HSI Institutional Transformation Project: Building Community Success through Institutionalized and Culturally Responsive Support Systems

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，这个Track 3项目旨在为教授和支持STEM课程的教师、助教和同行导师/导师提供专业发展机会，以提高学生的成绩和坚持不懈。通过这一专业发展，STEM教学社区(即教师、助教和同行导师/导师)将获得在其学习空间中使用循证和文化参与实践的知识和技能。其目标是更好地服务于并最终提高经历最多学业不平等的学生的学业成绩(即课程降幅、成绩、坚持性)。要有意识地提高多样化、有才华、但服务不足的学生群体的成功，需要致力于教育社区，在学生学术生涯的早期和关键时刻教授和支持他们。这个教学社区包括讲师(主要是非终身教职)、助教和导师/导师，他们领导或协助教授低级课程、入门课程、高需求课程、必修课程和/或更大的课程。虽然这个指导社区在学生学术生涯的早期有很大的影响，但他们在大学校园里得到的支持、指导和资金通常较少。因此，许多人缺乏时间、精力和资源来从事职业发展。这种差异的一个结果是，这一群体在研究文献中也得到了较少的关注。因此，围绕着这个教学社区的影响和发展的知识差距加剧了他们所服务的学生的不平等。本项目的预期结果包括高质量的教学和文化参与的专业发展和改善的学术成果。该项目建议回答的问题是，针对较不享有特权的STEM教学社区(例如教师、助教和导师/导师)，在循证和文化参与的实践中提供充足的资金、意向支持和高质量的培训是否会提高目标课程的大学成功结果？该项目建议通过为STEM教学社区提供有竞争力的津贴和奖学金来回答这个问题，以参与以证据为基础的、具有文化吸引力的三个层次的专业发展。该项目使用交叉性框架为专业开发设计、数据收集和数据分析提供信息。研究的重点是递归的、以行动为导向的、混合方法的研究，基于学术成果、课堂观察、文化参与调查和定性的背景调查，以持续改进和成功项目和学生。这个项目解决了学术成功数据可以识别的特定需求，这一需求承诺对我们学校公平的学生成功既有直接的影响又有直接的影响。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育和HSI的能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 3 project aims to provide instructors, teaching assistants, and peer tutors/mentors who teach and support STEM courses with professional development opportunities that will improve student grades and persistence. Through this professional development, the STEM instructional community (i.e., instructors, teaching assistants, and peer tutors/mentors) will gain the knowledge and skills to use evidence-based and culturally engaging practices in their learning spaces. The objective is to better serve and, ultimately, improve academic outcomes (i.e., course drops, grades, persistence) for students that experience the most academic inequities. Intentionally improving success for a diverse and talented, yet underserved, student population requires a commitment to the instructional community that teaches and supports students during early and pivotal moments in their academic careers. This instructional community includes instructors (largely non-tenure track), teaching assistants, and tutors/mentors that lead or assist instruction in lower-division, gateway, high needs, pre-requisite, and/or larger courses. While this instructional community has a large impact early on in students’ academic careers, they typically receive less support, guidance, and funding on college campuses. As such, many lack the time, energy, and resources to engage in professional development. A product of this discrepancy is that this population also receives less attention in the research literature. As a result, knowledge gaps surrounding the impact and development of this instructional community compound inequity in the students they serve. The expected outcomes for this project include quality instructional and culturally engaging professional development and improved academic outcomes.The question project proposes to answer is, will adequate funding, intentional support, and quality training in evidence-based and culturally engaging practices for the less privileged STEM instructional community (e.g., instructors, teaching assistants, and tutors/mentors) improve college success outcomes in the targeted courses? The project proposes to answer this question by offering competitive stipends and scholarships for the STEM instructional community to engage with three tiers of evidence-based, culturally engaging professional development. The project uses an intersectionality framework to inform professional development design, data collection, and data analysis. A recursive, action-oriented, mixed-method research emphasis will be employed based on academic outcomes, classroom observations, cultural engagement surveys, and qualitative contextualized inquiry for the continual improvement and success of the program and students. This project tackles a specific need identifiable by academic success data, one which promises to both have an immediate and direct impact on equitable student success at our institution. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.