Florida Polytechnic University: Record STEM Success, Record Enrollment
Record STEM success, record enrollment
How Florida’s only public STEM university cut the failure rate in its gateway course by more than half in one semester, kept it falling for four years, and turned student success into enrollment growth.
The real problem was not the one they expected. Together, we transformed the learning environment so that retention, persistence, and year-over-year progress became the foundation for enrollment health.
Two-thirds of first-year students were failing the course every student has to pass
In 2020, Introduction to STEM, the foundational course required of every Florida Poly first-year student, posted a DFW rate (grades of D, F, or withdrawal) of 47% in the fall. By spring 2021 it had climbed to 67%. Retention, academic morale, and the university’s financial outlook were all on the line.
Florida Poly had less room to maneuver than most campuses. As a performance-based, STEM-only institution bound by state metrics, it could not lower standards or steer students into easier alternatives. Expanded tutoring, course redesigns, and faculty workshops had already been tried and had not moved the numbers.
Defense first, then a better learning environment, then offense
Leadership had considered a mentoring program or more tutoring. After an initial consultation they chose a metacognitive strategy built in three phases, each informed by data from the last.
Peer Learning Strategist program
Select students were trained to give metacognitive assistance to their peers. Every interaction generated Trench Data™, a new view into how students were actually studying, where they were strong, and where they were stuck.
STEM Students’ Academic Playbook
Trench Data showed many students were working hard in unproductive ways. The Playbook turned those findings into a customized guide for working through the specific STEM challenges holding them back.
Metacognitive Instructional Academy
Faculty used the same insights to adjust how they taught, raising engagement in class and improving students’ academic practices outside it. Support and instruction began reinforcing each other.
A drop in the first semester that kept going
DFW rate, Introduction to STEM. Source: Florida Polytechnic University institutional data as reported by The LearnWell Projects.
Undergraduate enrollment, fall headcount. Shaded band marks the LearnWell engagement. Source: Florida Polytechnic University.
The first semester of the Peer Learning Strategist program cut the DFW rate from 67% to 34%. By Fall 2022 it was 23%, and as of Spring 2025 it stood at 20%, the lowest in the course’s recent history.
The gains did not stay inside one course. Faculty surveys in upper-level STEM courses report that students who completed the redesigned Introduction to STEM arrive better prepared than earlier cohorts. Retention rose, enrollment followed, and the university has posted record enrollment three years running.
In November 2024, Florida Poly faculty and administrators co-presented the blueprint with Leonard Geddes as invited speakers at the AAC&U Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference in Washington, DC.
DFW rate drop in the program’s first semester (Spring 2021 to Fall 2021)
of consecutive record enrollment, supported by higher first-year retention
Blueprint shared as an invited presentation at the Transforming STEM conference
Faculty, leadership, and students
“What set The LearnWell Projects apart was their ability to clearly articulate not just that our students needed a different kind of academic preparation, but exactly how to achieve it. We saw the difference immediately.”Dr. Mary VollaroChair, Mechanical and Environmental Engineering
“I have seen firsthand how the partnership has created a sense of confidence and purpose among our faculty. This intervention has given them the tools to teach more impactfully, which is also helping our retention and graduation rates.”Dr. Terry ParkerProvost
“The consultancy has allowed us to focus on deeper content because students now come equipped with solid foundational skills. This has changed the entire dynamic of our upper-level STEM courses.”Professor DenisComputer Science
“I was making Ds, but I made As on my latest tests. My PLS showed me how to use my course syllabus and notes together and ways to break down complex topics.”SamanthaFirst-year Computer Science student
“I was considering dropping out after my first semester. After working with a Peer Learning Strategist, I found out it wasn’t the material that was impossible, it was how I was approaching it.”JasmineSecond-year Engineering student
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Facing a gateway course your students can’t get through?
A free consultation with Leonard Geddes starts with your data and ends with a plan. Florida Poly’s first results came within one semester.
