Cornerstone: The Center for Advanced Learning has received a one-year, $44,800 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study student migration patterns in and out of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
The grant proposal was submitted to the Sloan foundation in cooperation with colleagues at Swarthmore College.
The University also is working closely with colleagues at the College Board and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education.
According to Robert H. Koff, Ph.D., director of the center, participating peer institutions in the study include Carleton College, Columbia University, Duke University, The Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, Pomona College, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Williams College and Vanderbilt University.
Additionally, The Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wis., has agreed to host two conferences for participating peer institutions at its Wingspread Conference Center.
The grant has three purposes: to help develop a common data template to compare information collected across institutions; to help develop and pilot test a survey that will be used to collect data from students to find out why they did or did not migrate; and to help develop an inventory of interventions that peer institutions have developed and try to find out how well they are working to reduce migration out of STEM fields.