A National Study of the Influence of the Community College Pathway on Female Students’ STEM Baccalaureate Success

Abstract

Objective: This study examines the role of community colleges in closing the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by studying whether beginning at a community college improves the likelihood of female students earning their bachelor’s degree in STEM. Method: Using nationally representative data, we apply a propensity score matching approach to reduce the selection bias associated with a prospective student’s decision to begin at a community college rather than a 4-year institution. For each gender group, we employ a logistic regression model to estimate the influence of the community college pathway on STEM bachelor’s degree attainment. Results: We find that enrolling initially at a community college has a negative influence on students’ bachelor’s degree attainment in STEM for the pooled sample and male subsample. However, this finding does not hold for the female subsample, indicating that female students who attend community college before transferring to a 4-year institution are not less likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree in STEM. Although additional analyses indicate that community college starters are more likely to drop out from a STEM bachelor’s degree program, the impact only exists for the pooled and male samples but not for female students. Contributions: Considering the significant efforts community colleges have devoted toward creating a suitable environment for female students in which to thrive, this study provides empirical evidence that community colleges have the potential to narrow the STEM achievement gap between gender groups and provide significant utility for female students seeking a bachelor’s degree in STEM fields.