Investigating the impact of peer supplemental instruction on underprepared and historically underserved students in introductory STEM courses

BACKGROUND: Supplemental instruction (SI) is a well-established mode of direct academic support, used in a wide variety of courses. Some reports have indicated that SI and similar peer-led academic support models particularly benefit students identifying with historically underserved racial/ethnic groups in STEM. However, these studies have not explicitly examined the role of prior academic experiences, an important consideration in college success. We report on the impact of a modified SI model, Peer Supplemental Instruction (PSI), on student success in introductory STEM courses at a diverse access institution. This study focuses on PSI’s impact on the academic performance of students identifying with historically underserved racial/ethnic groups, while also considering the effects of prior academic experiences. RESULTS: Data were aggregated for nine courses over five semesters to produce a robust data set (n = 1789). PSI attendees were representative of the overall student population in terms of previous academic experiences/performance (as determined by high school GPA) and self-identified racial/ethnic demographics. Frequent PSI attendance was correlated with a significant increase in AB rates (average increase of 29.0 percentage points) and reduction in DFW rates (average decrease of 26.1 percentage points) when comparing students who attended 10 + vs. 1–2 PSI sessions. Overall, students identifying as Black/African American received the largest benefit from PSI. These students experienced a significant increase in their final course GPA when attending as few as 3–5 PSI sessions, and exhibited the largest increase in AB rates (from 28.7 to 60.5%) and decrease in DFW rates (from 47.1 to 14.8%) when comparing students who attended 10 + vs. 1–2 sessions. However, students with similar HS GPAs experienced similar benefits from PSI, regardless of self-identified race/ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: The data presented here suggest that PSI particularly benefitted underprepared students in their introductory STEM courses. Since students identifying with historically underserved racial/ethnic groups have traditionally had inequitable K–12 educational experiences, they enter college less prepared on average, and thus particularly benefit from PSI. PSI, in conjunction with additional strategies, may be a useful tool to help rectify the results of systemic educational inequities for students identifying with historically underserved racial/ethnic groups.