Developing and Sharing Research on Low-Income Community College Student Decision-Making and Pathways in STEM

该项目将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，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。本项目将对低收入学生在STEM道路上留下来并取得成功的决策过程以及社区大学经验在这一过程中的重要性进行研究。这个项目将建立一个由社区大学STEM教员和管理人员组成的广泛网络，他们可以向研究人员提供信息，并从研究中获得信息。它还将寻求在社区大学STEM教职员工和管理人员中建立进行研究的能力。该项目的意义在于，作为一种全国性的资源，帮助了解低收入家庭的学生如何做出决定，以及大学如何更好地支持他们。该项目的智力价值在于它有助于从决策的角度理解低收入STEM学生的发展道路。在更广泛的影响中，这项研究立即适用于改善社区大学STEM项目，以促进低收入学生的学业和职业成功。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。这项研究将调查与低收入社区大学生STEM持久度、成就、转学和职业生涯相关的路径和决策过程。该项目的主要贡献是建立关于低收入学生决定留在STEM并取得成功的知识库，以及社区学院S-STEM项目、战略和支持如何为这一过程做出贡献。了解学生发展道路上的关键决策点及其受到的一系列复杂影响，对于提高STEM教育的公平性至关重要。认识到更广泛的社会背景对于了解低收入个人经历的重要性，这项研究将利用社会学的视角来研究以下问题：S-STEM项目的要素(即招生和选拔过程、S-STEM奖学金以及S-STEM的课程和联合课程支持)如何影响学生继续或离开STEM途径的决策？包括S-STEM在内的院校背景(即政策、实践、资源和机会)如何影响学生继续或离开STEM的决定？学生的属性(例如，对经济、社会和文化资源的参与和使用)如何影响坚持或离开STEM路径的决定？该项目由三套相互关联的活动组成。首先，该项目将参与并建立一个网络，通过领导小组、网络建设、提案准备研讨会、研究实践诊所和广泛传播，在S-STEM社区内外确定研究需求和分享研究成果。其次，该项目将通过对社区大学S-STEM项目的结构化研究来产生证据和工具，包括受赠人调查、案例研究、系统评估和学生调查。第三，该项目将通过研究伙伴关系和研究奖学金，在S-STEM社区内和社区学院之间扩大研究和建设研究能力。所有项目活动都将促进以社区学院实践为基础的合作研究方法，旨在更广泛地向S-STEM社区和社区学院提供信息。该项目的指导将由社区学院从业者和社区学院STEM学生领导小组以及外部评估提供。该项目的发现将通过该项目的网络以及一系列相关的学科和社区大学成员协会广泛传播。该项目还将出版包括工作文件、问题简报、学术出版物、战略简报和工具包在内的出版物。该项目由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 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. This project will conduct research on decision-making processes of low-income students related to staying on and succeeding in STEM pathways and the importance of community colleges experiences in this process. This project will create a broad network of community college STEM faculty members and administrators who can inform and be informed by the research. It will also seek to build capacity among community college STEM faculty members and administrators to perform research. The significance of the project is in serving as a national resource to help understand how low-income students make decisions and how colleges can better support them. The intellectual merit of the project is its contribution to understanding low-income STEM student pathways through the lens of decision making. Among the broader impacts is the immediate applicability of the research to improve community college STEM programs to promote the academic and professional success of low-income students. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The research will investigate pathways and decision-making processes relative to STEM persistence, attainment, transfer, and careers of low-income community college students. The primary contribution of the project is to the knowledge base regarding decisions of low-income students to remain and succeed on STEM pathways and how community college S-STEM programs, strategies, and supports may contribute to this process. Understanding the pivotal decision points on student pathways and the complex array of influences on them is essential to making STEM education more equitable. Recognizing the importance of the broader social context in understanding the experiences of low-income individuals, the research will draw on sociological perspectives to examine the following questions: How do elements of the S-STEM program (i.e., recruitment and selection processes, the S-STEM scholarship, and S-STEM curricular and co-curricular supports) influence student decision-making to continue or leave a STEM pathway? How do institutional contexts, including and beyond S-STEM (i.e., policies, practices, resources, and opportunities), influence students’ decisions to remain on or depart from a STEM pathway? How do student attributes (i.e., engagement and use of economic, social, and cultural resources) influence decisions to persist on or leave a STEM pathway? The project is composed of three sets of interconnected activities. First, the project will engage and build a network for identifying research needs and sharing research within and beyond the S-STEM community through leadership groups, network building, proposal-preparation workshops, research-to-practice clinics, and broad dissemination. Second, the project will generate evidence and tools through structured research on community college S-STEM programs, including a grantee survey, case studies, a systematic review, and a student survey. Third, the project will expand research and build research capacity within the S-STEM community and among community colleges in general through research partnerships and research fellowships. All project activities will promote a collaborative approach to research that is grounded in community college practice and intended to inform the S-STEM community and community colleges more broadly. Guidance for the project will be provided by leadership groups of community college practitioners and community college STEM students, as well as by an external evaluation. The findings from the project will be disseminated widely through the project’s network, as well as an array of related disciplinary and community college membership associations. The project will also yield publications including working papers, issue briefs, academic publications, strategy briefs, and toolkits. 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.