Mentor-Connect Forward: Leadership Development and Outreach for ATE

该项目将支持社区和技术学院及其教职员工通过高级技术教育(ATE)计划提交建议，并最大限度地从资金中获益。ATE助学金提高了教师的能力和机构能力，以满足对熟练技术劳动力的需求。对高技能技术人员的持续需求得到了认可，并得到了很好的记录，但教育项目已经被COVID这样的颠覆者颠覆了。虚拟教学在所有学科中都变得必不可少，入学总人数下降，大学预算也是如此。与此同时，高科技行业对技术人员的迫切需求和日益增长的需求依然存在。尽管ATE计划在帮助大学应对技术人员教育挑战方面具有独特的地位，但大学必须制定并提交拨款提案才能获得这笔资金。要使ATE计划影响两年制高等教育机构(两年制IHES)并培养工业所需的熟练技术工人，必须减少成为ATE受资助者的障碍。此前的奖项在减少障碍、吸引更多两年制大学技术员教育工作者、培养STEM教师领袖、扩大指导能力以及提高ATE计划的影响方面取得了很大进展。尽管如此，仍有许多两年制大学尚未从ATE计划中受益。Mentor-Connect Forward：ATE(M-C Forward)将：1)通过扩大ATE计划中不同地理和人口结构的2年制IHES和STEM教员的参与，以新的和成熟的方式促进技术员教育；2)刺激ATE开发的资源的使用；3)鼓励和支持新的和以前的受资助机构提交建议书；4)在获得资助的人中培养领导者和导师；以及5)支持和指导新的主要调查人员(PI)，帮助他们成为成功的受赠者。该项目建立在以前项目的成功和经验教训的基础上，并利用其他资助的指导项目的工作。同行指导和技术援助将利用基于问题的学习，让大学团队参与可持续的、由教师主导的技术人员教育课程和计划的改进。ATE计划信息、赠款提案说明和发展战略将通过研讨会、网络研讨会、在线资源和帮助台提供。导师研究员实习计划将在ATE计划中建立指导能力。现有的资源库将通过新的吸收、审查和用户支持系统得到增强，并将受益于其他由ATE资助的指导倡议的贡献。指导首次绩效指标的新教学资源和支持，PI 101，将促进领导力发展，减少学习曲线，支持改进的项目结果，并鼓励开发后续提案。Mentor-Connect将响应并不断改进对所有项目活动的严格评估。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。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 support community and technical colleges and their faculty to submit proposals to, and maximize their benefit from, funding through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program. ATE grants increase faculty ability and institutional capacity to address the need for a skilled technical workforce. The persistent need for highly skilled technicians is recognized and well-documented, but educational programs have been upended by disrupters like COVID. Virtual instruction has become essential across all disciplines, and overall enrollments have declined, as have college budgets. Meanwhile, the critical and growing need for technicians in advanced technology industries remains. Although the ATE Program is uniquely positioned to help colleges address technician education challenges, colleges must develop and submit grant proposals to access this funding. For the ATE Program to impact two-year institutions of higher education (2-yr IHEs) and educate the skilled technical workers needed by industry, barriers to becoming an ATE grantee must be mitigated. Prior awards have made strides toward reducing barriers, engaging more two-year college technician educators, developing STEM faculty leaders, expanding mentoring capacity, and increasing impacts of the ATE Program. Even so, there are still many two-year colleges that have not yet benefited from the ATE Program.Mentor-Connect Forward: Leadership Development and Outreach for ATE (M-C Forward) will: 1) advance technician education in new and proven ways by expanding engagement of geographically and demographically diverse 2-yr IHEs and STEM faculty with the ATE Program; 2) stimulate use of ATE-developed resources; 3) encourage and support the submission of proposals by new and previous grantee institutions; 4) develop leaders and mentors among those who receive ATE funding; and 5) support and guide new principal investigators (PIs) to help them become successful grantees. The project builds on successes and lessons learned from prior projects and leverages the work of other funded mentoring projects. Peer mentoring and technical assistance will leverage problem-based learning to engage college teams in sustainable, faculty-lead improvement of technician education courses and programs. ATE Program information and grant proposal instructions and development strategies will be provided via workshops, webinars, online resources, and a help desk. A Mentor Fellows internship program will build mentoring capacity in the ATE Program. An existing Resource Repository will be enhanced by a new intake, review, and user support system, and will benefit from contributions from other ATE-funded mentoring initiatives. New instructional resources and support to guide first-time PIs, PI 101, will promote leadership development, reduce the learning curve, support improved project outcomes, and encourage development of subsequent proposals. Mentor-Connect will be responsive to, and continuously improved by, rigorous evaluation of all project activities. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.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.