text: Victoria Bigelow receives grant from NSF to evaluate natural science transfer scholars program | University of Michigan School of Education
  Dr. Victoria Bigelow, Evaluation Coordinator for the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER), was awarded a grant from NSF to lead the external evaluation of the Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) Natural Science Scholars program at Michigan State University (MSU).
  The S-STEM program will award scholarships to students who transfer from community colleges to a natural science baccalaureate degree program at MSU. The evaluation design will include formative and summative process and outcomes evaluations. Dr. Bigelow will use qualitative and quantitative methodologies to (a) determine the impact of the program (“the treatment”) on transfer and native student participants as compared to transfer students and native students who did not participate but are as similar as possible to the treatment group; (b) assess progress toward identified benchmarks, such as graduation in a STEM field; (c) document project activities and participation, implementation strategies, and contextual factors; (d) track post-baccalaureate matriculation into graduate programs; and (e) identify best practices.