Reaching the Pinnacle

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

For U.S. leadership in science and engineering, there is no more important issue than the development of a skilled technical workforce. As a Nation, we are not attracting the numbers of science and engineering students our Nation needs to sustain its leadership. Nor are we successfully tapping all our domestic resources, especially under-represented minorities and women. The pool of potential science and engineering students will increasingly reflect the growing diversity in the American workforce and society. So warned Warren Washington, Chairman of the National Science Board in his statement to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space on May 22, 2002. RASEM2 will complete its 5th year of funding in October of 2006 and is seeking another 5 years as a progression towards institutionalization. RASEM2 is penultimate in the establishment of "best practices" in service to students with disabilities in STEM education. Premier to its efforts is the Mentoring program, whereby RASEM2 has supported hundreds of college students with disabilities in a manner that promotes success. Forty of our mentors have graduated and moved on to employment in STEM or graduate school. Two of our Mentors have obtained their Ph.D. and are now professors at established universities. Mentoring and mentor projects have further outreached to hundreds more K-12 students with disabilities through creative hands-on math, science, and engineering activities. RASEM2's Teacher Outreach Projects have similarly touched thousands more lives. Our RASSI Summer Institutes bring contemporary experiences to students with disabilities during that critical time middle school when students decide on the most likely career path. Partner projects allow our fellow institutions the option of evolving their ongoing efforts toward student success to include students with disabilities or to tap into their particular expertise and apply it to students with disabilities. Reaching the Pinnacle is the ultimate. It solidifies and extols our achievements for consumption and use by the world at large. The pursuit of models that optimize the transformation high school students with disabilities into college students with disabilities enrolled in STEM career tracks suggested our research approach. Special education students and students with special needs must develop a transition plan starting as early as their freshmen year in high school. It is not unusual for universities to send representatives from the offices for students with disabilities to participate in the process. This involvement does not address STEM in any significant way or offer strategies that will direct the student toward this end. RASEM2 Reaching the Pinnacle proposes to have STEM professionals guide the process with appropriate support delineated in the transition plan as the student progresses through high school. Comparisons to students with equal capabilities, but not the same opportunity, will indicate the effectiveness of the support. Differing levels of intervention will reveal the strategy with the highest potential for achieving the goal. RASEM2 Reaching the Pinnacle proposes activities that will have significant impacts on a nation that must leave no stone unturned in its quest for dominance in STEM education and achievement. Students with disabilities, through the efforts of the RADs, will help lead the way back to preeminence.