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Many STEM-focused students begin their postsecondary journey at a community college. This manuscript uses transcript analysis blended with descriptive methods to trace the academic diversity of students enrolled in the Los Angeles Community College District. Patterns of success and nonsuccess with respect to the climb through developmental mathematics, time, course completion ratio, and grades disaggregated by gender and ethnicity are traced and reported for students expressing a desire for a STEM career. The study concludes that mathematics success is key to further success for STEM students. While the analysis found some differences by gender and ethnicity, the true diversity of the sample would be better described by differences in academic preparation for STEM.
Hagedorn et al. (Fri,) studied this question.