Pathway to STEM Success: Improving Access and Success and Closing Equity Gaps in College-level Math in a State Community College System

该项目旨在通过提高社区学院学生在入门数学课程中的成功率来服务于国家利益，并为支持这一成功的有效实践的知识库作出贡献。认识到当前发展性教育方法在培养学生在数学方面取得成功的局限性，来自加州大学欧文分校、弗吉尼亚社区学院系统(VCCS)和特拉华大学的研究与实践伙伴关系(RPP)研究与实践伙伴关系(RPP)团队计划调查VCCS倡议，该倡议旨在改革对来自高中的学生的支持，这些高中没有为他们的大学做好充分的准备。虽然目前的改革侧重于发展教育的一个要素，但正在研究的RPP努力正在实施一种更全面的方法，以支持这些学生通过入门数学取得进步。VCCS倡议包括三个部分，确定需要支持的学生，通过共同必修的课程同时提供学术支持，以及提供积极的建议和指导。三项研究将检验这一努力的效果：(1)改革实施研究，以记录改革如何在每个机构实施以及遇到的挑战；(2)改革影响研究，以考察改革对学生入学数学成绩以及STEM下游路径成功和远程结果(包括学位获得和劳动力市场表现)的影响；以及(3)数学教学研究，以探索提供必要支持和教学方法的具体方式是否与更好的学生成绩和缩小入学数学中的种族差距有关。RPP还计划审查大学在实施改革时如何应对持续的COVID大流行带来的挑战，这些变化是否会持续到可预见的未来，以及哪些教学实践在通过课程交付形式促进数学成功方面有效。混合方法研究设计与项目目标、研究方法和分析很好地保持一致。RPP团队将通过调查、有针对性的访谈和行政数据收集数据，并计划应用一个全面的发展教育框架来分析和解释这些数据。结果将被用来为VCCS的直接招生改革提供信息，并应该产生知识，其他机构可以利用这些知识来指导它们努力提高学生的成功，特别是在入学和完成入门数学课程带来挑战的情况下。NSF关于在两年制高等教育机构推进本科STEM教育的创新和影响的项目描述支持在两年制大学推进STEM教育倡议的项目。该课程描述促进了两年制大学本科生STEM教育的创新和循证实践。该项目也得到了NSF IUSE-HSI项目的支持，该项目的目标是提高本科生STEM教育的质量，并提高攻读STEM专科或学士学位的学生的招生、留住和毕业率。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 aims to serve the national interest by increasing the success rates of community college students in gateway mathematics courses and contributing to the knowledge base on effective practices which support that success. Recognizing the limitations of current developmental education approaches to fostering student success in mathematics, the research and practice partnership (RPP) team of researchers and practitioners from the University of California – Irvine, the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), and the University of Delaware plan to investigate a VCCS initiative designed to reform the support to students who come from high schools that did not prepare them adequately for college. While current reforms focus on one element of developmental education, the RPP effort under study is implementing a more comprehensive approach to support these students as they progress through gateway mathematics. The VCCS initiative includes three components, identifying students who need support, providing concurrent academic support through co-requisite coursework, and providing proactive advising and coaching. Three studies will examine the effects of this effort: (1) a Reform Implementation Study to document how the reform is implemented at each institution and challenges encountered; (2) a Reform Impact Study to examine the impact of the reform on student gateway math outcomes, as well as downstream STEM pathway success and distal outcomes including degree attainment and labor market performance; and (3) a Math Instruction Study to explore whether specific ways of delivering the co-requisite support and teaching approaches are associated with better student outcomes and smaller racial gaps in gateway mathematics. The RPP also plans to examine how colleges responded to challenges presented by the ongoing COVID pandemic when implementing the reform, whether these changes will persist into the foreseeable future, and what teaching practices are effective in promoting math success by course delivery format. The mixed methods research design is well aligned with project goals, research methodologies, and analyses. The RPP team will collect data through surveys, targeted interviews, and administrative data ans plans to apply a comprehensive developmental education framework to analyze and interpret the data. The results will be used to inform the Direct Enrollment Reform at VCCS and should generate knowledge that other institutions may use to inform their efforts to improve student success, particularly when entry into and completion of gateway mathematics courses pose challenges. The NSF program description on Advancing Innovation and Impact in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two-year Institutions of Higher Education supports projects that advance STEM education initiatives at two-year colleges. The program description promotes innovative and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. This project is also supported b the NSF IUSE-HSI program, which has the goals of enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education, and increasing the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM.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.