Socioeconomic Factors in Engineering Pathways

这项工程教育研究奖授予普渡大学，将聘请研究人员利用中场（一个纵向数据库）调查社会经济地位在学生决策、学术轨迹和成功中的作用。中场是一个纵向数据库，包含1987年至2005年期间9所院校本科生的信息。低收入家庭的学生面临着很大的障碍，这个项目将探讨这些学生的留校率、表现和毕业时间。该项目还将确定影响低收入家庭学生选择专业的重要因素。调查社会经济地位对学生专业选择和学位进展的影响，解决了一个目前尚未得到很好理解的重要问题，这项工作将增加对学生如何进入工程专业并通过工程专业取得进展的理解。这项研究的结果将有助于大学理解和规划策略和干预措施，以改善因低收入背景而处于不利地位的工程专业学生的招聘和保留。这将增加能够胜任工程工作的工程专业学生的数量。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This engineering education research award to Purdue University will employ researchers to investigate the role of socioeconomic status in student decision making, academic trajectory, and success using MIDFIELD, a longitudinal database of information about undergraduate students at 9 institutions during the period from 1987 to 2005. Significant barriers are faced by low-income students, and this project will explore retention, performance, and time to graduation for these students. The project also will determine the significant factors that influence the choice of majors by students from low income backgrounds. Investigating the influence of socioeconomic status on students' choices of major and progress toward a degree addresses an important issue that is not currently well understood, and this work will increase understanding of how students enter and progress through engineering programs. Results of this research will be valuable to universities in understanding and planning strategies and interventions to improve recruitment and retention for engineering students who are disadvantaged because of their low-income background. This will increase the number of engineering students who can fill engineering jobs.