Bridging Non-STEM and STEM Math Tracks: An Interest-Based Intervention to Increase Community College STEM Opportunity

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。该项目旨在通过纠正社区大学数学中的种族、性别和班级跟踪来服务于国家利益，以促进参与STEM的机会和公平。随着全国各地的社区大学走向取消发展教育，越来越多的学生有资格参加大学水平的统计/文科数学(SLAM)或商业和科学技术、工程和数学(BSTEM)课程。尽管直接进入大学水平的SLAM或BSTEM课程减少了完成学位和转学要求的障碍，但同时拥有这两种选择可能会使这些大学水平的数学途径变成潜在的僵化的数学轨道。这可能会对STEM的参与产生意想不到的后果。该项目将首先评估学生在多大程度上被跟踪到种族/民族、性别、第一代地位和家庭收入线上的SLAM和BSTEM路径。然后，项目合作者计划与一所社区大学合作，设计、实施和评估一个低调的推动措施，鼓励大学统计专业的学生与数学教师或辅导员会面，以“热身”他们的STEM抱负，并邀请他们参加为期一周的非学分间歇期Bridge2BSTEM研讨会。工作坊将为学生提供机会探索他们的STEM兴趣，了解STEM职业，建立对数学的成长心态，并获得切换到BSTEM课程的学术支持。从这个项目中出现的新知识是：提供SLAM课程是否会无意中将种族少数化的学生和女性从STEM领域追踪出来；推动学生探索他们的STEM兴趣的潜在有效性的因果证据；这个项目将与加州的一个大型城市社区学区进行多阶段的努力，以：1)记录学生进入BSTEM和SLAM课程序列的程度；2)与单一拉美裔服务机构的数学和咨询教师合作，开发Bridge2BSTEM研讨会，旨在向学生介绍STEM职业，将他们与支持服务联系起来，并向BSTEM途径中的同行学习如何探索和发展STEM职业生涯，3)评估验证推动是否能促使学生抓住机会参加Bridge2BSTEM研讨会，并随后参加BSTEM数学课程。第一个项目的目标将通过描述性的定量方法来实现，以审查BSTEM和SLAM课程中的种族/民族、性别和社会经济趋势。第二个项目目标将通过研究团队和社区大学网站之间的合作来实现。第三个项目的目标将通过实验方法来实现，特别是通过在社区大学现场对大学统计课程进行分科随机化来实现。从数学教师和辅导员的角度、研讨会的观察和学生在项目中的体验进行的定性研究将为项目的设计和实施提供细致入微的见解。该项目将产生可访问的实践和政策简报，描述验证NUGH和Bridge2BSTEM研讨会，以及评估的结果和对其他社区学院的政策建议。该项目还将形成描述分析和结果的学术论文。该项目应提供有关提供多种数学途径所涉公平问题的新知识，并提出结构和支持，以增加妇女、少数族裔学生、第一代学生和低收入学生在STEM中的代表性。最终，该项目应该产生可操作的研究结果，供社区大学领导人和教职员工在努力以公平的方式扩大选择时使用，特别是通过文化验证行为推动和Bridge2BSTEM研讨会。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project aims to serve the national interest by remediating racial, gender, and class tracking in community college math in order to advance opportunity and equity in STEM participation. As community colleges around the country move towards eliminating developmental education, students are increasingly eligible to take a college-level statistics / liberal arts math (SLAM) or business and science technology, engineering, and math (BSTEM) course. While direct access to college-level SLAM or BSTEM courses reduces obstacles to the completion of degree and transfer requirements, having both options could turn these college-level math pathways into potentially rigid math tracks. This could have unintended consequences for STEM participation. The project will begin by evaluating the extent to which students are tracked into SLAM and BSTEM pathways along racial/ethnic, gender, first generation status, and family income lines. Then, in partnership with a single community college, project collaborators plan to design, implement, and evaluate a low-touch nudge that encourages students in college statistics to meet with a math instructor or counselor to “warm up” their STEM aspirations, and invites them to participate in a week-long, non-credit intersession Bridge2BSTEM workshop. The workshop will provide students with the opportunity to explore their STEM interests, learn about STEM careers, establish a growth mindset towards math, and receive academic support for switching to BSTEM courses. Emerging from this project will be new knowledge on whether offering SLAM courses may inadvertently track racially minoritized students and women out of STEM fields; causal evidence on the potential effectiveness of nudging students to explore their STEM interests; and a model for a statistics-to-STEM bridge experience that community college math departments can adopt.This project will pursue a multi-staged effort with a large urban community district in California to: 1) document the extent to which there is tracking of students into BSTEM and SLAM course sequences, 2) collaborate with the math and counseling faculty at a single Hispanic Serving Institution to develop a Bridge2BSTEM workshop designed to introduce students to STEM careers, connect them to support services, and to learn from peers in the BSTEM pathway about ways of exploring and developing careers in STEM, and 3) evaluate whether a validating nudge can prompt students to take up the opportunity to enroll in the Bridge2BSTEM workshop and, subsequently, BSTEM math courses. The first project aim will be fulfilled using descriptive quantitative methods to examine racial/ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic trends in BSTEM and SLAM courses over time. The second project aim will be fulfilled through the partnership between the research team and the community college site for the study. The third project aim will be fulfilled using experimental methods, specifically through section-level randomization of college statistics courses at the community college site. A qualitative study that captures math instructor and counselor perspectives, workshop observations, and student experiences in the program will provide nuanced insights into program design and implementation. The project will result in accessible practice and policy briefs describing the validating nudge and Bridge2BSTEM workshop, as well as the results of the evaluation and policy recommendations for other community colleges. The project will additionally result in academic papers describing the analyses and results. This project should contribute new knowledge on the equity implications of offering multiple math pathways and propose structures and supports that can increase representation of women, racially minoritized, first-generation, and low-income students in STEM. Ultimately, the project should result in actionable research findings community college leaders and faculty members can use as they work to expand options in an equitable manner, specifically through a culturally validating behavioral nudge and Bridge2BSTEM workshop. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.