Russell Long | Purdue University (original) (raw)

Papers by Russell Long

IEEE Transactions on Education, 2022

Engineering and Social Justice: …, Jan 1, 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in student performance among engineering disc... more The purpose of this study is to examine differences in student performance among engineering disciplines, as measured by term GPA's. Results indicate that: 1) Women outperform men in most engineering disciplines; 2) Student performance starts low at the freshman level, drops slightly at the sophomore level, and then increases over the junior and senior levels (without controlling for mortality); 3) Significant differences in GPA's remain between majors after controlling for relative SAT score, academic class level, race, and gender; 4) After controlling for major, relative SAT score, academic class level, and race, the gender gap in performance grows even larger.

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015

2008 38th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, 2008

Our goal is to determine how climate and pedagogy affect the persistence of women in undergraduat... more Our goal is to determine how climate and pedagogy affect the persistence of women in undergraduate engineering programs via a longitudinal, multi-institutional, and multivariate study. We focus on the nine institutions of the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education from 1987 to 2004. The study uses three related data sources: the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD), two climate surveys, and three teaching practices surveys. We will conduct new analyses on these existing data as well as new studies focusing on research questions relating climate, pedagogy, and persistence. This triangulated and longitudinal approach provides a powerful historical context to help explain changes and successes in persistence that will reach multiple stakeholders, scaffolding earlier qualitative studies with quantitative results that can inform policymakers. Here, we introduce our study and present initial results related to our first research question.

ABSTRACT A new metric, “stickiness,” is proposed, tracking longitudinally all students who have c... more ABSTRACT A new metric, “stickiness,” is proposed, tracking longitudinally all students who have contact with a discipline to determine the likelihood those students will “stick” to that discipline and graduate in it. This metric has the versatility to be relevant for students making contact with engineering through a variety of pathways. Stickiness exhibits significant disciplinary differentiation. Whereas earlier work has shown that Industrial Engineering is the most successful at attracting and retaining students, the disciplinary distribution of stickiness shows that Industrial Engineering is exceptional. Disaggregating by race/ethnicity and gender, much larger variations in stickiness are observed (as much as 48 percent), and positive and negative outcomes are identified where students in particular subpopulations are more or less likely to stick than expected. Aggregated by race/ethnicity and gender, the stickiness of transfer students ranks the disciplines in the same order as the stickiness of first-time-in-college students, but transfer stickiness exhibits less disciplinary variation and transfer students in all disciplines exhibit higher stickiness than first-time-in-college students.

ABSTRACT Longitudinal data from ten U.S. institutions are used to characterize outcomes of three ... more ABSTRACT Longitudinal data from ten U.S. institutions are used to characterize outcomes of three matriculation models: Direct Matriculation to a specific major (DM), First-Year Engineering programs (FYE), and Post-General Education Programs (PGE). Both DM and FYE programs show high persistence rates, but FYE programs are less likely to attract transfer students and switchers. FYE graduates are the most likely to stick with their first choice of major (after completing FYE requirements), followed by DM graduates who begin in undesignated engineering (taking extra time to decide), then DM graduates who choose their major as part of the matriculation process, and then PGE graduates. FYE students also have the shortest time to graduation. We conclude that encouraging students to associate with engineering or an engineering discipline from the start, yet maintaining the curricular flexibility to allow alternate entry points onto the engineering path improves persistence, accessibility, effectiveness of major choice, and time to graduation.

Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 2009

Interest in increasing the number of engineering graduates in the United States and promoting gen... more Interest in increasing the number of engineering graduates in the United States and promoting gender equality and diversifi cation of the profession has encouraged considerable research on women and minorities in engineering programs. Drawing on a framework of intersectionality theory, this study recognizes that women of different ethnic backgrounds warrant disaggregated analysis because they do not necessarily share a common experience in engineering education. Using a longitudinal, comprehensive dataset of more than 79,000 students who matriculated in engineering at nine universities, this research examines the question: How does the persistence of engineering students (measured as enrollment to the eighth semester) vary by disaggregated combinations of gender and race/ethnicity? Findings reveal that for Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and White students, women who matriculate in engineering are most likely to persist in engineering compared to other eighth-semester destinations and, except for Native Americans, do so at rates comparable to those of men. Thus, contrary to considerable popular opinion that there is a gender gap in persistence, the low representation of women in the later years of engineering programs is primarily a refl ection of their low representation at matriculation.

This study focuses on how the approach to engineering matriculation affects choice of major. Usin... more This study focuses on how the approach to engineering matriculation affects choice of major. Using the eight institutions represented in the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development, we compared the majors at matriculation and at the third semester of 1) students who are directly admitted to a discipline 2) students who enter mandatory first-year engineering programs and 3) those who enter colleges of engineering without specifying a major preference. Preliminary findings indicate that students in formal FYE programs are more likely than the direct admits to choose Mechanical, Civil,

IEEE Transactions on Education, 2022

Engineering and Social Justice: …, Jan 1, 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine differences in student performance among engineering disc... more The purpose of this study is to examine differences in student performance among engineering disciplines, as measured by term GPA's. Results indicate that: 1) Women outperform men in most engineering disciplines; 2) Student performance starts low at the freshman level, drops slightly at the sophomore level, and then increases over the junior and senior levels (without controlling for mortality); 3) Significant differences in GPA's remain between majors after controlling for relative SAT score, academic class level, race, and gender; 4) After controlling for major, relative SAT score, academic class level, and race, the gender gap in performance grows even larger.

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015

2008 38th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, 2008

Our goal is to determine how climate and pedagogy affect the persistence of women in undergraduat... more Our goal is to determine how climate and pedagogy affect the persistence of women in undergraduate engineering programs via a longitudinal, multi-institutional, and multivariate study. We focus on the nine institutions of the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education from 1987 to 2004. The study uses three related data sources: the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD), two climate surveys, and three teaching practices surveys. We will conduct new analyses on these existing data as well as new studies focusing on research questions relating climate, pedagogy, and persistence. This triangulated and longitudinal approach provides a powerful historical context to help explain changes and successes in persistence that will reach multiple stakeholders, scaffolding earlier qualitative studies with quantitative results that can inform policymakers. Here, we introduce our study and present initial results related to our first research question.

ABSTRACT A new metric, “stickiness,” is proposed, tracking longitudinally all students who have c... more ABSTRACT A new metric, “stickiness,” is proposed, tracking longitudinally all students who have contact with a discipline to determine the likelihood those students will “stick” to that discipline and graduate in it. This metric has the versatility to be relevant for students making contact with engineering through a variety of pathways. Stickiness exhibits significant disciplinary differentiation. Whereas earlier work has shown that Industrial Engineering is the most successful at attracting and retaining students, the disciplinary distribution of stickiness shows that Industrial Engineering is exceptional. Disaggregating by race/ethnicity and gender, much larger variations in stickiness are observed (as much as 48 percent), and positive and negative outcomes are identified where students in particular subpopulations are more or less likely to stick than expected. Aggregated by race/ethnicity and gender, the stickiness of transfer students ranks the disciplines in the same order as the stickiness of first-time-in-college students, but transfer stickiness exhibits less disciplinary variation and transfer students in all disciplines exhibit higher stickiness than first-time-in-college students.

ABSTRACT Longitudinal data from ten U.S. institutions are used to characterize outcomes of three ... more ABSTRACT Longitudinal data from ten U.S. institutions are used to characterize outcomes of three matriculation models: Direct Matriculation to a specific major (DM), First-Year Engineering programs (FYE), and Post-General Education Programs (PGE). Both DM and FYE programs show high persistence rates, but FYE programs are less likely to attract transfer students and switchers. FYE graduates are the most likely to stick with their first choice of major (after completing FYE requirements), followed by DM graduates who begin in undesignated engineering (taking extra time to decide), then DM graduates who choose their major as part of the matriculation process, and then PGE graduates. FYE students also have the shortest time to graduation. We conclude that encouraging students to associate with engineering or an engineering discipline from the start, yet maintaining the curricular flexibility to allow alternate entry points onto the engineering path improves persistence, accessibility, effectiveness of major choice, and time to graduation.

Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 2009

Interest in increasing the number of engineering graduates in the United States and promoting gen... more Interest in increasing the number of engineering graduates in the United States and promoting gender equality and diversifi cation of the profession has encouraged considerable research on women and minorities in engineering programs. Drawing on a framework of intersectionality theory, this study recognizes that women of different ethnic backgrounds warrant disaggregated analysis because they do not necessarily share a common experience in engineering education. Using a longitudinal, comprehensive dataset of more than 79,000 students who matriculated in engineering at nine universities, this research examines the question: How does the persistence of engineering students (measured as enrollment to the eighth semester) vary by disaggregated combinations of gender and race/ethnicity? Findings reveal that for Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and White students, women who matriculate in engineering are most likely to persist in engineering compared to other eighth-semester destinations and, except for Native Americans, do so at rates comparable to those of men. Thus, contrary to considerable popular opinion that there is a gender gap in persistence, the low representation of women in the later years of engineering programs is primarily a refl ection of their low representation at matriculation.

This study focuses on how the approach to engineering matriculation affects choice of major. Usin... more This study focuses on how the approach to engineering matriculation affects choice of major. Using the eight institutions represented in the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development, we compared the majors at matriculation and at the third semester of 1) students who are directly admitted to a discipline 2) students who enter mandatory first-year engineering programs and 3) those who enter colleges of engineering without specifying a major preference. Preliminary findings indicate that students in formal FYE programs are more likely than the direct admits to choose Mechanical, Civil,