GSE/RES--Community College Pathways to STEM Degrees and Careers for Women and Underrepresented Minorities

智力价值：教育发展中心公司(EDC)提议进行一个为期三年的研究项目，旨在了解通过社区大学教育为女性提升STEM地位的机会。目标是确定有助于妇女成功招聘、进步和完成社区大学STEM学位和证书的个人和机构因素。研究人员将检查来自国家教育统计中心(NCES)的初级中学后调查(BPS)的数据，并将对两所STEM丰富且受支持的社区学院的四个STEM社区大学项目(两个终端副学士学位项目和两个转学学位项目)进行案例研究。虽然女性S在四年制和研究生STEM项目中的经历已经得到了广泛的分析，但女性在STEM社区大学项目中的经历仍然没有得到充分的研究。学生参与度、生命历程和性别图式等理论是为了理解女性在四年制STEM项目中的代表性不足而发展起来的，但在社区大学STEM背景下可能适用不同的情况，因为与四年制院校开始上大学的学生相比，社区大学STEM的学生年龄较大、非住校生、来自低收入家庭、更有可能工作。此外，支持STEM社区大学教育的制度体系还没有得到充分的研究。本项目中提出的定量研究将全面审视女性和男性在STEM社区大学教育中的经历，同时测试关于STEM教育中性别差异的学生参与度、生活历程和性别图式理论的假设。案例研究还将分析支持STEM社区大学教育的政策、计划和做法，以及这些机构支持在多大程度上满足妇女的需求。虽然定量研究将确定推动社区大学STEM取得进展的因素以及男女之间的差异，但定性分析将探索为什么这些性别差异仍然存在。广泛的影响：社区大学往往缺乏进行机构和项目有效性研究所需的资源和人员，以了解、评估和加强对女性和男性STEM教育的支持系统。通过勾勒出STEM中支持女性的社区大学系统的作用和不足，以及预测STEM社区大学进展的因素，这项研究将确定教育工作者和管理人员最好地将稀缺资源分配给项目、实践和政策制定的领域。此外，通过研究开发的学生调查和焦点小组协议，以衡量学生对STEM社区大学项目的参与度，以及评估如何因性别而异，可以用作衡量社区大学校园STEM支持的有效性的试点工具。面试协议也可以作为一种试点工具，用来衡量为女性提供支持的系统--S STEM教育的有效性。

Intellectual Merit: Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) proposes to conduct a three-year research project that seeks to understand opportunities for STEM advancement for women through community college education. The goal is to identify the individual and institutional factors that contribute to women's successful recruitment, progress, and completion of community college STEM degrees and certificates. The researchers will examine data from the Beginning Post-Secondary Surveys (BPS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and will conduct case studies of four STEM community college programs (two terminal associate degree programs and two transfer degree programs) at two STEM-rich and supported community colleges. While women?s experiences in four-year and graduate STEM programs have been extensively analyzed, the experiences of women in STEM community college programs remains under-examined. Theories such as student engagement, life course, and gender schema, which have been developed to understand women's underrepresentation in four-year STEM programs, may apply differently in the community college STEM context where students are older, non-residential, from lower income families, and more likely to work compared with students who begin college in a four-year institution. Further, institutional systems of support for STEM community college education have not been adequately studied. Quantitative research proposed in this project will provide a comprehensive look at women's and men's experiences in STEM community college education while testing hypotheses concerning student engagement, life course, and gender schema theories of gender differences in STEM education. The case study research will additionally provide analysis of the policies, programs, and practices that support STEM community college education and the extent to which these institutional supports meet women's needs. While the quantitative research will identify the factors that contribute to progress through community college STEM and differences for men and women, the qualitative analysis will explore why these gender differences persist.Broader Impacts: Community colleges often lack the resources and staffing to conduct the institutional and program effectiveness research required to understand, evaluate, and strengthen systems of support for women's and men's STEM education. By delineating what is working and what is lacking in community college systems of support for women in STEM as well as the factors that predict STEM community college progress, this research will identify areas for educators and administrators to best allocate scarce resources for program, practice, and policy development. Furthermore, the student survey and focus group protocol developed through the research to gauge student engagement in STEM community college programs and how assessments vary by gender may be used as a piloted tool to measure the effectiveness of STEM support on community college campuses. The interview protocols may also serve as a piloted tool to measure the effectiveness of systems of support for women?s STEM education.