Symposium for Engineering School Deans to Increase the Retention of Women and Underrepresented Minority Students

工程学院院长研讨会以提高女性和代表性不足的少数族裔学生的保留率

• 批准号: 1755437
• 负责人: Karl Reid
• 金额: $ 4.98万
• 依托单位: National Society of Black Engineers
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-02-01 至 2019-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1755437&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Symposium; Engineering; Deans; Increase; Retention

In an era when leaders from the White House to Silicon Valley tech giants portray engineering as critical to America's competitiveness - and are calling upon universities to graduate a bigger, broader group of engineers - institutions of higher education struggle to align strategies and actions with achievement of these outcomes. The research is quite clear about the value of diversity to innovation and invention. The wellsprings of creativity do not flow from a single tap. Rather, they lie in the different perspectives, backgrounds and talents that individuals bring to a team. However, despite decades of efforts and millions of dollars in federal funding, the needle has barely moved in terms of the percentages of women and underrepresented minority students (African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) earning engineering degrees. In 2016, women earned 19.9 percent of engineering bachelor's degrees awarded in the U.S. A decade earlier, the proportion was 19.3 percent. Hispanic students earned 10.7% of engineering degrees. Over the same period, the proportion of engineering bachelor's degrees earned by African Americans fell to 4 percent from 5 percent. Key to increasing the number and percentage of degrees awarded to underrepresented students is to dramatically increase the completion rates of these groups. The National Society of Black Engineers is convening a conference for 100 Deans of ABET-accredited engineering schools for the purpose of sharing research on the most effective institutional interventions, core strategies, and critical concepts in retaining and graduating underrepresented minorities in engineering bachelor's degree programs. The Symposium for Engineering School Deans to Increase the Retention of Women and Underrepresented Minority Students will address barriers to retention by bringing the wealth of research findings that are currently available to the academic leaders of university engineering department, i.e., those who are in the strongest position to move change forward in increasing retention. NSBE compiled a systematic synthesis of research available on successful retention strategies for underrepresented students into a white paper, Paving the Way: Institutional Interventions for Academic Excellence and Success in Engineering (Reid, Ross, & Yates, 2015). The researchers interviewed university administrators with experience in successfully graduating underrepresented minority (URM) students in engineering and reviewed research studies about the interventions. Based on this prodigious body of knowledge, NSBE identified a list of interventions that have proven to facilitate the success of underrepresented students in engineering. The Plenary and breakout sessions will be organized around successful interventions and concepts that are necessary to inform these interventions: 1) Institution or Department Level Interventions: institutional leadership engagement; climate; and faculty development; 2) Core Strategies: summer bridge programs, scholar cohort programs; collaborative learning environments; early alert systems; and facilitated study groups; 3) Critical Concepts: self-efficacy; and identity. Session presenters and keynote speakers will be invited from the universities that have implemented successful programs in the topic areas.

在这个时代，从白宫到硅谷科技巨头的领导人都将工程学描绘为美国竞争力的关键，并呼吁大学培养更大、更广泛的工程师群体，高等教育机构努力使战略和行动与这些成果的实现保持一致。这项研究非常清楚地说明了多样性对创新和发明的价值。创造力的源泉不是从一个水龙头流出来的。相反，它们在于个人为团队带来的不同观点、背景和才能。然而，尽管经过了数十年的努力和数百万美元的联邦资助，女性和少数族裔学生（非裔美国人、拉美裔美国人和印第安人）获得工程学位的比例几乎没有变化。2016年，在美国获得的工程学士学位中，女性占19.9%。十年前，这一比例为19.3%。西班牙裔学生获得了10.7%的工程学位。在同一时期，非裔美国人获得工程学士学位的比例从5%下降到4%。增加未被充分代表的学生获得学位的数量和比例的关键是大幅提高这些群体的完成率。全国黑人工程师协会正在召集100位abet认可的工程学院院长召开会议，目的是分享关于最有效的制度干预、核心策略和关键概念的研究，以保留和毕业工程学士学位课程中代表性不足的少数民族。工程学院院长增加女性和代表性不足的少数民族学生保留率研讨会将通过为大学工程系的学术领导带来丰富的研究成果，即那些在提高保留率方面处于最有利地位的人，来解决保留率的障碍。NSBE将对代表性不足的学生成功保留策略的现有研究进行了系统的综合整理，并发表了一份白皮书，名为《铺平道路：工程专业学术卓越和成功的制度干预》（Reid, Ross, & Yates, 2015）。研究人员采访了具有成功使工程专业少数族裔学生毕业经验的大学管理人员，并回顾了有关干预措施的研究。基于这一庞大的知识体系，NSBE确定了一系列干预措施，这些干预措施已被证明可以促进工程专业中代表性不足的学生的成功。全体会议和分组会议将围绕成功的干预措施和为这些干预措施提供信息所必需的概念组织：1)机构或部门级干预措施：机构领导参与；气候;师资发展；2)核心战略：暑期桥梁项目、学者队列项目；协作学习环境；预警系统；促进学习小组；3)关键概念：自我效能；和身份。会议主持人和主题演讲者将从在主题领域实施成功项目的大学中邀请。