Collaborative Research: Practices and Research on Student Pathways in Education from Community College and Transfer Students in STEM (PROSPECT S-STEM)

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This S-STEM Research Hub 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. Across the past decade, 40%-50% of college students in the United States each year started their postsecondary education at a two-year college. Students enrolled at two-year colleges are more likely to be low-income and from historically underrepresented groups, compared to students who start postsecondary education enrolled in four-year colleges. Led by a collaborative team of universities and community colleges representing 9 current NSF S-STEM projects, the PROSPECT S-STEM research hub will explore how equitable partnerships between two-year colleges and four-year institutions can empower low-income STEM transfer students. Researchers at Clemson University, East Carolina University, Southeast Community College, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Augsburg University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Texas at Arlington, and YNOTI Solutions along with 14 two-year college partners are united by their goal to support domestic, low-income undergraduates as they navigate the transfer process. Numerous challenges exist that can make it difficult for students to successfully transfer from two- and four-year colleges, which in turn can reduce the likelihood that these students earn a bachelor’s degree. This project will address this issue by collecting and analyzing national-level data to highlight transfer issues. The hub’s research will support the development of strategies and resources to build institutional partnerships designed to increase positive outcomes for low-income transfer students. The PROSPECT S-STEM Hub will operate as a research and dissemination hub to investigate the nature of two- and four-year colleges’ partnerships and how developing co-equitable partnerships can better support low-income STEM scholars before and after the transition process. There is a need to understand how two- and four-year colleges can effectively establish and maintain partnerships. Equitable partnerships that support transfer students necessarily involve a range of stakeholders across institutions. PROSPECT S-STEM will examine the nature of these partnerships through: a) longitudinal case studies of two- and four-year college partnerships trying to improve STEM transfer student success; and b) the establishments of professional learning communities with key stakeholders, including advisors, faculty, financial aid, student affairs professionals, and other administrators involved with transfer policies and programs. Our investigation of these partnerships is framed through the lens of community cultural wealth, partnership capital, and dimension of equity. The mixed methods research will include interviews, participant concept mapping, document analysis, and survey data from S-STEM Scholars. PROSPECT S-STEM will target dissemination to researchers, advisors, student affairs professionals, administrators and other stakeholders who support STEM transfer students, thus facilitating the scale up of this project’s practices and findings to others seeking to support low-income STEM transfer students. This hub 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.