CAREER: Better Together: Leveraging the Shared Commitment of Community Colleges and HBCUs to Optimize Black Engineering Student Pathways

虽然扩大工程参与的重点主要集中在参加PWI和大多数四年制院校的学生身上，但近年来黑人工程本科入学率和毕业率有所下降。与此同时，社区学院（CC）以及历史上的黑人学院和大学（HBCU）一直以相对高得多的速度毕业于黑人工程师。此外，在以前的研究中，最初就读于CC的黑人工程本科生在转入HBCU时报告了积极的经历。这表明，CC到HBCU的途径可能是一个被忽视的机会，毕业更多的黑人工程师。在此证据的基础上，该CAREER项目将聚集来自CC和HBCU的利益相关者，共同制定一个共同愿景，以最大限度地发挥这些途径的潜力。该项目将：1）收集CC-HBCU工程基础设施中当前趋势、挑战和机遇的基线数据; 2）记录CC和HBCU为实现这一共同愿景而采取的步骤; 3）随着CC和HBCU制定和执行战略以优化这些途径，探索不断发展的流程。该项目将产生一个新的框架，以帮助HBCU，其他少数民族服务机构和PWI与CC合作，寻找创新的解决方案，以扩大工程参与。从教育的角度来看，该研究还将产生从框架中开发的模块，这些模块为四年制HBCU和其他四年制学校如何更好地与CC合作提供指导，以改善黑人工程学生的途径。此外，该项目将定位教师，工作人员和管理人员作为领导者，通过指导他们通过集中在集体影响和制度变革的研讨会来改善这些途径。尽管在理解学生的CC到四年制工程学院途径方面取得了进展，但很少有学者探索CC和四年制HBCU的潜力，以最大限度地提高黑人工程学生的持久性，转移，和毕业率。这个职业生涯项目通过将CC和HBCU作为教育未来黑人工程师的领导者来解决这一差距，并将利用每种类型的机构单独带来的集体优势来扩大参与努力。参与者将包括教师，工作人员和/或代表15个工程学位授予HBCU的管理人员，以及他们的馈线CC。使用基于集体影响和Kezar关于制度变革的理论框架的行动研究方法，我的研究目标将涉及收集和分析：1）建立CC到HBCU工程路径现状的描述性统计数据，包括趋势，挑战和机遇。2）焦点小组和观察数据，记录参与者如何合作，阐明和完善共同愿景，以最大限度地发挥这些途径的潜力; 3）焦点小组和观察数据，记录了CC-HBCU在本项目选定地点干预期间的合作努力。该项目的教育目标是：1）告知参与者从其他研究中得出的有希望的实践，这些研究侧重于工程CC，转移和保留; 2）向教师，员工和管理人员介绍集体影响，作为在CC-HBCU背景下最大化合作的工具;和3）制定一个组织框架，使其他工程机构，包括其他少数民族服务机构和白色占主导地位的机构，可以与CC合作使用，以增加黑人工程学生的入学率和毕业率。长期目标将是在未来的研究中测试这个框架的能力，以增加黑人和其他代表性不足的学生谁第一次在CCs.This奖项注册反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

While much of the emphasis on broadening participation in engineering has focused on students who attend PWI and mostly four-year institutions, Black engineering undergraduate enrollment and graduation rates have declined in recent years. At the same time, community colleges (CCs) as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have consistently graduated Black engineers at comparatively much higher rates. In addition, in previous studies, Black engineering undergraduates who initially enroll in CCs have reported positive experiences when transferring to HBCUs. This suggests that CC-to-HBCU pathways may be an overlooked opportunity for graduating more Black engineers. Building on this evidence, this CAREER project will assemble stakeholders from CCs and HBCUs to collaboratively develop a shared vision for maximizing the potential of these pathways. This project will: 1) Collect baseline data on the current state of trends, challenges, and opportunities in the CC-HBCU engineering infrastructure; 2) Document the steps that CCs and HBCUs undertake to move toward this shared vision; 3) Explore evolving processes as CCs and HBCUs develop and execute strategies to optimize these pathways. This project will result in a novel framework to help HBCUs, other minority-serving institutions, and PWIs partner with CCs to find innovative solutions for broadening participation in engineering. From an education perspective, the study will also produce modules developed from the framework that offer guidance on how four-year HBCUs and other four-year schools can better partner with CCs to improve Black engineering student pathways. In addition, the project will position faculty, staff, and administrators as leaders in improving these pathways by guiding them through workshops focused on collective impact and institutional change.Despite the advancement in understanding the CC to four-year engineering college pathway for students, few scholars have explored the potential of CCs and four-year HBCUs to work together to maximize Black engineering student persistence, transfer, and graduation rates. This CAREER project addresses this gap by centering CCs and HBCUs as leaders in educating future Black engineers, and will leverage the collective strengths that each type of institution individually brings to broadening participation efforts. Participants will include faculty, staff, and/or administrators representing the 15 engineering degree-granting HBCUs, as well as their feeder CCs. Using an action research approach that is grounded in collective impact and Kezar’s theoretical frameworks on institutional change, my research objectives will involve the collection and analysis of: 1) Descriptive statistics that establish the current state of CC to HBCU engineering pathways, including trends, challenges, and opportunities in this space; 2) Focus group and observational data that document how participants collaborate to articulate and refine a shared vision for maximizing the potential of these pathways; 3) Focus group and observational data that document CC-HBCU collaborative efforts during interventions at select sites during this project. The educational objectives of this project are to: 1) Inform participants of promising practices drawn from other studies that focus on engineering CCs, transfer, and retention; 2) Introduce collective impact to faculty, staff, and administrators as a tool for maximizing collaborations in the CC-HBCU context; and 3) Develop an organizational framework that other engineering institutions, including other minority-serving institutions and predominately White institutions, can use in collaboration with CCs to increase Black engineering student enrollment and graduation. The long-term goal will be to test the capacity of this framework in future studies to increase the number of Black and other underrepresented students who first enroll in CCs.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.