Scholarship Program for Retaining, Inspiring, and eNabling Graduates (SPRING): Implementation and Assessment of its Impact on Retention and Graduation Rates

留住、激励和电子化毕业生奖学金计划 (SPRING)：实施和评估其对保留率和毕业率的影响

• 批准号: 1564745
• 负责人: Ryan Sweeder
• 金额: $ 64.93万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-04-01 至 2022-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1564745&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scholarship; Program; Retaining; Inspiring; eNabling

Students who enter college with the desire to complete a STEM major but have relatively weak mathematics proficiency tend to successfully earn their STEM degree at a much lower rate than their peers. The loss of these students who are interested in STEM fields contributes to the relative dearth in quantity of STEM majors needed to support the US economy. Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University has developed a strong entry program focused on INstilling QUantitative and Integrative Reasoning (INQUIRE) to help these students overcome their lower math preparation and successfully enter into the college science curriculum. However, the factors that lead to low math proficiency also correlate notably with low socioeconomic status and very high levels of financial need. Thus although the students who complete the INQUIRE program are able to academically succeed in college science courses, their ability to succeed in college is frequently still hindered by financial considerations (including high debt burden and the need to dedicate precious hours to working jobs for income, rather than focusing on academic endeavors). The SPRING program will support students who are talented with demonstrated financial need in two cohorts starting in their second year of college through to graduation. The SPRING scholars will be supported with 1) scholarships, 2) the development of a cohort with strong faculty mentorship, and 3) professional career skills development and network building. The experience of each student will be closely monitored through interviews to better understand which aspect of the program were most beneficial and why. Additionally, we will use data analytics to compare the retention and graduation rates of the students involved in the SPRING program to matched students not participating in the program.This project will support a minimum of 26 scholars across a range of STEM disciplines in their pursuit of a bachelor's degree. Students will receive up to $3000 in the first year, $6000 in the second and $9000 in the final year. The SPRING program will help scholars investigate the breadth of possibilities in science careers and help them make informed decisions about their career path. Throughout the project, the project team will employ semi-structured interviews, student self-reflections, and data analytics to evaluate the efficacy of the program. Specifically, the team will investigate 1) how the SPRING program impacts students with low incoming math proficiency, 2) what barriers to graduation remain for low math proficiency after the INQUIRE program, 3) what value students perceive for the different components of the program, 4) the impact of the inflating nature of the scholarship program, and 5) the result of the impact of the SPRING program on student retention, graduation rates, and career paths. Findings will be disseminated and will add to the growing literature relevant for institutions working on effective ways to support entering students with weaker mathematics preparation.

进入大学渴望完成STEM专业但数学能力相对较弱的学生往往以比同龄人更低的速度获得STEM学位。 这些对STEM领域感兴趣的学生的损失导致支持美国经济所需的STEM专业人数的相对缺乏。 密歇根州立大学的莱曼·布里格斯学院（Lyman Briggs College）开发了一项强大的入学计划，旨在灌输定量和综合推理（询问），以帮助这些学生克服较低的数学准备，并成功地进入了大学科学课程。 但是，导致数学水平较低的因素也与社会经济状况低下和非常高的财务需求相关。因此，尽管完成询问计划的学生能够在大学科学课程中取得学术上的成功，但他们在大学中取得成功的能力仍然受到财务考虑的影响（包括高债务负担和将宝贵的时间用于收入工作，而不是专注于学术工作）。 春季课程将支持从大学第二年到毕业的两个人群中表现出的经济需求的学生。 春季学者将得到1）奖学金，2）具有强大教师指导的队列的发展，以及3）职业职业技能发展和网络建设。 每个学生的经验将通过访谈进行密切监控，以更好地了解该计划的哪个方面最有益以及原因。 此外，我们将使用数据分析来比较参与春季计划的学生的保留率和毕业率与不参加该计划的学生相匹配。该项目将支持一系列STEM学科的至少26个学者，以追求学士学位。 学生将在第一年获得高达3000美元的$ 3000，第二年为6000美元，最后一年的$ 9000。春季计划将帮助学者调查科学职业的可能性广度，并帮助他们就自己的职业道路做出明智的决定。在整个项目中，项目团队将采用半结构化访谈，学生自我反射和数据分析来评估该计划的功效。具体而言，团队将调查1）春季计划如何影响降低数学能力的学生，2）在询问计划后，毕业阶层的毕业障碍仍然是什么障碍，3）学生对该计划的不同组成部分有什么价值，4）4）奖学金计划膨胀性质的影响，以及5）春季计划对学生保留率的影响，学生保留率，毕业率，职业生涯，职业生涯和职业生涯。调查结果将被传播，并将增加与研究有效方法的机构相关的文献，以支持进入数学准备较弱的学生。