S-STEM Research Hub: Investigating How Low-Income Students Approach Non-Tuition Expenses

S-STEM 研究中心：调查低收入学生如何处理非学费费用

• 批准号: 2137824
• 负责人: Jamie Payton
• 金额: $ 300万
• 依托单位: Temple University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-04-01 至 2027-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2137824&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STEM; Research; Hub; Investigating; How

This S-STEM Research Hub 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 hub, housed in the Hope Center at Temple University, focuses on STEM affordability and will explore non-tuition barriers for low-income students at community colleges. STEM graduates from all backgrounds can propel a vibrant economy driven by innovation. There is evidence that positive outcomes have come from expanding scholarship opportunities and co-curricular activities. Despite this progress, stark societal inequities affecting students’ persistence, transfer, and degree completion rates are impeding successful entry into the STEM workforce. This is especially the case at the nation’s community colleges, where an estimated 1 in 2 graduates with degrees in a STEM field get their start. Many community college students face significant economic challenges, including growing evidence that many have inadequate and inequitable access to food, housing, and other essentials. Hub research focus on exploring how low-income students interact with various support mechanisms. These data will be used to develop and study interventions intended to connect low-income students with key supports, such as food or housing support.The hub will collaborate with 10 community colleges in five states to examine the challenges community college STEM students face in covering non-tuition expenses. Research will focus on STEM community college students' specific challenges when it comes to addressing non-tuition expenses. The project will examine practices and programs available to STEM community college students and explore how they are being used. It will also investigate how low-cost interventions can help connect STEM community college students to supports for addressing their non-tuition expenses. Each participating institution will administer the validated #RealCollege survey to all students and link the outcomes to student records. The instrument includes questions about the non-tuition expenses students’ face and how they seek to cover them. Other data sources include an analysis of state-level programs and focus groups with administrators, staff, and faculty. These data will be used to design and deploy approaches intended to connect low-income STEM students with resources, and to assess whether these supports help students reach greater levels of success. Specifically, the hub will conduct a randomized control study to examine the impacts of low-cost, light-touch “nudges” on students’ usage of non-tuition support programs. Project outcomes will make it easier for millions of low-income adults seeking STEM credentials to obtain those degrees and certificates, improving effectiveness and outcomes for the nation’s community colleges. Results and interventions will be disseminated through seminars, presentations, journal publications and via the Hope Center website and social media accounts. This hub 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.

该 S-STEM 研究中心将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业，满足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。天普大学希望中心重点关注 STEM 的负担能力，并将探讨社区学院低收入学生的非学费障碍可以推动创新驱动的充满活力的经济。有证据表明，扩张已经带来了积极成果。奖学金机会尽管取得了这些进展，但严重的社会不平等影响了学生的坚持、转学和学位完成率，阻碍了他们成功进入 STEM 劳动力市场，估计有二分之一的学生成功进入 STEM 劳动力市场。许多社区学院的毕业生都面临着巨大的经济挑战，包括越来越多的证据表明，许多社区学院的学生无法充分且不平等地获得食物、住房和其他必需品。中心的研究重点是探索低收入学生如何互动。与各种这些数据将用于制定和研究干预措施，旨在为低收入学生提供食品或住房支持等关键支持。该中心将与五个州的 10 所社区大学合作，研究大学生 STEM 学生面临的社区挑战。研究将重点关注 STEM 社区学院学生在解决非学费问题时面临的具体挑战，该项目将研究 STEM 社区学院学生可以使用的做法和计划，并探讨它们的使用方式。它还将调查低成本干预措施如何提供帮助将 STEM 社区学院的学生与解决非学费费用的支持联系起来。每个参与机构都将向所有学生进行经过验证的 #RealCollege 调查，并将结果与​​学生记录联系起来。该工具包括有关学生面临的非学费费用的问题。其他数据源包括对州级项目以及由管理人员、工作人员和教师组成的焦点小组的分析，这些数据将用于设计和部署旨在将低收入 STEM 学生与资源联系起来的方法，并评估这些支持是否有助于学生达到具体来说，该中心将进行一项随机对照研究，以检验低成本、轻量级的“助推”对学生使用非学费支持计划的影响。项目成果将使数以百万计的人更容易获得成功。寻求获得这些学位和证书的 STEM 证书的低收入成年人，将通过研讨会、演讲、期刊出版物以及希望中心网站和社交媒体帐户传播结果和干预措施。资助者NSF 的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金计划旨在增加获得 STEM 领域学位的低收入学术才华学生的数量，以及改善未来 STEM 工作者的教育。产生有关低收入学生的学业成功、保留、转学、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。