Journal of Education & Social Policy

Stem Learning Communities
Perry Gillespie, Masceline Petitubin

Abstract
This study examined one of the strategies that were set in place to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation in the STEM disciplines. The STEM Learning Communities (SLC) was an innovative, “inquiry-based” educational strategy which has been adopted at Fayetteville State University. All incoming freshmen with an intended STEM major was required to enroll in SLC, which would be a yearlong. There is significant body of research supporting learning communities for boosting students’ learning and academic achievement. Data collected, analyzed, and documented in this report includes: Accelerated Math 129/130 course grades, STEM advisement Workshop survey data/results, a comparative case design between the STEM Accelerated Math 129 course at the beginning of the semester, during midterm, and at the end of the semester. Also a comparative case design between the STEM Accelerated Math 129 course and a an eight week Math 129 course that was not a part of the STEM Learning Communities Results from this study indicate that students who were in the STEM Learning Communities Accelerated Math 129/130 Course outperformed their peers that were in the Math 129 eight weeks course.

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