CAREER: Postsecondary STEM Educational Trajectories of Formerly Incarcerated Persons

教师早期职业发展（Career）计划是一项国家科学基金会范围内的活动，为有潜力在研究和教育中担任学术榜样的早期职业教师提供奖励，领导其部门或组织的使命进步，并为整合教育和研究的终身领导奠定基础。这个职业项目探讨了有前科的人的高等教育轨迹，以调查在监狱中获得大学课程是否与高等教育坚持和完成证书或学位有关。这项研究是及时的，因为国家、州和地方决策者越来越关注为被监禁或曾经被监禁的人以及有前科的人提供接受高等教育的机会。2014年，加州通过了SB 1391法案，该法案允许为监狱和校园的大学课程提供同等的人均资助。本职业研究使用加州2012年至2021年间的行政数据和回归分析来衡量重新注册、坚持和完成社区大学证书或学位的可能性，这些人是在加州被监禁期间参加社区大学课程的前囚犯。考虑到许多来自工薪阶层背景的学生和有色人种学生上大学的机会和成功所面临的立法和挑战，研究结果有望为政策、扩大高等教育的方法以及有前科的个人上大学和成功的知识体系提供信息。在美国，大学学位是来自工薪阶层家庭的人获得经济流动性的途径。那些获得科学、技术、工程、数学（STEM）学位的学生的教育财政回报最高。这个职业项目还探讨了有前科的人获得的学位类型，在STEM领域获得的学位数量，以及获得这些学位的前监禁人员的特征。鉴于结构环境对学习的重要性，与有前科的学生较高的坚持和完成率相关的制度条件也正在研究中。该项目由STEM教育核心研究理事会（ECR）计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。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。

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This CAREER project explores the postsecondary trajectories of persons with conviction histories to investigate whether access to college courses while in prison is associated with postsecondary persistence and completion of a certificate or degree. The research is timely, given increased interest by national, state, and local policymakers in providing access to higher education to incarcerated or formerly incarcerated, persons and those who have conviction histories. In 2014, California passed SB 1391, a law allowing for equal per-student funding of college courses in prison and on campus. This CAREER research uses administrative data from California between 2012 and 2021 and regression analysis to measure the likelihood of re-enrollment, persistence, and completion of a community college certificate or degree for formerly incarcerated persons in California who took community college courses while incarcerated. Given the legislation and challenges concerning college access and success for many students from working-class backgrounds and students of color, study findings are expected to inform policy, approaches to expanding postsecondary education, and the body of knowledge on educational access and success for individuals with conviction histories. A college degree serves as a pathway to economic mobility for persons from working-class families in the United States. Fiscal returns to education are highest for those students earning science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) degrees. This CAREER project also explores the types of degrees earned by persons with conviction histories, the number of degrees that are earned in STEM fields, and the characteristics of formerly incarcerated persons who earn these degrees. Given the importance of the structural context for learning, institutional conditions associated with higher rates of persistence and completion for students with conviction histories are also being examined. This project is funded by the Directorate for STEM Education Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.