Paving the Road into College and STEM for Latino Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to thoroughly describe a program designed to strengthen the pipeline of Latino students into post-secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, and present evaluation data to assess multiyear effectiveness. The program includes a suite of interventions aimed at students and families, and was implemented in a low-income school cluster with a high Latino population in metro Atlanta. Our intervention includes a high school and middle school mentoring program, STEM-focused extracurricular activities (summer camps, research and community service opportunities), and college and STEM career-focused community events for families. Results suggest that GoSTEM has a positive impact on students and families with respect to college and career awareness. The mentoring program components also increase students’ college readiness and self-regulatory skills at the high school level. The ex¬tracurricular programs support this effort by increasing students’ STEM-related content knowledge and learning, and their understanding about STEM careers for both high school and middle school students. Lessons learned are also presented to help guide other practitioners of Latino outreach programs.