2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

NSF ATE CREATE Targeted Research Study

The goal of this NSF ATE research project is to investigate, analyze, and disseminate the student success of up to 27,000 students who have completed at least one NSF CREATE consortium-funded course and to better assess the impact of over 12 years of NSF ATE Center funding. A secondary goal is to serve as a model for longitudinal data mining and analysis for the hundreds of other ATE projects and Centers. Measures of achievement include progress to degree and retention, certificate and degree attainment, transfer to four-year institutions, and wage increases and wage levels by technical discipline. As part of this evaluation the research team will identify the best ways to assess student achievement (using College, State, and Federal databases) and to demonstrate successful methodologies to generate and analyze these data, which includes working with a state funded organization to obtain longitudinal data for the project and a state funded tool to obtain wage gain data.

Research questions guiding the evaluation include:
1. To what extent did ATE consortium program students successfully complete courses with a grade of “C” or better, not successfully complete individual courses but continue in programs, and successfully complete programs?
2. Do students from ATE consortium programs have higher course retention and success rates compared to students from programs with the same Taxonomy of Programs code at non-ATE consortium colleges?
3. Do students from ATE consortium programs have higher numbers of completers (associate degree and/or certificate) compared to students from programs with the same Taxonomy of Programs code at non-ATE consortium colleges?
4. Do students from ATE consortium programs have higher numbers of transfers to four-year institutions compared to students from programs with the same Taxonomy of Programs code at non-ATE consortium colleges?
5. Do students from ATE consortium programs have higher employment rates and wage gains compared to students from programs with the same Taxonomy of Programs code at non-ATE consortium colleges?
6. Are there difference between ATE consortium programs completers and non-completers in outcome measures (retention rates, success rates, completion rates, transfer rates, employment rates, and wage gains)?
7. To what extent is there a relationship between the number of credit units completed and outcome measures of employment rates and wage gains?