INCREASING RETENTION IN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE WITH A FOCUS ON AT-RISK FIRST YEAR AND SOPHOMORE STUDENTS

这个项目得到了STEP的特别资助重点“毕业生10K+”的支持，这是国家科学基金会的一项活动，部分得到了英特尔基金会和GE基金会的捐款支持，目的是鼓励大学和学院采取全面行动，帮助在未来十年内将工程学和计算机科学的年度理学士毕业生人数增加1万人。特别是，这个项目团队关注的是没有准备好微积分的大学一年级学生，以及第一次缺课两门课程的大二学生，这些课程是被归类为他们班级队列的一部分。具有这些特征的学生面临着离开工程和计算机科学课程的风险，即使他们的学术地位可能很好。该项目的智力价值在于它协调地适应了一系列最佳实践：1)整个学年关于获得和保持队列地位的专门咨询，2)为非微积分准备的一年级学生提供的学术夏季桥梁计划，以及3)对机构内不同子群体的持续保持跟踪。一名专职的步骤辅导员正在协调每周的个人和小组项目会议，旨在指导学生整个学年，如果需要的话，就关键的暑期课程选择提供建议，以重新获得队列地位，并利用可用的辅导和研讨会服务来避免退学。该项目的更广泛影响正在通过以下方式实现：将该项目定为一项研究研究，以调查保持班级队列地位与留住之间的联系，并利用国家和区域会议上的专业机会，提请人们注意促进STEM留存和建立从业者社区的更广泛的一系列努力。

This project is being supported under a special funding focus for STEP, "Graduate 10K+," an activity of the National Science Foundation, supported in part by donations from the Intel Foundation and the GE Foundation, to stimulate comprehensive action at universities and colleges to help increase the annual number of new B.S. graduates in engineering and computer science by 10,000 over the next decade. In particular, this project team is focusing on first-time, first-year college students who are not calculus ready, and first-time sophomore students who are missing up to two courses necessary to be classified as part of their class-level cohort. Students with these characteristics are "at risk" of leaving their engineering and computer science courses of study, even though they may be in good academic standing. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its coordinated adaptation of a set of best practices: 1) dedicated counseling throughout the academic year regarding attaining and keeping cohort status, 2) an academic Summer Bridge program for non-calculus ready first-year students, and 3) ongoing retention tracking for various sub-populations within the institution. A dedicated STEP counselor is coordinating weekly individual and group program meetings designed to guide students throughout the academic year, to advise on key summer course selections, if needed to regain cohort status, and to use available tutoring and workshop services to avoid withdrawals. The project's broader impacts are being realized through the framing of the project as a research study to investigate the connection between maintaining class-level cohort status and retention, and leveraging professional opportunities at national and regional conferences to draw attention to the broader set of efforts at boosting retention in STEM and build a community of practitioners.