Improving Educational Outcomes at Two-Year Colleges through Mentorship, Support Services, and Equitable Classroom Practices

该项目将通过支持在峡谷学院有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，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。作为一所位于南加州的为期两年的西班牙裔服务机构（HSI），该学院旨在提高STEM专业学生群体的入学率和毕业率，这些学生群体在STEM研究领域的参与度不足，包括黑人、拉丁裔、女性、第一代、英语学习者和低收入群体。该项目为期6年，将为100名攻读生物学、生物科学、计算机科学、工程学、环境科学、数学和物理学副学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。完成奖学金申请并证明经济需要的学术天才STEM学生将获得为期两年的奖学金。该项目建立在学院成功的数学、工程和科学成就（MESA）计划的基础上，为STEM学生提供学术、社会和文化资本。这个项目的显著特点之一是学生和教师之间明确的指导关系，旨在提高学生对STEM课程和职业探索的参与度。教师还将参与旨在帮助他们创造包容性学习环境的活动，从而实现文化响应和公平的STEM教室。项目团队假设，这些额外的支持将促进学生积极的stem相关身份的发展，从而提高留校率、转学率和成功率。该项目有可能扩大峡谷学院大量代表性不足和弱势学生群体对STEM的参与。为了提高代表性不足人群在STEM课程中的保留、转学和成功率，该项目将探索两年制院校中有意义的师生指导和文化响应教室的影响。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目将创建并嵌入一个框架，在两年制大学的背景下实现有意义的师生指导，并授权教师将公平和文化响应的教学元素纳入他们的STEM课堂。该项目将调查这些干预措施在整个校园范围内对STEM中代表性不足的学生的保留和成功的影响。所获得的知识将促进对如何在两年制大学环境中成功应用这些概念的理解，同时强调多样性、公平性和包容性。预期的结果包括：来自代表性不足背景的STEM学生的保留率提高，STEM学生的毕业率和转学率提高，纳入更公平和支持性的教育实践，以及通过与MESA和其他项目协调，扩大学生支持服务。峡谷学院将使用定性和定量措施来评估和监控奖学金获得者和普通STEM学生群体的持久性、留任率、毕业率和转学率。学院寻求通过What Works Clearinghouse和其他媒体（包括电子新闻媒体、期刊、新闻文章、STEM行业出版物、社交媒体、印刷出版物和会议演讲）向其他机构传播该项目的研究结果。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 College of the Canyons. As a two-year, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in Southern California, the College seeks to increase enrollment and graduation rates among STEM majors within student populations that are underrepresented in their participation in STEM fields of study, including Black, Latinx, female, first-generation, English language learner, and low-income groups. Over its six-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 100 unique full-time students pursuing associate degrees in Biology, Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Mathematics, and Physics. Academically talented STEM students who complete scholarship applications and demonstrate financial need will receive two-year scholarships. The project builds upon the College’s successful Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program to provide STEM students with access to academic, social, and cultural capital. One of this project’s distinguishing features is well-defined mentoring relationships between students and faculty aimed to increase student engagement in STEM coursework and career exploration. Faculty will also engage in activities designed to help them create inclusive learning environments that lead to culturally responsive and equitable STEM classrooms. The project team hypothesizes that these additional supports will promote the development of positive STEM-related identities among students and thereby improve retention, transfer, and success rates. This project has the potential to broaden STEM participation among College of the Canyons’ large underrepresented and disadvantaged student population. To enhance retention, transfer, and success rates in STEM among underrepresented populations, this project will explore the impact of meaningful student-faculty mentorships and culturally responsive classrooms in two-year institutions. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project will create and embed a framework for enabling meaningful faculty-student mentorships within the context of a two-year institution, and empower faculty to incorporate equitable and culturally-responsive teaching elements into their STEM classrooms. The project will investigate the impact campus-wide of these interventions on the retention and success of students who remain underrepresented in STEM. The knowledge gained will advance the understanding of how to successfully apply these concepts within the scope of a two-year college setting while emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. The anticipated outcomes include an increase in retention rates of STEM students from underrepresented backgrounds, higher rates of graduation and transfer of STEM students to four-year institutions, the inclusion of more equitable and supportive educational practices, and the upscaling of student support services by coordinating with MESA and other programs. College of the Canyons will use both qualitative and quantitative measures to evaluate and monitor persistence, retention, graduation, and transfer rates for scholarship recipients and the general STEM student body. The College seeks to disseminate the project’s findings to other institutions through the What Works Clearinghouse and other media including electronic news media, journals, news articles, STEM industry publications, social media, print publications, and conference presentations. 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.