Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Holistic STEM Support Program: A Quantitative Approach

The Holistic Oasis for Parents' Education (HOPE) Program is a holistic Two-Generation (2Gen) STEM summer program for college-ready parents and their children. It provides equitable access to STEM career paths and to two-year degree completion for student-parents while providing a robust summer STEM Academy experience for their preK-8 children. The HOPE Program incorporates a three-dimensional (3D) holistic support model focused on family, academic, and social/professional support. This support model addresses the many obstacles encountered by academically proficient student-parents such as "time poverty^[1]," insufficient time to devote to college, work, and family. While student-parents' motivation for college completion is strong, their role as a parent substantially increases their likelihood of leaving college without a degree. A pre and post questionnaire is administered to each summer cohort (2022-2026) and each fall to a quasi-control group of student parents who are not enrolled in the HOPE Program. The questionnaire measures the effectiveness of the HOPE Program's 3D supports, examining each intervention, by looking at initial effects such as use and satisfaction as well as intermediate effects such as academic progression. This presentation will describe the creation and refinement of this questionnaire from Year 1 (2022) to Year 2 (2023) and present preliminary results from Year 1. Our external consultant, Professor Maribel Ramos Hernández (Universidad de Playa Ancha in Chile) contributed to the validation of the instrument in Year 1 and co-created the revised questionnaire. The HOPE Program is funded by the National Science Foundation (#2135805).

^[1] Wladis, C., Hachey, A. C., & Conway, K. (2018). No time for college? An investigation of time poverty and parenthood.The Journal of Higher Education, 89(6), 807-831.