Statistical approach for measuring the effectiveness of a remedial program for low-achieving undergraduate engineering candidates in Perú

Abstract

In Perú most University students who choose an Engineering career do not meet the minimum academic standards required to succeed during the first semesters of their undergraduate studies. Therefore, many fail to complete the engineering degree. To improve this situation, the Engineering program at the Universidad de Piura, Perú, introduced a remedial program "introductory semester" in its curricula. This semester is mandatory to all students who scored below a cutoff grade during an evaluation examination taken by all admitted students. To prove the effectiveness of the introductory semester, data was gathered from 2006 to 2009 and a Regression Discontinuity design was used to estimate the effectiveness of this introductory semester. Our findings suggest that the program has a positive impact on the first semester scores. After conducting a logistic regression, it was also found that the remedial program has a marginal effect of 32.8 percent points on the students' expected value for passing the first semester. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.