Bridging Institutions to Decrease Gaps in Engineering Education

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Implementation and Evaluation (Track 2) project will decrease the gaps in engineering education for transfer students and increase their success by focusing on a “transfer-ready” curriculum with support from a faculty learning community. The State of California, which has the largest four-year public university system in the United States, does not have an Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) in Engineering. Therefore, the majority of engineering students who transfer from community colleges do not take lower-division engineering courses. This prolongs the time needed to complete an engineering degree to an average of five-to-six years. At the California State Polytechnic University at Pomona (CPP), the two-year graduation rate for engineering transfer students in the Fall 2021 semester was 6.0%, which is much lower than the university average (33.1%). The additional years needed to graduate add to the financial burden for transfer students, as they must pay additional tuition and expenses. The "Bridging Institutions to Decrease Gaps in Engineering Education" team (or BRIDGE Education team) includes faculty at CPP and three partnering institutions, Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC), Citrus College, and Victor Valley College who will collaborate on transfer student success in the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at CPP. Because transfer students constitute a large percentage of students entering engineering programs, it is important to foster their success in obtaining baccalaureate degrees in a timely manner, which will prove a significant step in mitigating equity gaps among engineering students.Three specific aims guide the execution of the project. First is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that impact transfer students’ success. Second is to create a framework to yield “transfer ready” students by implementing the Transfer Pathway program. Third and finally, is to offer more diverse lower-division engineering courses through course development and a faculty learning community (FLC). The BRIDGE project will minimize transfer students’ struggles and maximize their performance after transferring. In addition, the BRIDGE project can be developed and incorporated into other engineering disciplines and strengthen state-wide efforts to support transfer students’ success by offering an Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) in Engineering. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs.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.