IUSE/PFE:RED Two-Year: Engineering Pathways for Access, Community, and Transfer (EPACT)

社区学院在美国高等教育中发挥着至关重要的作用，是为不同人群的学生提供教育机会的重要途径。由于一半以上的CC学生是低收入、来自代表性不足的群体和/或第一代，CCS必须在扩大对工程的参与以满足劳动力需求和解决社会问题方面发挥突出作用。不幸的是，尽管CCS提供了教育机会，但在转学到大学工程学士学位课程的过程中存在着显著的差距，这影响了CC学生作为工程师的身份、他们在两年内完成学业的能力，以及他们毕业后能否成功就业。在内华达州，这个问题很严重，工科学生的转学过程需要革命性的改变。从CCS转学到内华达大学雷诺分校(UNR)的工科学生毕业率较低，因为CC学生面临的结构、文化和组织挑战影响了他们的毕业和毕业后的成功。该项目名为获取、社区和转移的工程路径(EPAct)，是内华达州高等教育系统(NHE)机构之间的合作伙伴关系。EPAct革命旨在通过消除CC工程转学学生经历的学业进步障碍来催化nSSE的变化。EPAct将通过以下方式创造革命性的变化：1)作为一个模式变化项目，帮助其他高等教育系统在工科学生转移过程中进行转型的文化、结构和组织变化；2)利用从EPAct研究中获得的知识来满足国家需要，促进多样化和准备充分的STEM劳动力；3)发展以学生为中心的工程教育，重点是工程师的职业形成；4)传播从项目中学到的经验教训，以促进工程转学学生在其他高等教育系统中的成功5)向地方、州和联邦合作伙伴提供有关EPAct等项目的价值的信息，这些项目针对越来越多在转学到工程学学位课程时遇到障碍的代表不足的群体。EPAct团队将使用机构转型基础(Fit)模型作为指导变革理论来实施该项目。基于John Kotter理论的Fit Change模型以五个价值观为基础：公平的结构和结果、以学生为中心的机构、大规模实施、数据知情的决策和全系统协作。Fit模型将指导EPAct团队解决影响工程转学学生成功的文化、结构和组织障碍，并研究政策和程序对转学学生自我效能、工程认同感和归属感的影响。EPAct的活动将通过解决以下研究问题来促进知识的发展：1)EPAct的愿景、总体目标、目标和活动如何有效地在nSSHE内实现文化、结构和组织的变化？以及2)EPAct的实施与更广泛的生态系统有多大的联系，影响CC和大学工程学教师的发展，以及由此产生的CC工程转学学生的教育环境，导致学业成功和留住他们的CCS，转学到大学工程学学位课程，以及自我效能、工程身份和归属感的变化？研究成果将在NHE的内部和外部向广大受众传播。一旦EPAct愿景得到执行，在NHE和机构层面所做的文化、结构和组织变革将为CC教职员工和学生带来真正的、可量化的好处。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Community colleges (CCs) play a crucial role in US higher education and are an important pathway to providing educational opportunities for students from diverse populations. Since over half of CC students are low-income, from underrepresented groups, and/or first-generation, CCs must play a prominent role in broadening participation in engineering to meet workforce needs and to solve societal problems. Unfortunately, despite the educational opportunities provided by CCs, there are significant gaps in the transfer process to university engineering Bachelor’s degree programs that impact CC students’ identity as engineers, their ability to complete their course of study in two years, and their success in securing employment after graduation. In Nevada, this problem is significant and the transfer process for engineering students needs revolutionary change. Engineering students who transfer from CCs to the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) have low graduation rates due to structural, cultural, and organizational challenges that CC students face that affect their graduation and post-graduation success. The program entitled Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer (EPACT), is a partnership among Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) institutions. The EPACT revolution aims to catalyze change in NSHE by removing barriers to academic advancement experienced by CC engineering transfer students. EPACT will create revolutionary change by 1) Serving as a model change project to help other systems of higher education make transformational cultural, structural, and organizational changes in the engineering student transfer process; 2) Using the knowledge gained from EPACT research to address a national need to promote a diverse and well-prepared STEM workforce; 3) Developing student-centered engineering education focused on the professional formation of engineers, 4) Disseminating the lessons learned from the project to promote engineering transfer student success at other systems of higher education 5) Providing information to local, state, and federal partners on the value of programs like EPACT for the growing number of underrepresented groups that encounter barriers to transferring into engineering degree programs.The EPACT team will use the Foundations for Institutional Transformation (FIT) Model as a guiding change theory to carry out this project. The FIT change model, based on John Kotter’s theory, is grounded in five values: equitable structures and outcomes, student-centered institutions, implementation at scale, data-informed decision-making, and system-wide collaboration. The FIT model will guide the EPACT team to address cultural, structural, and organizational barriers to engineering transfer student success and study the impact of policies and procedures on transfer student self-efficacy, engineering identity, and belongingness. EPACT activities will advance knowledge by addressing the following research questions: 1) How effectively can the EPACT vision, overarching goal, objectives, and activities achieve cultural, structural, and organizational change within NSHE?; and 2) How strongly is the implementation of EPACT linked to the broader ecosystem that affects CC and university engineering teaching faculty development and the resulting CC engineering transfer students’ educational environment, leading to academic success, and retention in their CCs, transfer to university engineering degree programs, and changes in self-efficacy, engineering identity, and belongingness? Research findings will be disseminated to a wide audience both internally and externally to NSHE. Once the EPACT vision is executed, cultural, structural, and organizational changes made at the NSHE and institutional levels will produce real, quantifiable benefits for CC faculty and 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.