CAREER: Better Together: Leveraging the Shared Commitment of Community Colleges and HBCUs to Optimize Black Engineering Student Pathways

虽然对扩大工程学参与的重视主要集中在参加PWI的学生以及主要是四年制院校的学生，但黑人工程学本科生的入学人数和毕业率近年来有所下降。与此同时，社区学院(CCS)以及历史悠久的黑人学院和大学(HBCU)的黑人工程师毕业率一直相对较高。此外，在之前的研究中，最初进入CCS的黑人工程学本科生在转到HBCU时报告了积极的经历。这表明，从CC到HBCU的途径可能是一个被忽视的机会，让更多的黑人工程师毕业。在这一证据的基础上，这一职业项目将汇集CCS和HBCU的利益相关者，共同制定一个共同愿景，最大限度地发挥这些途径的潜力。该项目将：1)收集关于CC-HBCU工程基础设施的趋势、挑战和机遇的当前状态的基线数据；2)记录CC-HBCU和HBCU为实现这一共同愿景而采取的步骤；3)随着CCS和HBCU制定和执行战略以优化这些路径，探索不断演变的过程。该项目将形成一个新的框架，以帮助HBCU、其他为少数群体服务的机构和PWI与CCS合作，找到扩大工程参与的创新解决方案。从教育的角度来看，这项研究还将根据该框架开发模块，指导四年制HBCU和其他四年制学校如何更好地与CCS合作，以改善黑人工程学学生的学习途径。此外，该项目将把教职员工和管理人员定位为改善这些途径的领导者，通过专注于集体影响和制度变革的研讨会指导他们。尽管对CC到四年制工程学院学生途径的理解有所进步，但很少有学者探索CCS和四年制HBCU合作的潜力，以最大限度地提高黑人工程学学生的持久度、转校率和毕业率。这一职业项目通过将CCS和HBCU作为培养未来黑人工程师的领导者来解决这一差距，并将利用每种类型的机构为扩大参与努力而单独带来的集体力量。参与者将包括代表15个授予工程学位的HBCU的教职员工和/或管理人员，以及它们的支线CC。使用以集体影响为基础的行动研究方法和Kezar关于制度变革的理论框架，我的研究目标将涉及收集和分析以下数据：1)描述性统计数据，确定CC到HBCU工程路径的现状，包括该领域的趋势、挑战和机会；2)焦点小组和观察数据，记录参与者如何协作阐明和细化共同愿景，以最大限度地发挥这些路径的潜力；3)焦点小组和观察数据，记录CC-HBCU在本项目期间选定地点的干预期间的协作努力。这个项目的教育目标是：1)让参与者了解从其他专注于工程CCS、转学和保留的研究中得出的有希望的做法；2)向教职员工和管理人员介绍集体影响，作为在CC-HBCU背景下最大化合作的工具；以及3)建立一个组织框架，其他工程机构，包括其他少数族裔服务机构和以白人为主的机构，可以与CCS合作，增加黑人工程学学生的入学和毕业人数。长期目标将是在未来的研究中测试这一框架的能力，以增加首次进入CCS的黑人和其他代表性不足的学生的数量。这一奖项反映了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。

While much of the emphasis on broadening participation in engineering has focused on students who attend PWI and mostly four-year institutions, Black engineering undergraduate enrollment and graduation rates have declined in recent years. At the same time, community colleges (CCs) as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have consistently graduated Black engineers at comparatively much higher rates. In addition, in previous studies, Black engineering undergraduates who initially enroll in CCs have reported positive experiences when transferring to HBCUs. This suggests that CC-to-HBCU pathways may be an overlooked opportunity for graduating more Black engineers. Building on this evidence, this CAREER project will assemble stakeholders from CCs and HBCUs to collaboratively develop a shared vision for maximizing the potential of these pathways. This project will: 1) Collect baseline data on the current state of trends, challenges, and opportunities in the CC-HBCU engineering infrastructure; 2) Document the steps that CCs and HBCUs undertake to move toward this shared vision; 3) Explore evolving processes as CCs and HBCUs develop and execute strategies to optimize these pathways. This project will result in a novel framework to help HBCUs, other minority-serving institutions, and PWIs partner with CCs to find innovative solutions for broadening participation in engineering. From an education perspective, the study will also produce modules developed from the framework that offer guidance on how four-year HBCUs and other four-year schools can better partner with CCs to improve Black engineering student pathways. In addition, the project will position faculty, staff, and administrators as leaders in improving these pathways by guiding them through workshops focused on collective impact and institutional change.Despite the advancement in understanding the CC to four-year engineering college pathway for students, few scholars have explored the potential of CCs and four-year HBCUs to work together to maximize Black engineering student persistence, transfer, and graduation rates. This CAREER project addresses this gap by centering CCs and HBCUs as leaders in educating future Black engineers, and will leverage the collective strengths that each type of institution individually brings to broadening participation efforts. Participants will include faculty, staff, and/or administrators representing the 15 engineering degree-granting HBCUs, as well as their feeder CCs. Using an action research approach that is grounded in collective impact and Kezar’s theoretical frameworks on institutional change, my research objectives will involve the collection and analysis of: 1) Descriptive statistics that establish the current state of CC to HBCU engineering pathways, including trends, challenges, and opportunities in this space; 2) Focus group and observational data that document how participants collaborate to articulate and refine a shared vision for maximizing the potential of these pathways; 3) Focus group and observational data that document CC-HBCU collaborative efforts during interventions at select sites during this project. The educational objectives of this project are to: 1) Inform participants of promising practices drawn from other studies that focus on engineering CCs, transfer, and retention; 2) Introduce collective impact to faculty, staff, and administrators as a tool for maximizing collaborations in the CC-HBCU context; and 3) Develop an organizational framework that other engineering institutions, including other minority-serving institutions and predominately White institutions, can use in collaboration with CCs to increase Black engineering student enrollment and graduation. The long-term goal will be to test the capacity of this framework in future studies to increase the number of Black and other underrepresented students who first enroll in CCs.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.