The effects of peer-led team learning on pass rates, academic performance, and retention of under-represented minority students in STEM courses

Underrepresented minority students (URM) are lagging behind White and Asian students in graduating with STEM degrees. Peer education has been used throughout higher education institutions as pedagogy and a learning strategy to improve retention and graduation rates. In addition to improving persistence rates, the use of peer education has served to prevent the loss of revenues in higher education. The involvement of peers in providing academic support outside of the classroom has proven to be beneficial to the success of URM college students. Although many studies have examined the impact of academic peer education on the participants, few have evaluated the impact peer-led team learning (PLTL) as a model with URM students in STEM. As colleges and universities seek to impact the educational experience of all students, it is important to understand the academic benefits for URM students. It is hoped that this study will inform practitioners about the persistence and academic performance of URM students in STEM to develop best practices in using institution resources to impact persistence rates. Post positivism framed this quantitative study examining the performance of underrepresented minority students in PLTL leader for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses at a research institution in Texas. Of specific interest was the course grade rates and retention rates in subsequent STEM courses. Data analyses were conducted through the use of the quantitative methods, including inferential and descriptive statistics. Findings from the study contribute to the ability of practitioners to increase student success for academic peer educators, therefore preventing the loss of tuition dollars.