Developing and Sharing Research on Low-Income Community College Student Decision-Making and Pathways in STEM

开发和分享低收入社区学院学生决策和 STEM 途径的研究

• 批准号: 2224623
• 负责人: Michelle Van Noy
• 金额: $ 287.93万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2027-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224623&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; Sharing; Research; Low; Income

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. This project will conduct research on decision-making processes of low-income students related to staying on and succeeding in STEM pathways and the importance of community colleges experiences in this process. This project will create a broad network of community college STEM faculty members and administrators who can inform and be informed by the research. It will also seek to build capacity among community college STEM faculty members and administrators to perform research. The significance of the project is in serving as a national resource to help understand how low-income students make decisions and how colleges can better support them. The intellectual merit of the project is its contribution to understanding low-income STEM student pathways through the lens of decision making. Among the broader impacts is the immediate applicability of the research to improve community college STEM programs to promote the academic and professional success of low-income students. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The research will investigate pathways and decision-making processes relative to STEM persistence, attainment, transfer, and careers of low-income community college students. The primary contribution of the project is to the knowledge base regarding decisions of low-income students to remain and succeed on STEM pathways and how community college S-STEM programs, strategies, and supports may contribute to this process. Understanding the pivotal decision points on student pathways and the complex array of influences on them is essential to making STEM education more equitable. Recognizing the importance of the broader social context in understanding the experiences of low-income individuals, the research will draw on sociological perspectives to examine the following questions: How do elements of the S-STEM program (i.e., recruitment and selection processes, the S-STEM scholarship, and S-STEM curricular and co-curricular supports) influence student decision-making to continue or leave a STEM pathway? How do institutional contexts, including and beyond S-STEM (i.e., policies, practices, resources, and opportunities), influence students’ decisions to remain on or depart from a STEM pathway? How do student attributes (i.e., engagement and use of economic, social, and cultural resources) influence decisions to persist on or leave a STEM pathway? The project is composed of three sets of interconnected activities. First, the project will engage and build a network for identifying research needs and sharing research within and beyond the S-STEM community through leadership groups, network building, proposal-preparation workshops, research-to-practice clinics, and broad dissemination. Second, the project will generate evidence and tools through structured research on community college S-STEM programs, including a grantee survey, case studies, a systematic review, and a student survey. Third, the project will expand research and build research capacity within the S-STEM community and among community colleges in general through research partnerships and research fellowships. All project activities will promote a collaborative approach to research that is grounded in community college practice and intended to inform the S-STEM community and community colleges more broadly. Guidance for the project will be provided by leadership groups of community college practitioners and community college STEM students, as well as by an external evaluation. The findings from the project will be disseminated widely through the project’s network, as well as an array of related disciplinary and community college membership associations. The project will also yield publications including working papers, issue briefs, academic publications, strategy briefs, and toolkits. 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.

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，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。该项目将研究低收入家庭学生的决策过程，这些决策过程与继续并成功地通过STEM途径以及社区学院经验在这一过程中的重要性有关。该项目将创建一个广泛的社区大学STEM教师和管理人员网络，他们可以为研究提供信息和信息。它还将寻求在社区大学STEM教师和管理人员中建立进行研究的能力。该项目的意义在于作为一种国家资源，帮助了解低收入家庭的学生如何做出决定，以及大学如何更好地支持他们。该项目的智力价值在于它有助于通过决策的透镜了解低收入STEM学生的途径。更广泛的影响之一是该研究的直接适用性，以改善社区大学STEM项目，促进低收入学生的学术和职业成功。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该研究将调查与低收入社区大学生的STEM持续性，成就，转移和职业相关的途径和决策过程。该项目的主要贡献是关于低收入学生留在STEM途径并取得成功的决定以及社区学院S-STEM计划，战略和支持如何有助于这一过程的知识基础。了解学生途径的关键决策点以及对它们的复杂影响对于使STEM教育更加公平至关重要。认识到更广泛的社会背景在理解低收入个人的经验的重要性，研究将借鉴社会学的角度来研究以下问题：如何做的S-STEM计划的元素（即，招聘和选拔过程，S-STEM奖学金，S-STEM课程和课外支持）影响学生决定继续或离开STEM途径？机构环境，包括和超越S-STEM（即，政策，实践，资源和机会），影响学生决定继续或离开STEM途径？学生属性（即，参与和使用经济，社会和文化资源）影响坚持或离开STEM途径的决定？该项目由三组相互关联的活动组成。首先，该项目将参与并建立一个网络，通过领导小组，网络建设，提案准备研讨会，研究实践诊所和广泛传播，在S-STEM社区内外确定研究需求和共享研究。第二，该项目将通过对社区学院S-STEM项目的结构化研究产生证据和工具，包括受助人调查，案例研究，系统性审查和学生调查。第三，该项目将通过研究伙伴关系和研究奖学金，在S-STEM社区和社区学院内扩大研究并建立研究能力。所有的项目活动将促进合作的研究方法，是在社区学院的实践为基础，并打算告知S-STEM社区和社区学院更广泛。该项目的指导将由社区大学从业者和社区大学STEM学生的领导小组以及外部评估提供。该项目的调查结果将通过项目网络以及一系列相关学科和社区学院成员协会广泛传播。该项目还将产生出版物，包括工作文件、问题简报、学术出版物、战略简报和工具包。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并提供有关低收入学生的学术成功、保留、转学、毕业和学术/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。