HSI Institutional Transformation Project: Building Community Success through Institutionalized and Culturally Responsive Support Systems

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这个Track 3项目旨在为教授和支持STEM课程的教师、助教和同伴导师/导师提供专业发展机会，从而提高学生的成绩和毅力。通过这一专业发展，STEM教学社区（即教师、助教和同伴导师/导师）将获得知识和技能，在他们的学习空间中使用基于证据和文化参与的实践。其目标是更好地服务并最终改善那些经历最不公平的学生的学业成果（即，课程减员、成绩、坚持）。有意提高多样化和有才华，但服务不足的学生群体的成功需要对教学社区的承诺，在他们学术生涯的早期和关键时刻教授和支持学生。这个教学社区包括教师（大部分是非终身教职）、助教和导师/导师，他们在低级别、入门级、高需求、先决条件和/或较大的课程中领导或协助教学。虽然这个教学团体在学生的学术生涯早期有很大的影响，但他们在大学校园里通常得到的支持、指导和资助较少。因此，许多人缺乏时间、精力和资源来从事专业发展。这种差异的一个结果是，这一群体在研究文献中受到的关注也较少。因此，围绕这个教学社区的影响和发展的知识差距加剧了他们所服务的学生的不平等。该项目的预期成果包括高质量的教学和具有文化吸引力的专业发展，以及改善的学术成果。项目提出的问题是，为弱势STEM教学群体（如教师、助教和导师/导师）提供充足的资金、有意的支持和高质量的循证和文化参与实践培训，能否提高大学在目标课程中的成功成果？该项目建议通过为STEM教学社区提供有竞争力的津贴和奖学金来回答这个问题，以参与三个层次的循证、文化参与的专业发展。该项目采用交叉性框架，为专业开发设计、数据收集和数据分析提供信息。一个递归的，以行动为导向的，混合方法的研究重点将基于学术成果，课堂观察，文化参与调查，以及定性的情境化调查，为项目和学生的持续改进和成功。这个项目解决了一个由学术成功数据确定的特定需求，它承诺对我们机构的公平学生成功产生直接和直接的影响。HSI计划旨在加强HSI的本科STEM教育和能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 3 project aims to provide instructors, teaching assistants, and peer tutors/mentors who teach and support STEM courses with professional development opportunities that will improve student grades and persistence. Through this professional development, the STEM instructional community (i.e., instructors, teaching assistants, and peer tutors/mentors) will gain the knowledge and skills to use evidence-based and culturally engaging practices in their learning spaces. The objective is to better serve and, ultimately, improve academic outcomes (i.e., course drops, grades, persistence) for students that experience the most academic inequities. Intentionally improving success for a diverse and talented, yet underserved, student population requires a commitment to the instructional community that teaches and supports students during early and pivotal moments in their academic careers. This instructional community includes instructors (largely non-tenure track), teaching assistants, and tutors/mentors that lead or assist instruction in lower-division, gateway, high needs, pre-requisite, and/or larger courses. While this instructional community has a large impact early on in students’ academic careers, they typically receive less support, guidance, and funding on college campuses. As such, many lack the time, energy, and resources to engage in professional development. A product of this discrepancy is that this population also receives less attention in the research literature. As a result, knowledge gaps surrounding the impact and development of this instructional community compound inequity in the students they serve. The expected outcomes for this project include quality instructional and culturally engaging professional development and improved academic outcomes.The question project proposes to answer is, will adequate funding, intentional support, and quality training in evidence-based and culturally engaging practices for the less privileged STEM instructional community (e.g., instructors, teaching assistants, and tutors/mentors) improve college success outcomes in the targeted courses? The project proposes to answer this question by offering competitive stipends and scholarships for the STEM instructional community to engage with three tiers of evidence-based, culturally engaging professional development. The project uses an intersectionality framework to inform professional development design, data collection, and data analysis. A recursive, action-oriented, mixed-method research emphasis will be employed based on academic outcomes, classroom observations, cultural engagement surveys, and qualitative contextualized inquiry for the continual improvement and success of the program and students. This project tackles a specific need identifiable by academic success data, one which promises to both have an immediate and direct impact on equitable student success at our institution. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.