Emerging Role of 2-year Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs) in Advanced Technological Education (ATE): Challenges, Opportunities, and Impacts for Growing the United States Technical Workforce

To remain competitive in the global economy and meet the country’s anticipated shortage of 5 million technically credentialed workers, the United States must produce skilled technicians with a high level of domain-specific technical knowledge. Community colleges are essential to solving the skilled technician workforce supply problem because many skilled technical jobs do not require a bachelor’s degree for entry but do require technical credentials. According to federal data, half the students earning a certificate in 2016-17 received their credentials from community colleges. Despite declining community college enrollments, Hispanic student enrollment at community colleges nearly doubled between 2001 and 2017, increasing by 98% to reach 25% of the overall 2017 enrollment. However, Hispanics are currently underrepresented in STEM Job clusters, at 7% (1.2M) of employed adults in STEM jobs (17.3M) as compared to 16% (21M) of all employed adults (131M), where a substantial share (35%) of this STEM workforce does not have a bachelor’s degree. Moreover, the current Hispanic composition of the STEM workforce (7%) does not reflect the current (18%, 62M) or future (predicted at 28%, 111.2M) Hispanic population of the United States. Looking to the future, the United States can help address underrepresentation in the STEM workforce, by leveraging the more than 20 million young people of color, including Hispanic youth, who have the potential to enter STEM fields and close the current gaps. Given the nation’s urgent need for a well-trained, domestic STEM-capable workforce, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) are essential points of access; 46% of all HSIs are 2-year colleges. The goal of the HSI Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Hub is to build capacity and leadership at 2-year HSIs for developing competitive ATE proposals to NSF to prepare technicians in advanced technologies that drive the American economy. Introduction/Background This paper is the second in a series of annual papers about the role 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) have in educating technicians from underrepresented groups and how the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored HSI Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Hub program supports faculty at HSIs in improving Hispanic/Latinx student success. Last year’s paper [1] described the research need, provided a project overview, included baseline and initial data, and discussed early lessons learned and their implications for future research. This paper describes continued fostering of the HSI ATE community (2-year HSIs with grant prospects and awards from the NSF ATE Program), resource dissemination, usage, perceived value to the community, and additional data gathered during the first and second cohorts of HSI ATE Hub, including adjustments based on learnings from year 1. Emphasis will be placed on HSI ATE Community building and resources. Lessons learned and implications for future research are also described in the paper. Funded by the NSF ATE Program, the HSI ATE Hub is a three-year collaborative project implemented by Florence Darlington Technical College in South Carolina and the Science Foundation Arizona Center for STEM at Arizona State University. The NSF ATE Program is a workforce development program within the National Science Foundation that focuses on 2-year colleges and the preparation of technicians in advanced technologies that drive the American economy. Since the ATE Program was created by the Scientific and Advanced Technology Act of 1992, it has consistently been an excellent funding source for community college technician education programs. Of particular interest to ASEE members are the many ATE funding opportunities that can advance engineering technology and related programs that have pathways and articulation agreements for students to transfer to baccalaureate Engineering Technology and Engineering programs. The approach for the HSI ATE Hub combines the strengths of the KickStarter STEM self-assessment, planning and research concept development by 2-year HSIs with the Mentor-Connect mentoring, technical assistance, and resources to support ATE proposal development and submission. Additionally, the HSI ATE Hub provides resources for faculty development and program improvements for advancements in technician education to better serve Hispanic/Latinx students who are currently underrepresented in STEM. The HSI ATE Hub also fosters growth of the HSI ATE Community by bringing together educators from HSIs who seek to advance technician education and create a mutually-supportive community. HSI ATE Community Building Engaging and fostering the HSI ATE community are important goals of the project that continued through four HSI ATE community building events held in year 2 of the project: ● 2019 High Impact Technology Exchange Conference (HI-TEC) Session ● 2019 ATE Principal Investigators’ (PIs) Conference Panel with ATE PIs from HSIs ● 2019 ATE PI Conference Resources Demonstration Session ● Professional Development Webinar: Culturally Responsive Instruction for Students at HSIs Attendees who added their contact information to sign-in sheets at each event were added to the project communication lists to keep informed about new resources, upcoming webinars, and other networking opportunities and events. In July 2019, at the HI-TEC, approximately 21 people attended a discussion of the HSI ATE Hub, which included the demonstration of three types of resources: Bilingual videos, HSI Research Papers, and ATE Grant development Resources. At least one attendee was of Hispanic descent, 12 attendees were from HSIs, 12 reported that their Hispanic/Latinx students spoke English as a second language and had parents/families that do not speak/understand English. During the Bilingual videos, the audience was quite engaged and noted that often important context is lost when non-technical, generic translation services are used to translate STEM course materials to Spanish. In addition to resources already translated into Spanish, a resource that listed English to Spanish Translation Service Providers for STEM material would help them to produce quality content in Spanish. When asked whether they have ever been in a situation where the types of resources demonstrated might have helped in areas of need, the audience highlighted the following areas: best practices for recruiting students, targeted support, different pedagogical approaches, and effective instructional practices that are culturally relevant and culturally-sensitive. At the ATE PI Conference in October 2019, a diverse panel of three ATE PIs from 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions shared challenges and tips for engaging Hispanic/Latinx students and creating inclusive STEM learning environments where all students are treated as motivated learners and made to feel welcome. The HSI ATE Hub team video recorded the panel session and later included it as a resource in the HSI ATE Hub Resource Library for others to benefit from hearing about the successes and tips from experienced ATE PIs at HSIs. Along with personalized stories about incentivizing faculty and students, relevant resources for engaging Hispanic/Latinx students were also shared and discussed. The panel was moderated by an experienced Hispanic PI who runs an ATE Center. An audience of about 40 attendees posed questions to the panelists and gained their advice on topics such as planning ahead for when funding ends, connecting to students, and helping “anglo” faculty correctly pronounce students’ names, for example. The discussion and advice around funding continuity began with building the core faculty team through professional development opportunities. Other strategies that were shared included tapping into the college participatory budget, forming relationships with community leaders who can influence the college president to continue the program, and building a data-driven case that shows impacts to student recruitment, enrollment, and retention. Panelists reported that when supported by data showing impact, these strategies can translate to dollars for the college, local employer sponsorship of programs, lab supplies, books, and student education expenses in return for a pipeline of future employees with needed skills. They pointed out the usefulness of enlisting advisory committee members who are committed to providing part-time jobs for students. Connecting to students, as well as showing compassion and interest in student academic challenges and achievements and their cultural roots, were emphasized. Participant examples included communicating with the extended family, having students write their pronouns, nicknames, and the phonetic spelling of their name on an index card for the instructor on the first day of class, and the Mariachi Marching Band established at one institution as part of their cultural programming. A second session at the ATE PI Conference, demonstrated to approximately 28 attendees how to find and access video resources to connect to Hispanic/Latinx students. Selections from the ATE TV Multicultural Bilingual Video Series and the Spanish translated Nanotechnology Modules, how-to videos, instructor notes, and student materials were shown to participants. A brief discussion about what would best support the Hispanic/Latinx community followed. The audience wanted to understand more about the Spanish translation of the STEM content, whether its context was correctly translated and if example speakers represented variations of regional cultures and local dialects of Dominican, Mexican, New Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Costa Rican populations. Translation to Spanish does not necessarily fit all of the needs of all Hispanic/Latinx populations. The group discussed this follow-on guidance: if you want to serve a particular community, you need to do some homework on the needs of the locale that you are serving and tailor the translation to fit the e