NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Creating the Networks That Can Build and Sustain Inclusive, Workforce-relevant STEM Courses for Underrepresented Students

American Institutes For Research In The Behavioral Sciences, Arlington VA

Investigators

Abstract

Disparities in access to and availability of workforce-relevant STEM courses continue to persist. The inequities are particularly profound for high school students of color and students from rural and low-income backgrounds. As a consequence, these students are less likely to succeed in STEM courses and pursue STEM majors and careers. When workforce-relevant STEM courses are available, underrepresented and underserved students are also more likely to be taught by teachers who are ill-prepared to teach such courses. This further exacerbates the problems and failures of inequity in the education system. This planning grant will begin to address these challenges through a large-scale social-change-driven coordinated effort. The American Institutes for Research (AIR), in collaboration with 100Kin10, will create this large-scale change by preparing for, launching, and supporting three place-based networks to improve the quality of and equitable access to workforce-relevant STEM courses. These networks will develop plans that, when implemented, will enable more underrepresented students to access and succeed in workforce-relevant STEM courses, as well as determine the extent to which the collaborative infrastructure and its use contribute to those systemic improvements. Each of the place-based networks, made up of districts, teacher preparation programs, business communities, and other relevant organizations in a geographic region, will test, adapt, and refine strategies for driving STEM improvements at the local level. If successful, this foundational work will not only inform the approach for expanding and scaling the model, but it will also contribute to NSF’s commitment to improving quality and inclusion within the K–12 education system by focusing on broadening participation challenges at the high school level. Over the 12-month project duration, the guiding framework for the work will be centered on two of the five NSF INCLUDES design elements of collaborative infrastructure; (a) leadership and communication and (b) expansion, sustainability and scale. Using this framework, the work will begin with a literature scan conducted by AIR to identify evidence-based practices and measures aligned to leadership, communication, expansion, sustainability, and scale in PK–12 education systems. AIR and 100Kin10 will then work collaboratively with the place-based networks to co-design plans that use evidence-based practices for collaboration among members and promote evidence-based strategies for reducing systemic STEM inequities to support the design and delivery of workforce-relevant high school STEM courses, especially in low-income, rural, and majority-minority high schools. Specifically, the co-designed plans will work to: (1) improve educators’ capacity to develop and teach workforce-relevant STEM courses; (2) increase the number of high school students enrolling in and completing workforce-relevant STEM courses; and (3) expand, sustain, and scale evidence-based practices for supporting underrepresented student populations in STEM. The place-based network plans will include goals and metrics for tracking the progress in overcoming the inequities and determining the extent to which specific collaborative mechanisms spur progress toward the place-based networks’ aim. After identifying and selecting the goals and metrics, the project team will work with the place-based networks to understand the local, root causes of inequity in student access to workforce-relevant STEM; support the creation of strong local place-based networks; and draft plans with goals and metrics for progress in overcoming the inequities and collaborative mechanisms that may spur that progress. The support of these efforts will be led by the backbone organization, 100Kin10. The role of the backbone organization will be to support the launch the three place-based networks, support their partnerships through workshops and convenings, and connect them to its extensive national networks of representatives from more than 30 organizations nationwide with expertise in the central levers of systemic STEM change and focused on improving access to workforce-relevant STEM courses. This planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion, and broadening participation in STEM at scale. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.