Improving Retention Rate and Success in Computer Science Scholars in a Historical Black University

该项目将通过支持塔斯基吉大学（Tuskegee University）这所位于“阿拉巴马州黑带”地区的历史悠久的黑人大学保留和毕业表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生，从而满足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24名攻读计算机科学和信息技术学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得四年的奖学金。该计划旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，提高计算机科学专业学生的保留率、毕业率和学习成绩。本项目将采取措施，利用早期预警系统识别高流失率的学者，该预警系统利用流失率的风险因素，如出勤率、学术成果、数学熟练程度、计算机科学项目的归属感、心理社区意识和计算机科学的感知价值。一旦发现流失风险高的学生，项目组将为每一位学生制定干预计划，包括指派一名同伴导师帮助该学生，由其他教师提供建议，推荐学习资源和活动。这些包括学术建议、同伴辅导、同伴合作学习、同伴指导、生活学习社区、本科生研究经历和职业规划。同伴辅导和同伴合作学习将帮助学生成为独立的学习者，更深入、更具体地学习课程材料。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目将调查各种因素对一年级学生留校率、四年制学位完成率和学习成绩的影响。这个项目有可能促进对HBCUs计算机科学专业本科生的坚持和毕业的理解。本项目将采用混合方法进行评估，使用在整个项目中收集的形成性评估数据，以确保活动按计划实施，并获得用于项目改进的反馈。该项目的结果将通过网站、学术会议、研讨会和期刊出版物公布。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 Tuskegee University, a historically black university located in the “Alabama Black Belt” region. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in computer science and information technology. First-year students will receive four years of scholarships. This project aims to improve student retention rate, graduation rate, and academic performance in computer science by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities. This project will take steps to identify the scholars with high attrition risk employing an early-alert system that makes use of risk factors for attrition, such as attendance rate, academic outcomes, mathematics proficiency, sense of belonging in computer science programs, psychological sense of community, and perceived value of computer science. As soon as the scholars with high attrition risk are identified, the project team will make an intervention plan for each one of them, including assigning a peer tutor to help the student, offering advising by other faculty, and recommending learning resources and activities. These include academic advising, peer tutoring, peer-cooperative learning, peer mentoring, a living learning community, undergraduate research experiences, and career planning. Peer tutoring and peer-cooperative learning will assist students to become independent learners and learn course material in a deeper and more concrete way. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project will investigate the effects of the factors on first-year student retention, 4-year degree completion, and academic performance. This project has the potential to advance understanding of persistence and graduation of undergraduate students in computer science programs at HBCUs. This project will be evaluated using a mixed-methods approach using formative evaluation data collected throughout the project to ensure the activities are implemented as planned and to obtain feedback that will be used for project improvement. Results of this project will be made available through websites, academic conferences, workshops, and journal publications. 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.