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

该项目得到了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，部分由英特尔基金会和通用电气基金会捐赠，以刺激大学和学院的综合行动，帮助在未来十年中将工程和计算机科学专业的新学士学位毕业生的数量增加10,000。该项目小组特别关注那些尚未做好微积分准备的大学一年级新生，以及那些错过了多达两门课程的大二新生。具有这些特征的学生“有可能”离开他们的工程和计算机科学课程，即使他们的学术成绩很好。该项目的智力价值在于它对一系列最佳实践的协调适应：1)在整个学年中提供关于获得和保持队列状态的专门咨询；2)为未准备好微积分的一年级学生提供学术暑期桥项目；3)对机构内不同亚群体的持续保留跟踪。一位专门的STEP顾问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，在关键的夏季课程选择上提供建议，如果需要重新获得队列状态，并使用可用的辅导和研讨会服务来避免退学。通过将该项目作为一项研究来调查维持班级水平的队列状态与保留之间的联系，并利用国家和区域会议上的专业机会来引起人们对提高STEM保留和建立从业者社区的更广泛努力的关注，该项目正在实现更广泛的影响。

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.