News

Final METTE Reports Submitted to NSF

Project Outcomes Report
Final Project Report 

Fox Valley Technical College Summer Innovation and Data Summit

METTE researchers partnered with Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) to offer a workshop this summer on the  FVTC campus in Appleton to allow teams of Fox Valley area teachers and education leaders to gain experience examining data about their students to help them achieve success at FVTC and beyond. This summary of projects from the five high schools who were represented at this Innovation and Data Summit shows some of the ways each school is thinking about and working with this data. pdf

Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) State Called Trade and Industry Deans Meeting

The Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) State Called Trade and Industry Deans Meeting, which was held July 23, 2015 in Superior, WI and METTE hosted a professional development day during which the research conducted over the past four years was showcased. This allowed the WTCS Deans and other leaders to engage with METTE researchers as well as our research partners on the four partner campuses (Fox Valley Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Moraine Park Technical College, and Waukesha County Technical College) to learn about our initiatives and how they might be applied to other campuses within the System.

Introduction to meeting
Meeting Feedback
MPTC: FACT Initiative and Term to Term Retention as Project Areas Poster
MPTC: Term to Term Retention Poster
FVTC: Improving Student Success through High School Partnerships Poster
MATC: METTE NIC Project Poster
WCTC: Veterans Study Poster

Proposed Professional Development Day

WTCS Trade and Industry Deans Annual Summer Institute
July 23, 2015
WITC Superior Campus
More.

WCER Feature Story: Dual-Credit Courses Improve College Access and Success.

More.

Studying Far from Home, Xueli Wang Discovers Kinship with Two-Year College Students

In a recently published researcher profile, METTE co-PI Dr. Xueli Wang shares her perspectives on the importance of deepening our understanding about the diversity of two-year college students and factors and practices that influence successful transfer. More.

National Career Pathways Network Conference

On October 11 at the National Career Pathways Network conference in Orlando, the METTE-Fox Valley Technical College research on dual credit experiences and students' college and career success was featured in a concurrent session.  Mary Hanson, (FVTC High School Partnership Leader), Dan Valentyn (Principal of Little Chute High School), and Allen Phelps (Project Director) discussed the statistically meaningful differences in student success at FVTC for students with and without dual credit. High school teachers are using the FVTC student success data to better align their English and math instruction in support of the high demand career pathway courses. The 2014 NCPN PPT.

21st National ATE Principal Investigators Conference

METTE was featured in two sessions at the 2014 NSF-ATE Principal Investigators Conference in Washington DC, October 22-24.  In addition a Project Showcase Poster session featuring our 2013-14 accomplishment, the activities at two of our partner campuses were featured in a workshop, Expanding Research Collaboration in ATE Projects:  Two Case Studies Anchored in Improving Manufacturing Student Success. 

Local Leadership Team Meeting on May 29, 2014

On Thursday, May 29, 2014 the METTE Local Leadership Team (LLT) will be joined by the METTE advisory panel and our NSF program director Connie Della-Piana to discuss the progress of the METTE Networked Improvement Community (NIC) projects on the four Wisconsin Technical College System campuses. This meeting will include a review of research results that enhance data-driven innovations at two-year institutions. In addition, discussion will include planning for sustaining activities surrounding the impact of the METTE project in the landscape of two-year college research and practice, contributions made to the knowledge base of effective post-secondary instruction, and the extent to which we are creating new tools that enhance the overall capacity to address student success factors in METTE programs.

January Research Meeting

METTE researchers from UW Madison's Wisconsin Center for Education Research and partner campuses Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC), Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), Moraine Park Technical College (MPTC) and Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) met in January, 2014 at MPTC in West Bend, WI to discuss progress and share findings from each of the research projects at each of the four partner campuses. This meeting was an excellent opportunity to discuss data collection and analysis, share best practices, plan for upcoming opportunities to present our findings and create direction for each of the four projects.

Meeting Notes | Evaluation pPesentation by Brad Carl

Collaborative College Connections

The Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) hosted Collaborative College Connections, or “C3” on February 6-7, 2014 a tNorthcentral Technical College in Wausau, WI. This conference provided an exciting opportunity for METTE project members to present best practices, network with practitioners and researchers, and expand collaborative efforts to more than 200 Wisconsin technical college leaders. Two METTE projects were highlighted in presentations at "C3":

November 2013 METTE Update

The November 2013 METTE Update was released on October 23.  Read about the exciting and important research and innovation projects being undertaken at our four partner campuses

METTE impresses at the NSF-ATE PI Meeting, October 23-25, 2013

More than 800 community college STEM leaders participated in the October 23-25 national NSF-ATE national conference. Four METTE staff delivered two sessions: The METTE Project Overview and Early Findings were disseminated by Dr. Xueli Wang (UW Madison) and Mike Shiels (WCTC Local Leadership Team member) at the Showcase Session (PDF). and in a concurrent workshop session, Dr. Allen Phelps (UW-Madison) and Dr. Patti Frohrib (FVTC, co-PI) shared the Innovation-Guided Innovation Design and early baseline student success data describing the FVTC High School Partnership (PDF).

Dr. Xueli Wang's study "Why Students Choose STEM Majors: Motivation, High School Learning and Post-Secondary Context of Support" was published this month in the American Educational Research Journal (AERJ 2013, 50:1081).

The study was based on data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and funded by the AIR Improving Institutional Research in Postsecondary Educational Institutions Grant Program. Results of the study indicate that choosing a STEM major is directly influenced by at least three areas of focus within the METTE project: Exposure at the high school level to math and science, high school math achievement, and initial post-secondary educational experiences.

JULY 2013

METTE Retreat and Advisory Board Meeting - August 15-16, 2013

The METTE project will hold a summer retreat and advisory panel August 15-16, 2013 on the main campus of Milwaukee Area Technical College. The theme of the meeting "Launching the METTE Evidence-Based Innovations" Retreat goals and outcomes will be to:

1. Share and comment on final project implementation and evaluation strategies for the four campus projects
2. Review plans for additional METTE-wide data collection, including strategies for qualitative data collection to better understand student perspectives, assessing institutional data capacity and reviewing a synthesis of case studies.
3. Share perspectives on future METTE work with input from our external evaluation and reflections from our advisory board.

Meeting notes (pdf)

JULY 2013
METTE Research Group Supports Major Dual Credit Initiative at FoxValley Technical College

The METTE Research Group is supporting a major Dual Credit initiative at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton. On April 30, 2013 the College introduced the Machine Tool Career Jump Start (CJS) Project designed to provide students in five participating high schools with up to three MT college credit courses in 2013-14. Embedded within the FVTC media release are video clips from three local TV broadcasts.  

Working with FVTC MT instructors, institutional researchers, and program leaders, the METTE Research Team has: (a) compiled a baseline student success analysis report, and (b) helped to design and deliver a CJS Teacher Academy in June. Though interviews and surveys with teachers and students, we will help the CJS team document the implementation of the dual credit courses, as well as student progress and success in the MT career pathway at FVTC. Our reports and findings will be used to guide the Dual Credit outreach initiative to other high schools and for other career pathways.  

MAY 2013

METTE Local Leadership Team Meeting - May 23, 2013

Researchers with UW-Madison and stakeholders from four area technical colleges involved with Manufacturing Engineering Technologist and Technician Education (METTE) project held their second Networked Improvement Community (NIC) retreat in May at Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee, WI. Developments with the project since the last retreat in January 2013 include individualized plans for each of the four technical colleges involved in METTE (Waukesha County Technical College, Moraine Park Technical College, Fox Valley Technical College and Milwaukee Area Technical College) to use data obtained from the CCSSE along with enrollment data from their own programs to improve learning outcomes. The main areas of focus for these projects are recruitment and retention and efforts include: · High school recruitment partnerships · Contextualized developmental math offerings · Early alert systems for at-risk students · New student orientation

FEBRARY 2013
METTE Project Team Holds First Networked Improvement Community Retreat

Developing systemic innovations to improve the education of manufacturing technologists and technicians requires active collaboration with local project team members in Wisconsin’s two-year college system. Building on the idea of a networked improvement community (NIC)  proposed by the Carnegie Foundation, the Manufacturing Engineering Technologist and Technician Education (METTE) project team held its first NIC retreat at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, WI in January 2013.  The retreat brought together METTE project staff from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Al Phelps, Xueli Wang, Janet Washbon, and Hsun-yu Chan), five national advisory panel members, two representatives from the Wisconsin Technical College System Office, and 24 individuals representing teams of WTCS administrators, faculty, and institutional researchers from the project’s four partner colleges. More.