S-STEM-Hub: Investigating the Capacity of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Develop, Accommodate, and Graduate Low-Income STEM Students

Quality Education For Minorities Network, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This S-STEM Research Hub is coordinated by the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and seeks to better understand strategies for engaging and graduating low-income STEM students. The QEM-AIR Research Hub (The Hub) will provide an infrastructure for a strategic HBCU alliance to collaborate and expand their knowledge base on effective strategies to support domestic, low-income, talented STEM students. This knowledge is of utmost strategic importance for the Nation because the current composition of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce does not reflect the current racial diversity of the U.S., and the intersection of race and socioeconomic status belies current efforts to broaden participation by exclusively focusing on race. According to the National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, in 2017, Blacks or African Americans represented approximately 12% of the U.S. adult population between the ages of 18-64 years; however, in 2016, their share of bachelor’s degrees awarded in science and engineering (S&E) were 9% and 4%, respectively. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a prominent role in the STEM education of African Americans, a role that is disproportionate to their representation among the Nation’s institutions of higher education. Although HBCUs represent only 3% of the nation’s institutions of higher learning, Fiegener & Proudfoot demonstrated that by 2013 they remain among the nation’s top baccalaureate-origin institutions for a significant proportion of African American S&E doctoral recipients. HBCUs share a common mission to provide and increase educational opportunities for underserved communities and are uniquely positioned to contribute to the nation’s efforts to diversify the STEM workforce. Understanding HBCUs strategies for engaging and graduating low-income STEM students is vital to the future STEM workforce. This Research Hub infrastructure will include curated virtual learning and sharing opportunities, capacity building and technical assistance webinars, and dissemination activities. Also, The Hub will use retention theory as a framework and conduct rigorous, primary research on developing, accommodating, and graduating domestic low-income STEM students who begin or transition into postsecondary education at HBCUs. The project goals are to: 1) conduct robust and innovative research to understand the optimal pathways by which low-income students matriculate at HBCUs and enter successful careers in STEM; 2) provide capacity building, technical support, and strategic alliances for HBCU researchers to contribute to our collective understanding of pathways to success for low-income STEM students; and 3) disseminate research findings on optimal pathways for low-income students to matriculate at HBCUs and enter successful careers in STEM within academia, government, nonprofits, and industry. 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.