S-STEM Research Hub: Investigating How Low-Income Students Approach Non-Tuition Expenses

S-STEM研究中心将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留学和毕业，为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做出贡献。这个中心设在坦普尔大学的希望中心，重点关注STEM的负担能力，并将探索社区大学低收入学生的非学费障碍。所有背景的STEM毕业生都可以推动一个由创新驱动的充满活力的经济。有证据表明，扩大奖学金机会和联合课程活动取得了积极成果。尽管取得了这样的进步，但严重的社会不平等影响着学生的毅力、转学和学位完成率，阻碍了他们成功进入STEM劳动力大军。这在美国的社区大学尤其如此，据估计，每2名拥有STEM学位的毕业生中就有1人是从STEM领域起步的。许多社区大学生面临着巨大的经济挑战，包括越来越多的证据表明，许多人无法充分和不公平地获得食物、住房和其他必需品。中心研究的重点是探索低收入学生如何与各种支持机制相互作用。这些数据将用于开发和研究旨在将低收入学生与关键支持(如食物或住房支持)联系起来的干预措施。Hub将与五个州的10所社区大学合作，审查社区大学STEM学生在支付非学费费用方面面临的挑战。研究将集中在STEM社区学院学生在解决非学费支出方面的具体挑战。该项目将检查STEM社区学院学生可以使用的实践和计划，并探索它们是如何被使用的。它还将调查低成本干预措施如何帮助STEM社区学院的学生与解决他们的非学费费用的支持联系起来。每个参与机构将对所有学生进行经过验证的#RealCollege调查，并将结果与学生记录联系起来。该工具包括关于学生的非学费费用以及他们如何支付这些费用的问题。其他数据来源包括对州级项目的分析，以及对行政人员、工作人员和教职员工的重点小组的分析。这些数据将用于设计和部署旨在将低收入STEM学生与资源联系起来的方法，并评估这些支持是否有助于学生取得更大程度的成功。具体地说，该中心将进行一项随机对照研究，以检查低成本、轻触的“轻推”对学生使用非学费支持计划的影响。项目成果将使数百万寻求STEM证书的低收入成年人更容易获得这些学位和证书，从而提高国家社区大学的效率和成果。结果和干预措施将通过研讨会、演讲、期刊出版物以及希望中心网站和社交媒体账户传播。这个中心由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This S-STEM Research Hub 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. This hub, housed in the Hope Center at Temple University, focuses on STEM affordability and will explore non-tuition barriers for low-income students at community colleges. STEM graduates from all backgrounds can propel a vibrant economy driven by innovation. There is evidence that positive outcomes have come from expanding scholarship opportunities and co-curricular activities. Despite this progress, stark societal inequities affecting students’ persistence, transfer, and degree completion rates are impeding successful entry into the STEM workforce. This is especially the case at the nation’s community colleges, where an estimated 1 in 2 graduates with degrees in a STEM field get their start. Many community college students face significant economic challenges, including growing evidence that many have inadequate and inequitable access to food, housing, and other essentials. Hub research focus on exploring how low-income students interact with various support mechanisms. These data will be used to develop and study interventions intended to connect low-income students with key supports, such as food or housing support.The hub will collaborate with 10 community colleges in five states to examine the challenges community college STEM students face in covering non-tuition expenses. Research will focus on STEM community college students' specific challenges when it comes to addressing non-tuition expenses. The project will examine practices and programs available to STEM community college students and explore how they are being used. It will also investigate how low-cost interventions can help connect STEM community college students to supports for addressing their non-tuition expenses. Each participating institution will administer the validated #RealCollege survey to all students and link the outcomes to student records. The instrument includes questions about the non-tuition expenses students’ face and how they seek to cover them. Other data sources include an analysis of state-level programs and focus groups with administrators, staff, and faculty. These data will be used to design and deploy approaches intended to connect low-income STEM students with resources, and to assess whether these supports help students reach greater levels of success. Specifically, the hub will conduct a randomized control study to examine the impacts of low-cost, light-touch “nudges” on students’ usage of non-tuition support programs. Project outcomes will make it easier for millions of low-income adults seeking STEM credentials to obtain those degrees and certificates, improving effectiveness and outcomes for the nation’s community colleges. Results and interventions will be disseminated through seminars, presentations, journal publications and via the Hope Center website and social media accounts. This hub 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.