The Impact of Course Placement in STEM Sequences on Students' Short-Term and Longer-Term University Success Outcomes

Abstract: Research has frequently demonstrated negative effects of placing students into developmental education, but very little inquiry has considered the impact of placing students into different levels of non-developmental coursework. The present study explored this issue within sequenced pairs of STEM gateway courses using doubly-robust propensity score analyses and a total sample of 11,532 undergraduates. The results indicate that starting in a lower-level course frequently predicted favorable short-term academic outcomes, but course level was unrelated to retention, and starting in lower-level coursework was often inversely associated with the likelihood of graduating from the university or receiving a STEM bachelor's degree.