CAREER: Postsecondary STEM Educational Trajectories of Formerly Incarcerated Persons

教师早期职业发展（CAREER）计划是国家科学基金会范围内的活动，提供奖励，以支持早期职业教师谁有潜力作为研究和教育的学术榜样，领导他们的部门或组织的使命的进步，并建立一个基础，在整合教育和研究的领导终身。这个职业项目探讨了有定罪历史的人的中学后轨迹，以调查在监狱中获得大学课程是否与中学后的坚持和完成证书或学位有关。这项研究是及时的，因为国家，州和地方政策制定者对向被监禁或以前被监禁的人和那些有定罪历史的人提供高等教育的兴趣越来越大。2014年，加州通过了SB 1391法案，该法案允许在监狱和校园内为大学课程提供同等的学生资助。这项CAREER研究使用了2012年至2021年期间加州的行政数据和回归分析，以衡量加州以前被监禁的人在监禁期间参加社区大学课程的重新入学，持久性和完成社区大学证书或学位的可能性。鉴于立法和挑战有关大学入学和成功的许多学生从工人阶级背景和学生的颜色，研究结果预计将告知政策，方法来扩大中学后教育，和知识的身体教育的机会和成功的个人信念的历史。大学学位是美国工人阶级家庭成员获得经济流动性的途径。获得科学、技术、工程、数学（STEM）学位的学生的教育财政回报最高。这个职业生涯项目还探讨了有定罪历史的人获得的学位类型，在STEM领域获得的学位数量，以及获得这些学位的前监禁人员的特征。考虑到结构性环境对学习的重要性，也正在审查与有犯罪史的学生的较高坚持率和完成率相关的体制条件。该项目由STEM教育核心研究理事会（Directorate for STEM Education Core Research，ECR）项目资助，旨在支持推动STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究、扩大STEM参与度和STEM劳动力发展的工作。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。

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This CAREER project explores the postsecondary trajectories of persons with conviction histories to investigate whether access to college courses while in prison is associated with postsecondary persistence and completion of a certificate or degree. The research is timely, given increased interest by national, state, and local policymakers in providing access to higher education to incarcerated or formerly incarcerated, persons and those who have conviction histories. In 2014, California passed SB 1391, a law allowing for equal per-student funding of college courses in prison and on campus. This CAREER research uses administrative data from California between 2012 and 2021 and regression analysis to measure the likelihood of re-enrollment, persistence, and completion of a community college certificate or degree for formerly incarcerated persons in California who took community college courses while incarcerated. Given the legislation and challenges concerning college access and success for many students from working-class backgrounds and students of color, study findings are expected to inform policy, approaches to expanding postsecondary education, and the body of knowledge on educational access and success for individuals with conviction histories. A college degree serves as a pathway to economic mobility for persons from working-class families in the United States. Fiscal returns to education are highest for those students earning science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) degrees. This CAREER project also explores the types of degrees earned by persons with conviction histories, the number of degrees that are earned in STEM fields, and the characteristics of formerly incarcerated persons who earn these degrees. Given the importance of the structural context for learning, institutional conditions associated with higher rates of persistence and completion for students with conviction histories are also being examined. This project is funded by the Directorate for STEM Education Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.