Harnessing Internal Resources: Strengthening Engineering Education by Partnering with an Education School

In response to the expectation that Engineering programs in the U.S. attract and retain more under-represented students and assess program outcomes, generally, this paper reports on a replic able partnership around assessment and program improvement between the Engineering School and the School of Education at a research university. Unde r the auspices of a National Science Foundation-funded (NSF) research project, the two Schools, together with ni ne education doctoral students, engaged nine research questions. The questions focus on student access to and retention in BME specifically and engineering, gene rally, from high school through the PhD; how well students are prepared for engineering careers or graduate progra ms; the interdisciplinary nature of BME, and what practices facilitate interdisciplinary work; and the experien ces of under-represented students (women and people of color). To accomplish the research, each of the nine educat ion students is engaged in an individual dissertation, focusing on a single question from this larger study. Throug h monthly meetings, the combined Engineering/Education research team reviews results and discusses implica tions. The results include benefits for both Schools - rea l-time applied research experience for the education stude nts and a useful, continuous analysis of data and progr am improvement strategies for the Engineering program.