Minority Serving Institutions America's Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce (2019) / Chapter Skim
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5 Promising Strategies That Contribute to STEM Student Success
5 Promising Strategies That Contribute to STEM Student Success
Pages 117-172
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• Exposure to undergraduate research experiences remains a predictor of successful outcomes for students of color in STEM, including the pursuit of postgraduate STEM education and careers.
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What are examples of model programs on Minority Serving Institution (MSI) campuses that have demonstrated strong evidence of success in producing quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
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As detailed in this chapter, we were able to reach consensus on a number of key interventions and conditions that we judged beneficial to STEM students of color at MSIs when designed and offered with intentionality, that is, tailored to recognize and address student strengths and challenges across academic, social, and financial dimensions. BOX 5-1 Definition of Student Success in STEM From our research efforts, the committee identified two commonly used cat egories of success: • Academic success: Interpreted as consistently high or measurable improve ments in individual grades, grade point average, or increases in course pass rates over a specific period of time, and other academically defined demon strations of success.
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These sources included, but were not limited to, • Results from a commissioned literature search, conducted by the study's consultants at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Minority Serving Institutions, • Findings resulting from committee discussions informed by nine MSI site visits, • Expert testimony and presentations of data and information at two open session meetings, and • Committee members' own research expertise and experiences working with and on MSI campuses.
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, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions were represented in this effort. Commit 1 Nominations were accepted from MSI advocacy and association groups, including the United Negro College Fund, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, and University of Pennsylvania's Center for Minority Serving Institutions.
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These rich and diverse sources notwithstanding, we acknowledge the limitations of the research evidence on current strategies to promote STEM student success, especially at MSIs. Some resources provided stronger, more empirically based evidence than others.
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However, what is novel about the committee's task is the opportunity to examine these efforts through the lens of their potential impact on the nation's future STEM workforce, in an MSI context. A common theme that emerged from the committee's investigations and subsequent deliberations on these efforts is what the committee has described as intentionality.
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, we consider it especially vital that MSIs -- and other stakeholders in the MSI education system, including employers, federal and state governments, and private foundations -- invest their resources in classroom, laboratory, student support services, and strategies that embody intentionality. To further explore how intentionality manifests itself to support students of color at MSIs, the committee identified seven core strategies, described below with illustrative examples.
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STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS Drawing on the concept of intentionality, and review of the research and other inputs, the committee identified seven core strategies or interventions that appear the most promising for cultivating and supporting the success of MSI students in STEM fields, with an emphasis on undergraduate students: • Dynamic, multilevel, mission-driven leadership; • Institutional responsiveness to student needs; • Campus climates that support a sense of belonging for students; • Student-centered academic and social supports; • Effective mentorship and sponsorship; • Undergraduate research experiences; and • Mutually beneficial public- and private-sector partnerships. Many of these strategies are not novel to the MSI community; however, with a focus on intentionality, each of these practices can be replicated (or, as appropriate, adapted)
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As such, the committee refers to these multisite and single-site programs as promising programs to support MSI students. In the future, assessment and evaluation data can be used to modify the programs and their institutional support structures to enable them to thrive, extend their reach to additional students, and be replicated or adapted elsewhere.
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. MSI STEM faculty and staff are often tasked with or take it upon themselves to create, manage, and advocate for important institutional initiatives, in addition to their teaching loads, research, and administrative demands.
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, described in Box 5-3, developed a program to support the advancement of faculty to cultivate new leaders in STEM fields and provide examples of success to which students can aspire. Recognizing a need for Alaska Native faculty development and growth, Herb Schroeder, ANSEP founder and vice provost, established a "Grow Your Own Ph.D." component of the program, providing opportunities to send faculty to out-of-state institutions to earn doctoral degrees.
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In comparison, according to the evaluation, the mean income of American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander college graduates 1 year after graduation across all STEM fields was around $43,000. In sum, ANSEP has shown positive outcomes on STEM degree completion and postgraduate earnings once graduates are in the STEM workforce.
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, is how an institution uses the information as part of a larger strategy to support students once they have been "flagged." At Salish Kootenai College, the committee learned that the Early Alert system is located within a broader Department of Student Success to serve as the link between student services and college faculty. Other notable examples of support uncovered during the committee's site visits include the following: • Alternative staff work schedules to assist students who need flexible ac cess to certain supports (for example, counseling offices open beyond the typical Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 schedule)
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These findings suggest that ATD supports the success of underrepresented community college students. SOURCE: Gallup Inc.
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. While most of these programs and interventions are not specific to STEM majors, nor should they be, they offer the types of institutional support that STEM students need in order to thrive in their courses and laboratories.
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At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, community-engaged research projects and programs, such as the NSF-funded Stimulating Hispanic Participation in the Geosciences program, have an embedded service learning component that allows for students and student organizations to give back to the community, in addition to training and workforce development goals. Another crucial aspect of establishing and maintaining a supportive climate is building an equity-oriented culture that promotes equitable educational engagement, participation, and success (Dowd and Bensimon 2015; Museus and
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Project LEARN (Leading & Energizing African American Students to Research and Knowledge) at West Los Angeles College was established in 2011 to improve the educational outcomes of African American males.
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are resources that MSIs use to create communities of practice and build more inclusive college campuses.6 For example, NITE uses tools, such as the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments survey, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how to best foster campus environments that value diversity, equity, and inclusion.7 Student-Centered Academic and Social Support "It is worth it to be the absolute best that we can be for our students." –Faculty Member at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Deficiencies in academic preparation are a well-studied barrier to the success of students of color in STEM. As reported in the 2015 National Assessment of Education Progress study, African American, Hispanic, and American Indian/ Alaska Native 12th-grade students consistently score lower than their White counterparts on mathematics and science assessments8 (Nation's Report Card 2018a,b)
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LSAMP was initially created to answer a charge from Congress to "undertake or sup port a comprehensive science and engineering education program to increase the participation of minorities in science and engineering."b Its primary objective is to increase the quality and quantity of students of color who earn bachelor's degrees in STEM fields and who pursue STEM-related graduate studies in order to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the STEM workforce. LSAMP has funded access to summer bridge programs, undergraduate research, opportunities to attend and present at scientific conferences, tutoring and peer study groups, and scientific internships (Merriweather et al.
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program, of whom 53 had received an advanced degree as of 2018 (personal communication with administrators at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) .c In addition to its impact on its students, LSAMP has had a positive impact on participating institutions. Data compiled by The Urban Institute suggest that par ticipation enabled institutions to expand their capabilities to develop and support undergraduate STEM talent.
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The Center for Academic Success and Achievement Academy Summer Bridge Program at Morgan State University, for example, is designed to ease the transition from high school to college for students whose academic profile and performance suggest the need for early intervention to bolster their potential for success in college. Another program at Morgan State University, the PreFreshman Accelerated Curriculum in Engineering (PACE)
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. Indeed, diversification of and improvements to teaching methods can be employed to help retain students of color in STEM fields because "uninspiring introductory courses" are often cited as a factor for those students who switch majors (PCAST 2012)
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STEM Faculty Institute. Funded by Educate Texas' Texas Regional STEM Degree Accelerator program, the RGV STEM Faculty Institute provides professional development opportunities for faculty to learn innovative, culturally mindful instructional strategies to better support the success of their students.
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. In conjunction with a culture of faculty-student mentorship, faculty diversity can have a significant impact on STEM student success at MSIs (and indeed all institutions)
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The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Student Mentoring and Research Training (SMART) program provides graduate students the opportunity to serve as mentors to undergraduate students.
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Evidence suggests that the two most effective components of undergraduate research experiences are (1) deep immersion into the culture of laboratory research that supports critical-thinking and communication skill enhancement, laboratory technical skill development, co-authoring publication(s)
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These changes were linked to demographics and show the impact of an undergraduate research opportunity. While White and Asian students were more likely to already have postgraduate expectations at the onset of college, Black and Hispanic students were more likely to report changes in expectations toward increasing interest in postgraduate STEM education as a result of research participation.
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In addition to BUILD and LSAMP, a number of research programs are available to MSIs.13 However, they all require that MSIs have a sufficient infrastructure to implement the programs and compete effectively for scarce federal 13 These programs include, but are not limited to: Maximizing Access to Research Careers Program Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research, Minority Biomedical Research Support Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program, Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement.
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Other federally funded research programs include the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. Department of Education's TRIO Programs and the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program.
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These programs are arguably necessary, but many MSIs are insufficiently resourced, in terms of available financial support and laboratory infrastructure, to offer high-quality research experiences to students. This compounds the disadvantages to STEM students of color at MSIs, by excluding them from the research training needed to succeed in graduate school or the workforce.
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The examples of partnerships highlighted below demonstrate the promise of mutual benefit. In particular, they highlight the opportunity for MSI students to have access to stronger, more rigorous, and more relevant research experiences, noted in the previous section as an important component for STEM success.
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To explore these new avenues for funding and educational opportunities for STEM students, an institutional culture change needs to occur. Building new infrastructure, prioritizing leadership training and professional development for faculty and staff, and embracing modern ways of thinking all must happen for successful implementation of these partnerships.
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Cooperative Agreement Used for collaborative research projects that are exploratory in nature Collaborative Research/ A special form of cooperative agreement that Technology Alliance emphasizes multidisciplinary collaboration (CRA/CTA) and often combines government, industry, and university partners Resource-Use Commercial Test Allows partners to test materials, equipment, Agreements Agreement models, or software using government laboratory equipment Test Service Agreement Allows partners to purchase testing services for materials, equipment, models, or software from government laboratories User Facilities Agreement Enables partners to conduct research experiments on unique government laboratory equipment and facilities.
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17 See https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/programs/extramural/coe/rcmi.html, accessed October 2018.
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, herein lies an opportunity to foster MSI participation in federal programs and build research capacity in measurable ways. The use of incentives in evaluation criteria and subcontracting goals, and procurement language that 18 See https://osbp.nasa.gov/hbcu-mi/index.html, accessed October 2018.
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emphasizes inclusion, could lead to increased opportunities for MSIs to secure federal grants and contracts, as prime or subrecipients. In addition to the language in BAAs, over the course of the committee's site visits, a number of other barriers to establishing MSI and federal research partnerships were revealed.
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However, as discussed in Chapter 4, to support the advancement and growth of MSI-specific public-private partnerships, it is important to obtain a clear profile on the current federally funded initiatives at MSIs and their return on investment for the institutions, students, and STEM workforce. Efforts to enhance the clarity, transparency, and accountability for all STEM-focused federal appropriations available to MSIs could inform future partnership initiatives and help to determine which are most needed, underfunded, or unexplored.
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, co-chairs of the Bipartisan Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Caucus, helped to launch a HBCU Partnership Challenge to the private sector.
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, which supports STEM students' transition from community college to four-year institutions.30 One of 26 For more information, see http://www.nsbe.org/NGFIPP/home/about-the-program.aspx, accessed September 2018. 27 For more information, see http://www.northropgrumman.com/suppliers/Pages/GSDP.aspx, ac cessed October 2018.
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Also in the 2016-2017 academic year, MESA transfer students demonstrated a 93 percent six-year completion rate, as compared to a 53 percent six-year completion rate for non-MESA SRJC students and a 48 percent six-year completion rate for all California community college students. Demonstrating similar metrics of success, during the committee's site visit, Mission College reported a 100 percent transfer success rate for MESA participants from fall 2015 through fall 2017.
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For example, the Lumina Foundation recently sponsored a project titled "Building Student Success Knowledge Infrastructures Collaboratively" led by a partnership between Prairie View 32 For more information, see https://www.utrgv.edu/tmac/services/more-services/index.htm, ac cessed October 2018. 33 For more information, see https://www.southtexascollege.edu/grants/trsda/, accessed October 2018.
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Small Business Innovation Research Awards The SBIR program has four primary objectives: (1) stimulate technical innova tion, (2)
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is an example of a membership organization that represents colleges and universities committed to improving access to and the quality of postsecondary educational opportunities for Hispanic students.37 HACU serves as an advocate for HSIs and their stakeholders on regional-, state-, and federal-level issues, conducts public policy analyses and research on matters that impact higher educational success for Hispanic students, hosts technical assistance workshops on available federal grant and capacity-building opportunities, and offers numerous internships, scholarships, college support programs, and career development opportunities for HSI students. The American Indian College Fund (AICF)
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Administrators from several of the committee's site visits spoke about building strategic relationships with organizations that see the value of diversifying the future workforce and who are launching initiatives to help achieve this goal, including the American Indian Policy Institute, the Carnegie Foundation, the United Negro College Fund, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, to name a few. CHAPTER SUMMARY The committee commissioned a literature search, conducted site visits, and sought other input to determine evidence-based strategies that support STEM students of color at MSIs.
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2018. "Motivations and paths to becoming faculty at Minority Serving Institutions." Education Sciences 8 (1)
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2016. "Psychosociocultural structural model of college success among Latina/o students in Hispanic-Serving Institutions." Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 9 (4)
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2016. "Factors influencing student gains from undergraduate research ex periences at a Hispanic-Serving Institution." CBE Life Sciences Education 15 (3)
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Philadelphia, PA: Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Gasman, Marybeth, and Thai-Huy Nguyen.
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2007. "Becoming a scientist: The role of undergraduate research in students' cognitive, personal, and professional development." Sci ence Education 91 (1)
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2007. "Undergraduate research experiences support science career decisions and active learning." CBE Life Sciences Education 6 (4)
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2017b. Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities.
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Center for Minority Serving Institutions, University of ennsylvania. Available at: https://cmsi.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/MSI_AIANrprt_ P R3.pdf.
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2016. "Insights into implementing research collaborations between research-intensive universities and minority serving institutions." Natural Sciences Education 45 (1)
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2018. "Transforming STEM education through collaborative leadership at Historically Black Colleges and Universities." CBE -- Life Sciences Education 17 (3)
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