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

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，支持高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生留校并毕业于峡谷学院。作为一所位于南加州的两年制拉美裔服务机构(HSI)，该学院致力于提高STEM专业学生的入学率和毕业率，这些学生群体在STEM学习领域的参与度较低，包括黑人、拉丁裔、女性、第一代、英语学习者和低收入群体。该项目为期六年，将为100名攻读生物、生物科学、计算机科学、工程、环境科学、数学和物理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有经济需求的学业优秀的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学生提供获得学术、社会和文化资本的途径。该项目的特点之一是学生和教职员工之间明确的指导关系，旨在增加学生对STEM课程和职业探索的参与度。教职员工还将参与旨在帮助他们创造包容性学习环境的活动，以实现文化响应和公平的STEM课堂。该项目团队假设，这些额外的支持将促进学生中与STEM相关的积极认同的发展，从而提高留存、转移和成功率。该项目有可能在峡谷学院人数众多、代表性不足和处境不利的学生群体中扩大STEM的参与。为了在代表性不足的人群中提高STEM的留存率、转校率和成功率，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型课堂的影响。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。该项目将创建并嵌入一个框架，以便在两年制机构的背景下实现有意义的师生指导，并使教师能够将公平和符合文化的教学元素纳入他们的STEM课堂。该项目将在全校范围内调查这些干预措施对STEM中代表性仍然不足的学生的留住和成功的影响。所获得的知识将促进对如何在两年制大学设置范围内成功应用这些概念的理解，同时强调多样性、公平和包容性。预期的结果包括来自代表性不足背景的STEM学生的保留率增加，STEM学生的毕业率和转校率提高，纳入更公平和支持性的教育实践，以及通过与MESA和其他项目协调来提升学生支持服务。峡谷学院将使用定性和定量措施来评估和监测奖学金获得者和一般STEM学生群体的持久率、保留率、毕业率和转校率。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示文稿，向其他机构传播该项目的发现。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 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.