What Level of Math Proficiency Does It Take to Succeed in Math or Science?
If you teach college-level math, science, or engineering, please take a couple of minutes to complete the survey described below. It’s part of a study aimed at updating the classic book Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences. One of the study investigators is Mark Connolly of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a colleague of mine from the POD and CIRTL Networks. Mark’s a fantastic education researcher, and this is a worthy project.
Dear STEM Colleague:
According to a recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, roughly 60% of students who enter college with the goal of majoring in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) end up graduating in a non-STEM field. As part of a national five-year study of why undergraduates leave STEM majors, we are conducting a very short survey of STEM faculty and instructors.
What we want to know is this: What level of math proficiency do STEM faculty consider a good indication that an incoming student is likely to succeed in a STEM major?
The survey has just two questions: the one above and a second that asks about your field of study. Neither question asks for information that can personally identify you, so your answers are anonymous. Our findings will be used only to make sampling decisions for our study.
We will greatly appreciate your cooperation. Feel free to share the link for this survey <http://go.wisc.edu/adai0s> with colleagues. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Mark Connolly (University of Wisconsin–Madison) & Anne-Barrie Hunter (University of Colorado Boulder)
Principal Investigators, Talking about Leaving Revisited
(Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation)
Image: “my view for the next week,” abrunvoll, Flickr (CC)