Assuring Students Success in Engineering Technology Programs

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在韦恩州立大学（WSU），一个城市，公共研究型大学在底特律，密歇根州的保留和毕业证明经济需要。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为48名正在攻读工程技术（ET）课程学士学位的独特本科生提供奖学金。WSU的ET课程仅限高年级，旨在为社区学院毕业生提供一条在2年内获得学士学位的途径。这些非传统的学生在完成学位时面临着重大的财务和个人挑战。该项目将为成绩优异的低收入学生提供财政支持，实施基于证据的主动学习技术，并提供各种专业和学术支持服务，以加强学生的工程身份和毕业后进入STEM劳动力或研究生院的承诺。该项目还将通过以下方式影响WSU的所有ET学生：a）促进在该机构的所有学习课程中利用基于证据的主动学习技术，B）提高学生保留率和毕业率，同时减少获得学位的时间，以及c）为当地行业提供合格的技术劳动力。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。最近的一项全国性研究表明，获得四年制学士学位的转学生的六年毕业率仅为42%左右，低收入家庭的学生完成学位的可能性更小。该项目基于旨在了解社会组织与个人行为之间联系的认同理论，假设早期参与，和持续的支持在培养工程师身份，保留和ET转移学生的持久性方面发挥着关键作用，从而提高他们的学术和专业成果。该项目将告知教师，工程教育界和管理人员工程技术专业的学生如何看待他们对工程职业的认同，以及工程技术专业的转学生的“早期参与”和“持续支持”如何影响他们对工程专业的承诺和认同。该项目成功完成后，预计将取得三项成果。首先是提高第一至第二年的整体保留率，平均学位时间和所有ET转学生的平均4年毕业率。第二，至少90%的参与学生在毕业后6个月内进入STEM劳动力或研究生学习。第三是帮助满足行业对技术合格毕业生的需求。外部评价员将使用形成性和总结性评估的结果进行过程和结果评价。该项目的调查结果将通过同行审查的出版物、会议介绍和讲习班、地区社区学院讲习班和研讨会传播。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 at Wayne State University (WSU), an urban, public research university in Detroit, Michigan. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 48 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Technology (ET) programs. WSU’s ET programs are upper division only, designed to provide a pathway for community college graduates to earn a BS degree in 2 years. These non-traditional students face significant financial and personal challenges in completing their degrees. This project will provide high-achieving low-income students with financial support, implement evidence-based active learning techniques, as well as offer various professional and academic support services to strengthen students’ engineering identity and commitment to enter the STEM workforce or graduate school upon graduation. The project will also impact all ET students at WSU by a) promoting utilization of evidence-based active learning techniques in all programs of study at the institution, b) increasing student retention and graduation rates, while reducing time-to-degree, and c) providing a qualified technical workforce for local industry. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. A recent national study indicated that the six-year graduation rate of transfer students who earned a 4-year baccalaureate degree was only around 42% and the likelihood of degree completion for low-income students is even less. Based on identity theory that seeks to understand the links between social organization and individual behavior, this project hypothesizes that early engagement, and continuous support play a key role in fostering engineering identity, retention, and persistence of ET transfer students, thus improving their academic and professional outcomes. The project will inform faculty, the engineering education community, and administrators about how engineering technology students perceive their identification with engineering careers and how “early engagement” and “continued support” of transfer students in engineering technology impact their commitment to and identification with the engineering profession. Upon the successful completion of this project, three outcomes are expected. First is to improve overall 1st-to-2nd year retention rates, the average time-to-degree, and the average 4-year graduation rates of all ET transfer students. Second is to have at least 90% of participating students enter the STEM workforce or graduate studies within 6 months of graduation. And third is to help meet industry demand for technologically competent graduates. An external evaluator will perform process and outcome evaluation using results from formative and summative assessments. The findings of this project will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and workshops, workshops for area community colleges, and seminars. 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.