Promoting Student Success through Expectancy-Value Theory-Informed Supports: Mentoring, Cohort-building, and Scholarships at a Community College

该项目将为国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献，方法是支持高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生留在梅赛德社区大学区(Merced)，这是一家西班牙裔服务机构。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将向32名独特的学者提供奖学金，其中包括20名全日制和12名兼职学生，他们正在攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、工程、数学和物理方面的副学位。参加全日制课程的一年级学生将获得两年奖学金，参加兼职课程的学生将获得四年奖学金。项目活动包括教员和同行指导、队列建设活动以及职业探索和网络。这些课程旨在增强在STEM领域追求和坚持的动力，提高学术成就，并缩短STEM学科的毕业时间。该项目将由预期价值理论(EVT)提供信息，调查学生对攻读STEM学位的成本的看法，以及促使他们接受这些成本以获得与之相关的感知价值的因素。通过通过EVT改善现有的学生支持并利用学生反馈创建新的编程，所有Merced学生都将受益。该项目还将提供一个可复制的模式，供其他机构共享，将EVT的影响扩大到更多有兴趣在STEM从事职业生涯的未被充分代表的第一代、农村和社区大学生。项目学者和他们的社区也可能受益于拥有STEM学位的人获得的更高工资。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。项目目标和具体目标包括提高STEM领域四年制院校的转校率；增加学者群体的毕业率；缩短毕业时间；增加工程、物理和计算机科学专业的女性入学人数；广泛传播基于期望价值理论(EVT)的支持研究结果及其对HSI社区学院STEM专业的影响。EVT假设，参与项目的动机是由学生的价值观和能力信念决定的。对成本的看法在EVT中也很重要，在STEM教育背景下，可能包括花费的时间、学费和家庭牺牲等。现有的研究文献缺乏对EVT的评估，当应用于学生上大学的感知成本的所有组成部分时，这些成本远远超出了学费和用品的价格。在妇女和社区大学生中，对STEM教育特有的EVT因素的了解也存在差距。该项目将调查以下研究问题：“持续的期望值方法在招生、支持和职业探索方面对STEM学生的学业成功和坚持不懈的影响是什么？”以及“默塞德-S-STEM项目对毕业生在STEM领域寻求职业的比率有什么影响？”焦点小组和调查将帮助确定与实施STEM项目相关的不同成本，项目团队将调整编程和活动，以最好地满足这些成本和学生需求。案例研究方法将提供形成性和总结性评估，并将对来自多个数据来源的结果进行三角划分，以建立对计划干预和影响的一致理解。主要数据来源包括：1)学生动机调查，2)学生焦点小组，3)教师访谈，4)学术成功指标，包括表现，STEM课程学习目标的实现情况，GPA，毕业率，毕业后职业规划，以及STEM领域的就业情况。所产生的知识将通过为STEM学生群体开发和确定最佳实践，帮助提高毅力、及时毕业、4年大学转学和在STEM的职业生涯。该项目将提供一个可复制的模式，使其他两年制和四年制院校的学生受益，并通过讲习班、会议和学术文章传播成果。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Merced Community College District (Merced), a Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 32 unique scholars, comprised of 20 full time and 12 part time students who are pursuing associate’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and physics. First year students attending full time will receive two-year scholarships, and those attending part time will receive four-year scholarships. Project activities include faculty and peer mentoring, cohort-building activities, and career exploration and networking. These are designed to increase motivation to pursue and persist in STEM fields, increase academic success, and improve time to graduation in the STEM disciplines. The project will be informed by expectancy-value theory (EVT), examining student perceptions of the costs of pursuing a STEM degree and the factors that motivate them to accept those costs to access the perceived values associated with it. By improving existing student supports and creating new programming using student feedback through EVT, all Merced students will benefit. The project will also provide a replicable model to be shared with other institutions, broadening the impact of EVT to additional underrepresented, first-generation, rural, and community college students interested in pursuing careers in STEM. Project scholars and their communities may also benefit from the higher wages available to those with STEM degrees. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Project goals and specific aims include increased transfer rates to four-year institutions in STEM fields; increased graduation rates of scholar cohorts; reduction in graduation times; increased enrollment of women in engineering, physics, and computer science majors; and wide dissemination of results of the study of Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT)-based supports and their impact on STEM majors at an HSI community college. EVT posits that motivation to engage in a program is informed by a student’s value and competence beliefs. Perceptions of cost are also important in EVT, and in a STEM education context can include time spent, tuition, and family sacrifices, among others. Existing research literature lacks assessments of EVT when applied to all components of students’ perceived costs of attending college, which extend far beyond the price of tuition and supplies. There are also gaps in knowledge of EVT factors specific to STEM education among women and community college students. The project will investigate the research questions, “What is the effect of a continuous Expectancy-Value approach to student recruitment, support, and career exploration on the academic success and persistence of STEM students to graduation or transfer in STEM majors?” and “What impact does the Merced S-STEM project have on the rate of graduates seeking a career in a STEM field?” Focus groups and surveys will help identify different costs associated with pursuing STEM programs and the project team will adapt programming and activities to best address those costs and student needs. A case study approach will provide formative and summative assessment and findings from multiple data sources will be triangulated to build a coherent understanding of program intervention and impact. Key data sources will include: 1) student motivation surveys, 2) focus groups with students, 3) faculty interviews, 4) academic success metrics including performance, attainment of learning objectives in STEM courses, GPAs, graduation rates, post-graduation career plans, and placement in STEM fields. Knowledge generated will contribute to increased persistence, timely graduation, 4- year college transfers, and careers in STEM by developing and identifying best practices for this student population. The project will provide a model that can be replicated to benefit students at other two- and four-year institutions, with results disseminated through workshops, conferences, and scholarly articles. 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.