissemination, faculty from institutions in the Urban Massachusetts LSAMP and other interested institutions are invited to observe the program and participate in PLTL workshops.