Toward data-driven ATE program improvement: Leveraging statewide longitudinal data to create faculty-inspired tools for decision making

学生数据的可用性增加，加上分析和呈现这些数据的工具，为社区和技术学院的决策提供了信息。然而，三组因素使这一目标难以实现。首先是缺乏资源、知识和对相关数据集的认识。其次是定量研究能力不足。第三，缺乏数据可以用来记录和讲述学生成功故事的例子。 为了解决这些制约因素，本研究借鉴了社区学院教师和管理人员，大学教育研究人员和行业之间正在进行的合作。 在第一阶段，研究小组将收集和分析华盛顿州的技术人员教育途径，这些途径已获得NSF先进技术教育（ATE）计划的资助。在第二阶段，该研究将检查跨部门的全州纵向数据，以确定和调查关键的动力点和就业成果，表明关键的里程碑沿着技术人员教育途径。该研究将建立和调查导致工具，指南和交互式数据仪表板的开发，实施和使用的协作过程，这些工具，指南和交互式数据仪表板将描述性和预测性分析可视化。 该研究将阐明数据分析工具和调查结果的可用性在多大程度上影响了全州纵向数据的有效利用，进而塑造三所社区学院的组织文化，以提高对数据分析过程和结果的认识和使用，从而改善以STEM为导向的技术人员教育途径。 第3阶段将综合第2阶段的研究结果，以产生可复制的过程和一套有前途的做法，用于开发和调查跨部门纵向数据系统（LDS），以改善和记录华盛顿州和全国其他机构的技术人员教育途径的里程碑和成果。本研究的目的是调查（1）关键的里程碑和学生的成果沿着技术教育途径;（2）关键的跨部门全州范围内的纵向数据，可以纳入互动数据仪表板，以加强改善技术教育途径的决策;以及（3）交互式数据分析工具和调查结果的可用性在多大程度上影响了围绕改善技术教育途径的组织文化。定性案例研究研究项目为研究团队提供了系统地收集，检查，编码，三角测量，测试和深入了解文化变革中涉及的组织学习的能力，这些组织学习旨在提高对数据分析的认识和使用，以改善教育途径。 系统的数据收集，分析和解释将遵循演绎和归纳的方法。 该项目的概念基础（引导路径，公平记分卡和结果路径）将为该项目提供演绎框架。 该团队将归纳发现，调查和合并新兴的主题，因为团队成员参与并观察教师经验，学习，项目的概念框架和不断变化的组织文化之间的复杂关系。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于推动国家经济的先进技术领域的技术人员的教育。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。

Increased availability of student data, coupled with tools to analyze and present such data, offer the opportunity to inform decision-making at community and technical colleges. However, three sets of factors make this goal difficult to achieve. First is the lack of resources, knowledge, and awareness of relevant data sets. Second are shortfalls in quantitative research capacity. Third is a dearth of examples of the ways data can be used to document and tell stories about student success. To address these constraints, this study draws upon an on-going collaboration among community college faculty and administrators, university education researchers, and industry. In Phase 1, the research team will collect and analyze technician education pathways in Washington State that have received funding from the NSF's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. In Phase 2, the study will examine cross-sector statewide longitudinal data to identify and investigate key momentum points and employment outcomes that indicate critical milestones along technician education pathways. The study will establish and investigate the collaborative processes that lead to the development, implementation, and use of tools, guides, and interactive data dashboards that visualize descriptive and predictive analytics. The study will illuminate the extent to which the availability of data analytic tools and findings influences the effective use of statewide longitudinal data and, in turn, shape the organizational cultures of three community colleges toward heightened awareness and use of data analytic processes and results for the improvement of STEM-oriented technician education pathways. Phase 3 will synthesize findings from Phase 2, in a manner that produces replicable processes and a set of promising practices for developing and investigating cross sector longitudinal data systems (LDS) for improving and documenting milestones and outcomes of technician education pathways at other institutions within Washington state and across the nation. The purpose of this study is to investigate (1) critical milestones and students outcomes along technician education pathways; (2) critical cross sector statewide longitudinal data that can be incorporated into interactive data dashboards to enhance decisions on improving technical education pathways; and (3) the extent to which the availability of interactive data analytic tools and findings affect organizational culture around improving technical education pathways. The qualitative case study research project offers the research team the ability to systematically collect, examine, code, triangulate, test, and develop a deep understanding of organizational learning involved in culture change directed toward heightened awareness and use of data analytics to improve education pathways. Systematic data collection, analysis, and interpretation will be guided by deductive and inductive approaches. The project's conceptual foundation (Guided Pathways, Equity Scorecard, and Pathways to Results) will provide the deductive framework for the project. The team will inductively uncover, investigate, and coalesce emerging themes as team members participate in and observe the complex relationships among faculty experience, learning, the project's conceptual framework, and the changing organizational culture. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced technology fields that drive the nation's economy.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.