Explaining Choice, Persistence, and Attrition of Black Students in Electrical, Computer, and Mechanical Engineering

本项目旨在确定导致黑人学生在电气工程（EE）、计算机工程（CpE）和机械工程（ME）中增加代表性、持久性、毕业率和流失率的政策和做法，并就最佳做法向政策制定者提出可操作的建议。项目团队正在调查为什么黑人学生选择并坚持或放弃ME、EE和CpE；他们的学习途径如何因性别和机构类型而异；以及什么样的政策和做法能促进黑人工程专业学生的留存。该项目最终将扩大对限制黑人学生充分参与EE、CpE和ME的因素的理解，并确定能够吸引和留住他们在这些领域的积极因素。这个项目的智力价值是基于一种混合方法的研究设计，结合了从多机构调查工程纵向发展数据库（中场）中获得的大量样本（目前有17所大学的30万名学生）的定量力量，深度学生访谈的定性丰富，部门和学院管理人员访谈，以及对两所历史上的黑人学院和大学以及两所以白人为主的机构的制度政策和背景的详细内容分析。研究人员整合了之前用于研究代表性不足的少数民族学生的三种理论：批判种族理论、社区文化财富理论和交叉性。这种方法将加强机构和个人对工程专业学生的途径和结果的解释。一个全面的传播计划将确保研究结果达到各种受众感兴趣的多样化工程教育。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。

This project aims to identify policies and practices that lead to increased representation, persistence, and graduation as well as attrition for Black students in Electrical Engineering (EE), Computer Engineering (CpE), and Mechanical Engineering (ME) and to make actionable recommendations for policymakers regarding best practices. The project team is investigating why Black students choose and persist in, or leave ME, EE, and CpE; how their academic pathways vary by gender and institution type; and what policies and practices promote greater retention of Black engineering students. The project will ultimately broaden understanding of the factors that have limited the full participation of Black students in EE, CpE and ME, and identify the positive factors that can attract and retain them in these fields.This project's intellectual merit is based on a mixed-methods research design that combines the quantitative power of large sample sizes (currently 300,000 students at 17 institutions) available from the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD), the qualitative richness of in-depth student interviews, department and college administrator interviews, and detailed content analysis of institutional policies and contexts at two Historically Black Colleges and Universities and two Predominantly White Institutions. The researchers integrate three theories that have been used in prior work on under-represented minority students: critical race theory, community cultural wealth theory, and intersectionality. This approach will strengthen institutional and individual explanations of engineering student pathways and outcomes. A comprehensive dissemination plan will ensure that the study results reach a variety of audiences interested in diversifying engineering education.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.