Barriers and Opportunities in Completing Two- and Four-Year STEM Degrees

国家研究理事会（NRC）科学教育委员会与高等教育和劳动力委员会，教师咨询理事会和国家工程院合作，要求支持一项研究，以了解完成两年和四年STEM学位的障碍以及克服这些障碍的机会。该研究将探讨动机，兴趣和态度在塑造本科生STEM轨迹中的作用，特别是在从两年制到四年制院校的过渡中。它将特别关注教学质量之外的因素，这些因素影响不同学生决定留在或离开STEM专业，如分级政策，课程顺序，本科学习和生活环境，学生的一般自我效能感和自我效能感科学，高中准备，家庭背景，职业和生活愿望，以及STEM职业知识。这项研究将建立在相关的NRC工作，包括最近的社区学院在不断发展的STEM教育景观，扩大代表性不足的少数民族参与的研究：美国的科学和技术人才在十字路口和正在进行的研究基于计算机的教育研究的峰会。

The National Research Council (NRC) Board on Science Education, in collaboration with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce, the Teacher Advisory Council, and the National Academy of Engineering, requests support for a study to understand the barriers to completion of two- and four-year STEM degrees and opportunities for overcoming these barriers. The study will explore the role of motivation, interest and attitude in shaping undergraduates' trajectories in STEM, especially in the transition from two-year to four-year institutions. It will give special attention to factors beyond the quality of instruction that influence diverse students' decisions to stay in or leave STEM majors' such as grading policies, course sequences, undergraduate learning and living environments, students' general self-efficacy and self-efficacy in science, high school preparation, family background, career and life aspirations, and knowledge of STEM careers. The study will build on related NRC work, including the recent summit on community colleges in the evolving STEM education landscape, the study of Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads and the ongoing study of Discipline-Based Education Research.