Enhancing the Use of Institutional Data in Projects to Support Low-Income, High-Achieving Students in STEM: Capacity-Building Workshops

该项目将促进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，授权STEM教职员工加强他们的努力，支持具有学术能力和完成学位潜力的低收入STEM学生。该项目的意义在于，它通过虚拟研讨会提高了STEM教职员工开发数据项目的能力和信心。来自不同背景和机构类型的总共50-70名参与者，包括具有有限或没有S-STEM项目经验的教师，将被招募到两个使用有意策略的研讨会队列中。研讨会将结合专家的询问、反思、动手活动和实践策略，帮助与会者满足S-STEM的提案要求，加强他们的提案制定流程。研讨会可以作为教师分析与支持具有学术潜力的低收入STEM学生的活动相关的机构数据的能力建设的框架。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学位完成率。特别是，该项目的目标是增加教师调查人员使用数据的知识和信心，以更好地了解他们的机构针对具有学术潜力和能力的低收入学生的STEM招生、保留和毕业情况。项目范围将从项目发展和实际角度为参与者提供支持。该方法有意通过促进包容性和注重公平的学习环境的学习和教学透明度战略和做法，为参与者的知识和技能发展奠定基础。其目标是：1)开发和实施以S-STEM提案中的数据部分为重点的虚拟研讨会系列；2)招募不同的S-STEM团队参加研讨会系列的两个项目之一；3)增加参与者对使用机构数据为其项目提供信息的知识和信心；以及4)评估项目，以确定教师个人绩效指标在使用机构数据方面的需求，并为教师发展研讨会的改进提供信息。对于研讨会的参与者，预期的成果将包括：a)明确了解如何利用院校数据来指导他们的项目计划和目标；b)制定在项目开发中使用学生数据的计划，包括确定学生数据可以帮助回答的相关问题，以与国家科学基金S-STEM计划保持一致；以及c)起草一份计划，向其院校研究和资助办公室索取学生数据，包括IRB的考虑。形成性和终结性评估将确定在不同机构背景下收集、分析和使用学生数据的挑战和有前景的策略。研讨会的材料、方法和成果将通过STEM教育会议和网络传播，并与国家科学基金会S-STEM领导层分享。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 empowering STEM faculty members to strengthen their efforts to support low-income STEM students with academic ability and potential to degree completion. The significance of this project is its approach to enhancing the ability and confidence of STEM faculty members in developing data-informed projects through virtual workshops. A total of 50-70 participants from diverse backgrounds and institution types, including faculty members with limited or no S-STEM project experience, will be recruited to two workshop cohorts using intentional strategies. The workshop sessions will incorporate inquiry, reflection, hands-on activities, and practical strategies from experts to help participants meet S-STEM proposal requirements and strengthen their proposal development process. The workshop may serve as a framework for capacity building for faculty in analyzing institutional data related to activities that support low-income STEM students with academic potential.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. In particular, the project goal is to increase faculty investigators’ knowledge of and confidence in using data to better understand their institution’s STEM enrollment, retention, and graduation landscape for low-income students with academic potential and ability. The project scope will support participants in both project development and practical perspectives. The approach intentionally scaffolds participants’ knowledge and skills development through Transparency in Learning and Teaching strategies and practices that foster an inclusive and equity-focused learning environment. The objectives are to: 1) develop and implement a virtual workshop series focused on the data components of an S-STEM proposal; 2) recruit diverse S-STEM teams to one of two offerings of the workshop series; 3) increase participants’ knowledge of and confidence in using institutional data to inform their project; and 4) evaluate the project to identify the needs of faculty PIs in using institutional data and inform improvements in faculty development workshops. For the workshop participants, the anticipated outcomes will include: a) articulating awareness of how institutional data can be used to inform their project plans and goals; b) developing a plan for using student data in project development, including identifying relevant questions that the student data can help answer in alignment with the NSF S-STEM program; and c) drafting a plan for requesting student data from their Institutional Research and Financial Aid offices including IRB considerations. The formative and summative evaluation will identify challenges and promising strategies for gathering, analyzing, and using student data in different institutional contexts. The workshop materials, approach, and results will be disseminated through STEM education conferences and networks and shared with NSF S-STEM leadership. 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.