Collaborative Research: Evaluating Access: How a Multi-Institutional Network Promotes Equity and Cultural Change through Expanding Student Voice

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Addressing the critical issue of representation and equity in the physical sciences requires meaningful cultural change. The Access Network, founded in 2015, directly addresses this national priority by connecting institutions with student-led, equity-oriented programs to share and disseminate research-based strategies and provide support for overcoming common barriers. Through mentored intersite student cohorts and an annual Assembly, Access fosters community, develops student leaders, reinforces institutional memory, and provides a national context, all important factors for sustainability and scalability. At the Network’s core is a unique philosophy that recognizes and elevates students as drivers of change, recognizing them as powerful members of the STEM community and the future leaders of physics. An innovative evaluation partnership among external evaluators, educational research faculty within the network, and internal student evaluation fellows will document the network’s impacts on student leaders, local sites and individual departments. These activities combine a student-driven, community-based approach with the expertise of external evaluators, resulting in a more complete picture of the model. This work will directly support students in the Network, at individual institutions, and beyond by: (i) continuously improving Network activities that support the professional development and retention of junior scientists from diverse backgrounds, (ii) cultivating new student leaders, and (iii) growing a repository of materials and best practices that will increase the efficacy of local sites. It will advance knowledge of equity-focused change in the physical sciences and develop infrastructure for robust evaluation to document, understand, and promote Network aspects crucial to success. The novel evaluation partnership proposed among external evaluators, internal evaluation mentors, and student evaluation advance the conception of participatory evaluation and sets a model for programmatic evaluation. More effectively supporting sites in local evaluation enables their sustainability, as they can better understand and communicate their impacts to local stakeholders. Insights from evaluation activities not only result in a more complete picture of the Access Network model, informing improvements to the network, but also benefit others wishing to enact equity-focused cultural change in STEM. The knowledge about effective programs will be especially helpful for those enacting shared leadership models, expanding the critical role students can play in transforming communities. 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.