Statistical Analysis of Students' Performance on Research-Based Inventory

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is an important diagnostic tool widely utilized within the PER (Physics Education Research) community. While students' performance on the FCI has been extensively studied, relatively less work was done in primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI) and minority-serving institutions. As part of an effort to provide evidence for the reproducibility of educational studies for a variety of student body as well exploring possible gender or racial gaps in student's performance, data was collected over a year-long period for a number of introductory physics courses at Cal Poly Pomona (both a PUI and Hispanic serving institution) to understand factors that affect students' performance on the FCI. In this work, we discuss background variables that predict students' FCI scores at the end of the term. This baseline measure can be used for any future studies conducted at our institution to evaluate the effectiveness of any pedagogical reforms. We will also explore possible gender or racial gaps for our student body.