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1. Completion at the Expense of Access? The Relationship Between Performance-Funding Policies and Access to Public 4-Year Universities

   https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20927386  

   Gándara, Denisa; Rutherford, Amanda (June 2020, Educational Researcher)

   Efforts to improve college-completion rates have dominated higher education policy agendas. Performance-based funding (PBF) intends to improve college completion and links state funding for public colleges and universities to performance measures. One critique of PBF policies is that institutions might restrict student access. This study uses a difference-in-differences design and institution-level data from 2001 to 2014 to examine whether 4-year, public institutions become more selective or enroll fewer underrepresented students under PBF. Our findings, supported by various robustness checks, suggest that institutions subject to PBF enroll students with higher standardized test scores and enroll fewer first-generation students. PBF models tied to institutions’ base funding are more strongly associated with increased standardized test scores and enrollment of Pell students. 

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2. Toward Understanding Engineering Transfer Students' Transitions from Community Colleges to 4-year Institutions

   Morris, K; Duerr, J; Baghdadchi, S; Lin, B (June 2024, 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Community college students who transfer to 4-year institutions for engineering degrees are known to face significant adversity. Some common challenges they face include having minimal financial resources, a lack of engineering-oriented mentorship, and prolonged time to degree. Engineering transfer students are naturally diverse, ranging in age, experience, and motivation. Some have carved paths that include, for example, military service, starting a family of their own, or switching their career aims. The nuanced nature of the transfer student experience challenges higher education professionals to identify innovative ways for transfer students to meet their individualized goals. The engineering transfer students aim to transition from a previous institution to a 4-year baccalaureate institution, obtain an engineering undergraduate or graduate degree, and, finally, transition into an engineering-oriented career. These are major transitions. Schlossberg has identified factors that influence an individual’s ability to cope with their experienced transitions, namely, situation, self, support, and strategies. Through this lens, the transfer experiences and transfer shocks undergone by these ambitious students may be better understood and improved. A partnership between a 4-year institution, the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and two community colleges, Imperial Valley College (IVC) and Southwestern College (SWC), has been formed to better understand and support transfer engineering students as they make major transitions in, through, and out of their respective institutions. Through this partnership, a supportive program called EMPOWER has been devised to assemble cohorts of Pell-grant-eligible engineering transfer students so that their diverse and timely needs can be addressed. Scholarships and high-impact practices have been offered to these students. Program activities include cross-campus visits, faculty, and alumni mentorship, financially supported research opportunities, and cohort-supporting social opportunities. Through focus groups and survey questionnaires, the transition experience for these students is further investigated. In this paper, an outline is provided detailing the common challenges faced by engineering transfer students as they transition toward their careers, along with high-impact practices to support them. 

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3. An Exploration across Institution Types of Undergraduate Life Sciences Student Decisions to Stay in or Leave an Academic-Year Research Experience

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-04-0108  

   Gin, Logan E.; Clark, Carolyn E.; Elliott, Deanna B.; Roderick, Travis B.; Scott, Rachel A.; Arellano, Denisse; Ramirez, Diana; Vargas, Cindy; Velarde, Kimberly; Aeschliman, Allyson; et al (September 2021, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Spell, Rachelle (Ed.)

   Undergraduate research is one of the most valuable activities an undergraduate can engage in because of its benefits, and studies have shown that longer experiences are more beneficial. However, prior research has illuminated that undergraduates encounter challenges that may cause them to exit research prematurely. These studies have been almost exclusively conducted at research-intensive (R1) institutions, and it is unclear whether such challenges are generalizable to other institution types. To address this, we extended a study previously conducted at public R1 institutions. In the current study, we analyze data from 1262 students across 25 public R1s, 12 private R1s, 30 master’s-granting institutions, and 20 primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) to assess 1) to what extent institution type predicts students’ decisions to persist in undergraduate research and 2) what factors affect students’ decisions to either stay in or consider leaving their undergraduate research experiences (UREs) at different institution types. We found students at public R1s are more likely to leave their UREs compared with students at master’s-granting institutions and PUIs. However, there are few differences in why students enrolled at different institution types consider leaving or choose to stay in their UREs. This work highlights the importance of studying undergraduate research across institutions. 

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4. Broadening Participation of First-Generation College Students in Engineering – Backgrounds, Experiences and Strategies for Success

   Smith, Jessica M.; Verdin, Dina; Lucena, Juan (January 2019, Review & directory - American Society for Engineering Education)

   First-generation college students have entered the spotlight of educational research and reform. This shift in perspective has been covered in popular media, for example, in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s series entitled “Engine of Inequality,” which analyzes the challenges facing first-generation college students. However, engineering programs have been slower in responding to this new emphasis on first-generation college students, perhaps assuming that the lack of success of underrepresented groups is a result of deficiencies in the students’ background and preparation. Our research challenges this assumption by explicitly investigating the connections between first-generation engineering students’ success and their experiences within higher education, using a large-scale quantitative survey. Whereas the deficiency perspective focuses on what these students lack and how they need to change themselves in order to adapt to engineering undergraduate curricula, this study seeks to understand how first-generation college student’s funds of knowledge (i.e., family and cultural knowledge developed by growing up in poor and/or working households) can be leveraged in their engineering work and the factors that contribute to their success in engineering. Using ethnographic data of first-generation college students in engineering, from prior work, seven themes were created to capture aspects of students’ funds of knowledge. The themes were classified as follows: community networks, lived experiences, tinkering knowledge from home, tinkering knowledge from work, perspective taking, reading people, and translation among people. To date, the funds of knowledge themes have been validated, at the first level, using exploratory factor analysis with a broad range of engineering students from first-years to fourth-year of higher at two institutions, one in the Midwest and one in the mountain region. Convenience sampling was used to test and validate the funds of knowledge survey constructs. We are currently in our second data collection process. The large-scale survey will be administered to upperclassman and alumni at five participating institutions across the United States, i.e., in a large public polytechnic, small selective private polytechnic, large land grant, large sub-urban public, and large public universities. 

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5. Using Financial Support to Create a Learning Community Among Diverse Community College STEM Students

   Enriquez, A. G.; Lipe, C. B. (June 2012, ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   Although many California Community College students from underrepresented groups enter college with high levels of interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the majority of them drop out or change majors even before taking transfer-level courses due to a variety of reasons including financial difficulties, inadequate academic preparation, lack of family support, poor study skills, and inadequate or ineffective academic advising and mentoring. In 2009, Cañada College, a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution in the San Francisco Bay Area, received a National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) grant to develop a scholarship program for financially needy community college students intending to transfer to a four-year institution to pursue a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field. In collaboration with the College’s Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program – an academic, personal, and professional support structure has been designed and implemented to maximize the likelihood of success of these students. This support structure aims to create a learning community among the scholars through a combination of academic counseling and mentoring, personal enrichment and professional development opportunities, and strong academic support services. This paper describes how faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, student organizations, and partners in industry, four-year institutions, and professional organizations can be involved in creating an academic infrastructure that promotes academic excellence, leadership skills, and personal and professional growth among the diversity of financially needy STEM students in a community college. 

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