**1. Introduction**

Gateway courses—lower division, required courses characterized by high enrollment, high failure, and withdrawal rates that serve as a significant barrier to further study, degree completion and, ultimately, the professions [1, 2]—are front and center in preventing students from earning the coveted college degree. Students view gateway courses as a mechanism for weeding them out from some of the most notoriously challenging majors (e.g., Engineering, Physics) and pre-professional programs (e.g., premed, Accounting). Gateway courses also affect students differently: First-generation, underrepresented students (FGUS) and PELL eligible students are more profoundly and adversely influenced by their academic performance in gateway courses than their non-FGUS and non-PELL eligible counterparts ([3], p. 54). Finally, students in the United States who take out college loans are faced with the prospect of having secured debt, meaning that student loans are not forgivable in a bankruptcy court.

Faculty, academic support staff, and administrators are also concerned that students are not developing the skill set and knowledge needed to succeed in many of the gateway courses and the most challenging academic pathways of study. For example, these types of courses "represent roadblocks to student persistence and timely graduation … [and discourages] students from continuing higher education" ([3], p. 54). It is difficult to discern the relative influence of student retention in relation to student persistence when considering student performance in gateway classes. Administrators also lament that it costs more to attract new students than retain the current ones. Cuseo ([4], p. 1) notes that, "retention initiatives designed to manage student enrollment are estimated to be 3–5 times more cost-effective than recruitment efforts, i.e., it takes 3–5 times as much money to recruit a new student than it does to retain an already enrolled student." It is fair to conclude that improving the rates of students earning a post-secondary degree has been a national priority for over a quarter of a century with little improvement shown (e.g., [5, 6]).

The article is divided into four sections. First, the purpose of the study is explored by addressing the study's research questions, providing a brief history of Trinity University and its experience with gateway courses, and reviewing the literature on gateway courses that generates testable hypotheses. Second, the study details the research methods (data collection, conceptualization, and operationalization of variables) and the descriptive statistics used. Third, the study discusses the empirical results of Trinity University's experience with gateway classes. The study also fits the findings into the context of the gateway class literature. Fourth, the study offers a discussion that provides the implications of the findings and avenues for future strategies to reduce deficient grade rates in gateway courses.

### **2. Purpose of the study**

The purpose of this study is to answer three questions. First, Do Trinity University's FGUS and PELL eligible students have disproportionately higher deficient grade (D/F/W) rates compared with their non-FGUS counterparts in gateway courses? Second, does taking more than one gateway class (as opposed to taking one) at Trinity during the same semester increase deficient grade rates? Third, does the creation of a Quantitative Reasoning Skills Center (QRS) at Trinity reduce the deficient grade rates in gateway courses, particularly among those who are FGUS and PELL eligible? Prior to answering these questions, a short background of Trinity University and its experience with gateway courses are provided.

Trinity University is a small liberal arts university with a few select graduate programs located in the historic Monte Vista district in San Antonio, Texas. Trinity recently celebrated its 150th anniversary and has a total enrollment of approximately 2400 students. While Trinity has Presbyterian roots, it has been a secular university since 1969. For almost 30 years, Trinity has been consistently ranked first in the western region among universities offering undergraduate and master's degrees.

After the financial crisis in 2008 in the United States, institutional data revealed that Trinity needed to strengthen its approach in helping first-year students succeed. In particular, students struggled in a series of STEM-related courses known as gateway courses. In 2015, Trinity created its first Student Success Center later named The Tiger Learning Commons. It included a director of student success and an academic coach. Trinity also decided to use its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) titled *Starting*  *Perspective Chapter: The Case of Trinity University – An Examination of Vulnerable Students'... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108621*

*Strong* to try to reduce its deficient grade rates in gateway courses. Since 2003, the Southern Association of College and Schools: Commission on Colleges (SACSCOOC) reaffirmation of the accreditation process mandates that higher educational institutions within its region undertake and complete a QEP once every 10 years. SACSCOC's defines a QEP as a "topic that is creative and vital to the long-term improvement of student learning [that] … focuses on learning outcomes and/or environment supporting student learning" ([7], p. 49).

Among other strategies, *Starting Strong* created a Quantitative Reasoning Skills Center to use best practices to help mitigate the high deficient grade rates in STEMrelated gateway classes. To lead the QRS Center, Trinity hired a Director in January 2019. The Director is tasked with "supporting STEM faculty efforts to assist students facing quantitative reasoning challenges" ([8], p. 35). The QRS Director's responsibilities include:


The QRS Center is focused on reducing deficient grade rates in STEM-related gateway courses at Trinity. First-year students, who are in the process of learning the norms and expectations of college, also take most of the STEM-related gateway courses. The Tiger Learning Commons and the QRS Center were the main strategies Trinity used to reduce deficient grade rates in STEM-related gateway courses. Active learning, institutionalizing peer tutoring, improving course design, increasing interactive and small-group learning environments, and introducing a STEM-related Summer Bridge class for students less prepared to succeed in STEM courses are all strategies developed by Trinity University to lower deficient grade rates in STEMrelated gateway courses.

To contextualize the purpose of the study, an examination of the extant literature is explored, which generates four testable hypotheses.

Gateway courses have generated much scholarly attention (e.g., [9, 10]). Some scholars explore deficient grade rates in gateway courses and their influence on student persistence and retention rates (e.g., [11]). Other scholars explore the root causes of substandard performance in gateway classes. For example, it is well chronicled that FGUS and PELL eligible students face daunting challenges in succeeding in and completing gateway classes (e.g., [12, 13]). This leads to the first testable hypothesis in the study:

*H1: FGUS and PELL eligible students are more likely to struggle in gateway courses in comparison to their non-FGUS and non-PELL eligible counterparts.*

Lack of college preparation is another contributing factor to high deficient grade rates in STEM-related gateway courses. As Nunn ([14], p. 3) points out: "A great number of U.S. high schools do not adequately prepare students for the demands of college academics." From her teaching experience, Nunn notes that she was exasperated by "the performance gap between students in my class who attended excellent high schools and those who did not" ([14], p. 9). While college preparation is certainly an important factor in determining performance in gateway classes, the data are not available to test this hypothesis.

Still, a different set of research examines the possible solutions to high deficient grade rates in gateway classes. For example, there is literature that suggests that the more gateway courses taken in a semester lead to higher deficient grade rates across those types of courses (e.g., [15, 16]). The only thing that is more challenging than taking one gateway class is taking multiple ones in the same semester. This leads to the second hypothesis:

*H2: If a student takes more than one gateway course in a semester, it leads to higher deficient grade rates than taking one gateway class.*

Finally, scholars have shown that there are best practices and strategies to improve student performance in gateway courses. Types of teaching techniques (lecture/chalk talk vs. active learning), improving course design (e.g., early alerts and low stakes assignments), offering bridge and preparatory classes (e.g., Summer Bridge STEMrelated course), and improving academic support resources (e.g., academic coaches) are strategies that Trinity employed with the hiring of the QRS Director and the creation of his Center [16]. This leads to our third and fourth hypotheses:

*H3: Deficient grade rates should decrease in gateway courses with the creation of a QRS Center in the Spring 2019 semester.*

*H4: FGUS and PELL eligible students' deficient grade rates in gateway classes should decrease with the creation of a QRS Center.*

To test these four hypotheses, the study's methods of data collection and research methodology are outlined.
