Assuring Students Success in Engineering Technology Programs

该项目将通过支持在密歇根州底特律的城市公立研究型大学韦恩州立大学(WSU)留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生，来促进全国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。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为48名攻读工程技术(ET)学士学位的本科生提供奖学金。威斯康星州立大学的教育技术课程仅限高级课程，旨在为社区大学毕业生提供在两年内获得理科学士学位的途径。这些非传统学生在完成学位的过程中面临着巨大的经济和个人挑战。该项目将为成绩优异的低收入学生提供经济支持，实施以证据为基础的主动学习技术，并提供各种专业和学术支持服务，以加强学生的工程认同感和毕业后进入STEM劳动力或研究生院的承诺。该项目还将通过a)在该机构的所有学习项目中促进基于证据的主动学习技术的使用，b)提高学生保留率和毕业率，同时减少获得学位的时间，以及c)为当地行业提供合格的技术劳动力，从而影响WSU的所有ET学生。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。最近的一项全国性研究表明，获得四年学士学位的转学学生的六年毕业率仅为42%左右，而低收入学生完成学位的可能性更低。基于寻求理解社会组织和个人行为之间联系的认同理论，本项目假设早期参与和持续支持在培养工程认同感、留住和坚持等方面起着关键作用，从而提高他们的学业和职业成就。该项目将让教师、工程教育界和管理人员了解工程技术专业的学生如何看待他们对工程职业的认同感，以及工程技术转学学生的“早期参与”和“持续支持”如何影响他们对工程专业的承诺和认同感。在这一项目成功完成后，预计会有三个成果。首先是提高所有ET转校生的总体一至二年保留率、平均攻读学位时间和平均四年毕业率。第二，至少90%的参与学生在毕业后6个月内进入STEM劳动力大军或研究生学习。第三是帮助满足行业对有技术能力的毕业生的需求。一名外部评估员将利用形成性和总结性评估的结果进行过程和结果评估。该项目的成果将通过同行评议的出版物、会议介绍和讲习班、地区社区学院讲习班和研讨会进行传播。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 Wayne State University (WSU), an urban, public research university in Detroit, Michigan. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 48 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Technology (ET) programs. WSU’s ET programs are upper division only, designed to provide a pathway for community college graduates to earn a BS degree in 2 years. These non-traditional students face significant financial and personal challenges in completing their degrees. This project will provide high-achieving low-income students with financial support, implement evidence-based active learning techniques, as well as offer various professional and academic support services to strengthen students’ engineering identity and commitment to enter the STEM workforce or graduate school upon graduation. The project will also impact all ET students at WSU by a) promoting utilization of evidence-based active learning techniques in all programs of study at the institution, b) increasing student retention and graduation rates, while reducing time-to-degree, and c) providing a qualified technical workforce for local industry. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. A recent national study indicated that the six-year graduation rate of transfer students who earned a 4-year baccalaureate degree was only around 42% and the likelihood of degree completion for low-income students is even less. Based on identity theory that seeks to understand the links between social organization and individual behavior, this project hypothesizes that early engagement, and continuous support play a key role in fostering engineering identity, retention, and persistence of ET transfer students, thus improving their academic and professional outcomes. The project will inform faculty, the engineering education community, and administrators about how engineering technology students perceive their identification with engineering careers and how “early engagement” and “continued support” of transfer students in engineering technology impact their commitment to and identification with the engineering profession. Upon the successful completion of this project, three outcomes are expected. First is to improve overall 1st-to-2nd year retention rates, the average time-to-degree, and the average 4-year graduation rates of all ET transfer students. Second is to have at least 90% of participating students enter the STEM workforce or graduate studies within 6 months of graduation. And third is to help meet industry demand for technologically competent graduates. An external evaluator will perform process and outcome evaluation using results from formative and summative assessments. The findings of this project will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and workshops, workshops for area community colleges, and seminars. 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.