Exploring the Excellence of HBCU Scientists and Engineers: The Development of an Alumni Success Instrument Linking Undergraduate Experiences to Graduate Pathways
Conference
Fletcher, TL, Strong, AC, Jefferson, JP et al. (2021). Exploring the Excellence of HBCU Scientists and Engineers: The Development of an Alumni Success Instrument Linking Undergraduate Experiences to Graduate Pathways
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Fletcher, TL, Strong, AC, Jefferson, JP et al. (2021). Exploring the Excellence of HBCU Scientists and Engineers: The Development of an Alumni Success Instrument Linking Undergraduate Experiences to Graduate Pathways
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Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have made significant contributions towards ensuring Black student participation, retention, and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and continue to play a critical role in the production of graduates within these disciplines. Additionally, the pedagogical approaches, principles, and values characteristic of the HBCU experience have led to tremendous gains and success in promoting student achievement in STEM graduate programs. The dominance of HBCUs in the preparation of Black students for graduate programs suggests a need to better understand this under-explored success case and the practices of these institutions to support prospective students as they explore and apply to graduate school. Therefore, a survey instrument was designed to uncover success metrics of students that majored in STEM programs at HBCUs and have successfully transitioned into, or completed, graduate school. Survey development was built around the aims to 1) advance the contemporary telling of the HBCU undergraduate experience as a pillar for graduate success in the engineering and computer science fields, as well as 2) provide nuance to the complex pathways that have characterized success for these HBCU Alumni. This research paper serves as a survey development paper, describing an overview of the initial survey drafted, development of its three key sections, the pilot process, the outline of the final survey instrument crafted from our pilot feedback, and the strategies and considerations implemented leading up to and during the survey deployment process. The resulting survey seeks to gather data on three major sections: (1) the dimensions of institutional climate experienced by HBCU alumni at their undergraduate institution, (2) respondent perceptions of their graduate school pathways (from preparation for and completion of graduate school), and (3) the dimensions of institutional climate and their individual success during our respondents' graduate school experiences.
