Systematic Literature Review

Background:

To better understand how institutions have implemented the NSF S-STEM program and how those efforts are shared through published work, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of 288 publications spanning 1998–2022. This review focused specifically on S-STEM programs in engineering and computer science (EGR/CS) and examined how these programs support low-income students in STEM.

What We Found

  • Most publications describe programs, not research. Nearly two-thirds of the papers were program overviews, often presented at conferences such as ASEE. Only about one-third involved empirical research or evaluation.

Purpose and publication type of S-STEM papers identified in the SLR, highlighting the predominance of program overviews and conference proceedings.

Bar chart showing that most S-STEM publications are program overviews presented at conferences. Research and evaluation papers and journal publications are much less common.

 

  • Student-focused data dominates the research. Among research papers, most focused on students using surveys and interviews. Very few used theoretical frameworks, and faculty or staff perspectives were rare.

Data types in SLR-identified research/evaluation papers show a focus on student-related data.

Bar chart showing that student surveys and interviews are the most common data collection methods in S-STEM research papers. Faculty or staff data sources are rarely used.

 

  • Publications tend to come from large, public universities. Institutions in the SLR were mostly large, public, 4-year schools—especially land-grant universities.

The distribution of institution sector representation across institutions represented in the SLR and U.S. institutions with EGR/CS programs.

Side-by-side bar chart comparing sectors of institutions in the SLR versus all U.S. engineering or computer science institutions. SLR overrepresents public, four-year institutions and underrepresents private or two-year institutions.

  • Programs share a common set of activities. While S-STEM programs can be diverse, most publications included similar combinations of activities—especially cohort building, recruitment, and course-based initiatives.

Frequency and types of activities included in S-STEM programs, as presented in SLR publications.

Horizontal bar chart showing that the most frequently reported S-STEM activities are cohort-building, recruitment, and course-based programming. Other activities like mentoring and advising are moderately common; study abroad and service learning are rare.

  • Programs at high-Pell institutions look different. Schools serving more low-income students reported broader programming and more internal partnerships to support student success.

The frequency of S-STEM program activities by Pell-eligibility level highlights more program activities at high-Pell schools.

Grouped bar chart showing that institutions with more low-income students tend to report more types of program activities, especially internships, academic support, and conference attendance.

Explore the Dataset

To help others build on this work, we’ve made the full dataset from the SLR publicly available. The first sheet contains the extracted variables from each of the 288 publications. The second sheet provides institutional-level data, including characteristics from IPEDS (e.g., sector, size, Pell percentages). We invite researchers, S-STEM teams, and policymakers to explore the data, generate new insights, or identify patterns (or potential partners!) across institutional contexts.

 

SLR Dataset (XLSX):

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