Bridging the Gap: Enhancing AIMS2 for Student Success

Project Abstract: Bridging the Gap: Enhancing AIMS2 for Student Success This collaborative project is led by the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), in partnership with five community colleges: Glendale Community College (GCC), College of the Canyons (COC), Pierce College, Moorpark College, and LA Mission College (LAMC). It builds on the highly successful and nationally recognized USDE supported AIMS2 program in the college that has served approximately 200 students during the past five years. However, challenges remain in improving overall graduation rates for all Hispanic and low income students given their increasing enrollments across the college?s programs. Our proposed community college partners are among the top ten institutions that transferred Hispanic students to the college and represented over 50% of the transfer students in fall 2014. With the new grant, we will increase the numbers of students served to over 500, bridge the achievement gaps, improve transfer success, and increase overall graduation rates for all Hispanic and low-income students in CECS and across CSUN?s STEM programs. Across the partner institutions, we expect to improve student retention and performance in math courses beginning with the freshman calculus course. The team expects to improve the graduation rates in CECS for all students and eliminate the gap between URM?s and others. Students enrolled in the AIMS² cohorts will continue to have access to special mentoring and advisement by faculty, tutoring and peer mentoring, social activities, field trips and opportunities to take part in undergraduate research projects. The proposed quasi-experimental evaluation design is expected to produce evidence of effectiveness that will document changes in students who participate in the project. It features a pre-post-test survey research procedure with matched samples (intervention and comparison groups of pre- and post-transfer Hispanic and low-income engineering and computer science students) that will include baseline equivalence on background and experience characteristics. (U.S. Department of Education, 2014, p.10) . The evaluation study will use two validated, widely used survey instruments and institutional (secondary) data to test the outcome measures associated with student participation in the project that will be administered at project entry (pre-test) and exit (post-test) for each cohort and across sites (pre- and post-transfer event). The project?s performance and outcome measures direct the evaluation study?s approach and will document evidence that demonstrates gains associated with participation in the intervention group but not in the comparison group. Against the backdrop of the literature on Latino/a and low-income students , we have developed project activities to support measurable outcomes, as seen in our logic model, which will be assessed by a rigorous, systematic approach that includes a mixed-methods design with quasi-experimental survey research data, institutional data, and semi-structured personal interview data. The proposed project has the potential to significantly improve graduation rates and close the achievement gaps for Hispanic and low-income students, expand undergraduate research projects to support and mentor students, and enhance faculty collaboration between two year and four year institutions to improve student success. Wiersma, W., & Jurs, S. G. (2009). Research Methods in Education: An Introduction. Boston: Pearson. U.S. Department of Education, I. o. E. S., What Works Clearinghouse. (2014). What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook. Cole, D. (2010). The effects of student-faculty interactions on minority students' college grades: differences between aggregated and disaggregated data. Journal of the Professoriate, 3(2), 137-160.