NSF INCLUDES Collaborative Change Consortia: Association of Collaborative Communities Ensuring Equity in Youth STEM+C Success (ACCEYSS)

Texas State University - San Marcos, San Marcos TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Association of Collaborative Communities ensuring Equity in Youth STEM+C Success (ACCEYSS) is an NSF INCLUDES Collaborative Change Consortia project, led by Texas State University (TXST), in collaboration with organizations and consortiums leveraging a national network of faith-based institutions and its population of 6 million children to broaden participation in STEM fields. ACCEYSS focuses on youth in two states, Texas and Florida, to improve access and participation in K-12 STEM+C education for students from middle school (grades 6-8) to entry into postsecondary STEM+C degree programs. The project implements innovative approaches to increase rigorous course-taking in middle school, high school, and postsecondary STEM+C degree programs across the U.S. This project builds upon the NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project, ACCEYSS - Association of Collaborative Communities Equipping Youth for STEM Success (1764404) and an NSF CAREER award (2046079). ACCEYSS is grounded in evidence that faith-based institutions are critical assets for broadening participation in STEM. For decades, faith-based institutions have been uniquely positioned to motivate and galvanize their congregations and constituents to drive action towards economic and social change. Community-engaged institutions of higher education, such as TXST, have also served as conduits of change. Most notably, TXST alumnus President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the hallmark Higher Education Act of 1965 at his alma mater, which increased educational access for low-income students. ACCYESS leverages faith-based institutions as historically significant structures to drive collaborative systems change in the U.S. K-16 STEM+C education pipeline. Complementing work traditionally done in formal educational settings, the new understandings gained through ACCYESS research will inform the processes through which students experience and persist in STEM+C contexts and the role that modern faith-based entities can play in STEM+C education. This project is funded by the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) Initiative, which seeks to motivate and accelerate collaborative infrastructure building to advance and sustain systemic change to broaden participation in STEM at scale. This award is also supported by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. 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.