Narrowing Enrollment Gaps for Underrepresented College Students in Engineering: Using Contextualized Admissions Measures to Predict Student Success.

Previous studies show that contextualized measures of high school achievement - in other words, how well students performed relative to their high school peers - can help identify students who have the potential to succeed in college, and thus can serve as a key measure in holistic admissions. Building upon previous work, this study further examines whether contextualized measures of high school achievement may help identify students who have the potential to succeed in engineering programs, especially among traditionally underrepresented students in engineering (defined in our paper as low-SES students, underrepresented students of color, and women). Based on longitudinal data from a Midwestern state's Department of Education database, this study finds that contextualized measures of high school performance are significantly associated with students' college performance - for all students in engineering, as well as across our three subsamples of traditionally underrepresented students. These findings have important implications for incorporating contextualized measures of high school performance when making undergraduate admissions decisions in engineering programs, to help better identify applicants from traditionally underrepresented student populations in engineering. This is particularly crucial as admissions offices move toward more holistic and test-optional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]