Bridging Faculty and Student Cultures: Culturally Responsive Support for STEM Students Transferring between Two- and Four-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，促进国家对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的需求。该项目将支持Pima社区学院和亚利桑那大学的学生，这两所学校都是西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）。在五年内，该项目将为94名学生提供奖学金，为每个学生提供最多六个学期的支持。奖学金将颁发给三个年度的学生谁开始在皮马社区学院，在那里他们将追求科学学位的副打算转移和完成亚利桑那大学的理学学士学位。支持的专业包括生物科学，物理科学，数学科学，计算机和信息科学，地球科学和工程。该项目将实施一个文化响应的实践社区，通过该社区，教师，顾问和同行导师将开发基于资产，以学生为中心的方法的技能。该项目更广泛的影响将包括改善STEM教育工作者和教师的发展，增加STEM中代表性不足的少数民族的参与，加强两年制和四年制HSIs之间的伙伴关系，并促进多元化STEM劳动力的发展。该项目的重要性在于其重点是通过建立一个STEM文化响应型实践社区来转变教师文化，该社区将社区学院和大学环境联系起来，并促进转学生的成功。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。它旨在通过实施，然后调查一个可扩展的，可转移的模型来实现这一目标，以创建一个具有文化响应性的实践社区，这将改善教师和同行指导，从而支持学生在社区学院的最后一年和转入大学后的前两年。该项目的三个具体目标是：1）增强学生的STEM归属感; 2）提高亚利桑那大学的学业成绩; 3）提高学生对STEM职业的兴趣。该项目的研究问题包括：1）什么关键组成部分有助于实践的文化响应社区的发展和能力，以改变整个社区学院和大学背景下的STEM教师的方法？2)实践的文化响应社区如何改善经验，培养转学生的STEM身份，并弥合STEM生态系统之间的差距在两年和四年的HSIs？3)如何弥合差距改善学术，研究和职业相关的成果，为学生转入STEM专业？实施项目活动，然后评估影响，将为STEM教师，导师和顾问的专业发展提供信息。研究结果还将促进对如何在中学后环境中应用基于资产的方法的理解，打击刻板印象威胁，并解决有经验的学生的信心较低的问题，这些学生离开STEM的风险更大。每年的成果数据和学者的调查答复将与匹配的学生对照组进行比较，以评估项目的有效性。将通过网站、机构政策简报、讲习班、会议介绍和期刊出版物传播成果。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The project will support students at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona, both Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). Over five-years, this project will provide scholarships to 94 students, providing each student with up to six semesters of support. The scholarships will be awarded to three annual cohorts of students who begin at Pima Community College, where they will pursue Associate of Science degrees with the intention to transfer and complete Bachelor of Science degrees at the University of Arizona. Supported majors include biological sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, computer and information sciences, geosciences, and engineering. The project will implement a Culturally-responsive Community of Practice, through which faculty, advisors, and peer mentors will develop skills in asset-based, student-centered approaches. The project's broader impacts will include improving STEM educator and faculty development, increasing participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM, strengthening partnerships between two-year and four-year HSIs, and contributing to the development of a diverse STEM workforce. The importance of this project rests in its focus on transforming faculty culture by building a STEM Culturally-Responsive Community of Practice that bridges the community college and university contexts and advances transfer student success. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion by low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. It aims to achieve this goal by implementing and then investigating a scalable, transferrable model for creating a Culturally-responsive Community of Practice that will improve faculty and peer mentoring, thus supporting students' during their last year in community college and first two years after transfer into the university. The three specific aims of this project are to: 1) enhance students' sense of STEM belonging; 2) improve academic achievement at the University of Arizona; and 3) increase student interest in STEM careers. The project research questions include: 1) What key components contribute to both the development and capacity of a Culturally-responsive Community of Practice to transform the approach of STEM faculty across a community college and university context? 2) How can a Culturally-responsive Community of Practice improve the experiences and foster the STEM identity of transfer students and bridge the gap between the STEM ecosystems at two- and four-year HSIs? 3) How can bridging the gap improve academic, research, and career-relevant outcomes for students transferring into STEM majors? Implementing the project activities, then assessing impact, will inform improvements to professional development for STEM faculty, mentors, and advisors. The results will also advance understanding of how to apply asset-based approaches in postsecondary contexts, combat stereotype threat, and address the lower confidence of experienced students who are at greater risk of leaving STEM. Annual outcome data and survey responses from Scholars will be compared to a matched comparison group of students to evaluate project effectiveness. Results will be disseminated through a website, institutional policy briefs, workshops, conference presentations, and journal publications. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income 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.