Progress Report on BE-TEC: An NSF S-STEM Project

Abstract At many institutions of higher education, 50 percent or more of the freshman software engineering, computer science, and engineering students drop out of the programs due to a variety of reasons. Many software engineering, computer science, and engineering programs are trying to identify these reasons and find a solution to remedy it. A common goal among most of the educators in freshman engineering programs is to come up with strategies designed to improve the success of first-year engineering students. Since fewer students are entering software engineering, computer science, and engineering programs, it is essential that greater effort and attention be given to retaining students who have decided to pursue a software engineering, computer science, engineering education. It has long been recognized that retention of software engineering, computer science, and engineering students is a major problem at many institutions of higher education. Retention issues have a big impact on the colleges and universities in a variety of areas such as academic affairs, student services, and even recruitment of new students. Nowadays, graduation rates are published, and lower rates reflect poorly on an institution of higher education. Because of these reasons and more, colleges and universities have turned their attentions to finding new ways to retain the students that do enroll in their software, computer science, and engineering programs. XXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX was awarded an NSF Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) grant for 1. 5, 000, 000. 00 (over six-year period) to strengthen outcomes for students in software engineering, computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering through Leadership, Engagement, Academic Mentoring, and Preparation. This paper presents the impact of the Building Exceptional Talent in Engineering and Computing (BE-TEC) program on the institution and its computing and engineering programs. Also, it presents the effect of the high-impact practices in this program in retention and completion of software engineering, computer science, and engineering students.