Scholarships and Support Strategies to Increase Retention and Graduation/Transfer of Students Pursuing Associate Degrees in Natural Science Fields

提高自然科学领域副学士学位学生的保留率和毕业/转学率的奖学金和支持策略

• 批准号: 2030590
• 负责人: Sheryl Drake
• 金额: $ 64.98万
• 依托单位: Parkland College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-15 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030590&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scholarships; Support; Strategies; Increase; Retention

This project will contribute to the national need for skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Parkland College, a comprehensive community college in east central Illinois. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to four annual cohorts of 10 full time students who are pursuing associate degrees in a natural science field. The Scholars will receive scholarship support for up to two years. In addition to providing scholarships, the project will support Scholars’ academic performance through five strategies: faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, summer research opportunities, club participation, and a customized project experience course. About 40% of students at Parkland College are from groups that are not yet equitably represented in STEM. Thus, the project has the potential to contribute to the national need for more STEM professionals, while also increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. At Parkland College, both fall-to-fall retention rate and the graduation/transfer rate for natural science students receiving Pell grants is about 21% lower than their non-Pell peers. The project expects to improve the academic performance of low-income community college students in STEM majors by providing Scholars with a coordinated collection of support initiatives. Specifically, the project intends that the participants will reach a spring-to-fall retention rate of 90%, fall-to-fall retention rate of 85%, and 150%-time graduation/transfer rate of 75%. Additionally, the project will seek to ensure inclusion of students from groups that are not yet equitably represented in STEM. The project will work with an educational researcher to fill a gap in the STEM education research literature by examining the effects that layering multiple strategies has on retention, graduation, and transfer rates. To maximize the intellectual merit of the study, the project team will develop research briefs and presentations for targeted audiences, including academics, administrators, and policymakers. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将有助于满足国家对熟练科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 它将通过支持在帕克兰学院（一所位于伊利诺斯州中东部的综合性社区学院）学习成绩好、收入低、有经济需要的学生的保留和毕业来实现这一目标。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为四个年度的10名全日制学生提供奖学金，这些学生正在攻读自然科学领域的副学士学位。 学者将获得长达两年的奖学金支持。除了提供奖学金外，该项目还将通过五种策略支持学者的学术表现：教师指导，同行指导，夏季研究机会，俱乐部参与和定制的项目体验课程。帕克兰学院大约40%的学生来自STEM中尚未得到公平代表的群体。 因此，该项目有可能为国家对更多STEM专业人员的需求做出贡献，同时也增加了STEM劳动力的多样性。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成与证明经济需要。在帕克兰学院，获得佩尔赠款的自然科学学生的秋季留存率和毕业/转学率都比非佩尔学生低21%左右。该项目希望通过为学者提供协调的支持举措来提高STEM专业低收入社区大学生的学习成绩。具体而言，该项目旨在使参与者从春季到秋季的留存率达到90%，从秋季到秋季的留存率达到85%，150%时毕业/转学率达到75%。 此外，该项目将寻求确保来自STEM中尚未公平代表的群体的学生的参与。 该项目将与教育研究人员合作，通过研究分层多策略对保留率，毕业率和转移率的影响，填补STEM教育研究文献中的空白。为了最大限度地发挥这项研究的知识价值，项目小组将为包括学者、行政人员和决策者在内的目标受众编写研究简报和介绍。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并提供有关低收入学生的学术成功、保留、转学、毕业和学术/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。