Collaborative Research: Enabling Robust Learning with Conceptual Personalization Technologies

对经济竞争力和教育公平的担忧强调，美国需要扩大和多样化准备并有动力攻读STEM大学专业的学生渠道。解决这一需求的一项新战略是大规模实施包容性STEM高中。在这个探索性项目中，来自SRI国际和乔治华盛顿大学的研究人员正在为一项严格的准实验奠定基础，以使用纵向学生记录、调查和访谈来测试进入这样一所学校的影响。该项目对包容性STEM高中(ISHS)的操作定义是一所学校、一所学校内的学校或学校计划，主要根据学生的兴趣而不是能力或先前的成就来接收学生，并为他们提供在STEM大学专业取得成功所需的数学和科学准备。ISHS通过申请程序招收STEM专业中代表性较低的群体的学生，这种申请程序在高中入学前不要求高分。与选择性STEM学校不同，STEM学校根据入学考试成绩录取有天赋和有才华的学生，从而根据人们感知的STEM能力进行选择。ISHS拥有开发STEM专业知识的更雄心勃勃的目标。为了确定大规模、多州调查包容性STEM学校有效性的可行性，研究人员是：制定ISHS的试探性分类，并探索ISHS异质性对研究设计的影响；-招募代表不同ISHS方法的三个学校合作伙伴；-使用州数据为每个ISHS学校合作伙伴确定一所比较学校(不特别关注STEM)，并招募比较学校合作伙伴；-发展学校领导和三项学生调查(秋季9年级、春季12年级和春季毕业后)；-与伙伴学校合作设计数据收集程序、招生材料和奖励措施；-在六所伙伴学校试行“学校领袖调查”和两项学生调查(九年级秋季调查和十二年级春季调查)；-确定和招募更多的ISHS样本和匹配的比较学校以收集二年级数据；-在40所或更多高中进行调查；-确定三所ISHS伙伴学校的2012年春季毕业生的位置，并与这些学生一起试点测试毕业后学生调查；最后，通过记录调查回应率、学生定位比率以及学生行政数据和调查数据成功匹配的比率，这项可行性工作表明，收集数据是可能的，从而能够利用手中的必要工具和经验启动大规模研究。总统科学和技术顾问委员会最近呼吁新建1,000所STEM学校，以及国家研究委员会题为《成功的K-12 STEM教育：确定科学、技术、工程和数学领域的有效方法》的报告强调了各种STEM学校，这证明了拟议的研究与当前的政策倡议和辩论高度相关。此外，这项研究有可能通过影响尚未大规模实施ISHS的州和地区的政策制定者，促进STEM管道的多样性。

Concerns about both economic competitiveness and educational equity emphasize the need for the United States to broaden and diversify the pipeline of students prepared and motivated to pursue STEM college majors. An emerging strategy for addressing this need is large-scale implementation of inclusive STEM high schools. In this exploratory project, investigators from SRI International and George Washington University are laying the foundation for a rigorous quasi-experiment to test the effects of attending such a school using longitudinal student records, surveys, and interviews. The project's operational definition for an inclusive STEM high school (ISHS) is a school, school within a school, or school program that accepts students primarily on the basis of interest rather than aptitude or prior achievement and gives them the mathematics and science preparation they need to succeed in a STEM college major. ISHSs enroll students from groups underrepresented in STEM professions through an application process that does not require high test scores before high school entry. In contrast to selective STEM schools that admit gifted and talented students on the basis of entrance examination scores and thus select for perceived STEM aptitude. ISHSs have the more ambitious goal of developing STEM expertise.To establish the feasibility of a large, multi-state investigation of the effectiveness of inclusive STEM schools at scale, researchers are:Developing a tentative taxonomy of ISHSs and exploring implications of ISHS heterogeneity for the research design; - Recruiting three school partners representing different ISHS approaches; - Using state data to identify a comparison school (without a particular focus on STEM) for each ISHS school partner and recruiting comparison school partners; - Developing School Leader and three student surveys (fall 9th-grade, spring 12th-grade, and spring post-graduation); - Collaborating with partner schools in design of data collection procedures, recruiting materials, and incentives; - Piloting the School Leader Survey and two student surveys (9th-grade fall survey and 12th-grade spring survey) in six partner schools; - Identifying and recruiting a larger sample of ISHSs and matched comparison schools for Year 2 data collection; - Administering surveys in 40 or more high schools; - Locating spring 2012 graduates of the three ISHS partner schools and pilot testing the post-graduation student survey with these students; and - Engaging an Advisory Board who will provide methodological expertise and advice.Ultimately, by documenting survey response rates, student location rates, and rates for successful matching of student administrative and survey data, this feasibility work is demonstrating that it is possible to collect the kind of data that would enable a large-scale study to be launched with the necessary instruments and experience in hand. As evidenced by the recent call from the President's Council of Advisors in Science and Technology for 1,000 new STEM schools and the National Research Council's report entitled "Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics" that highlights various STEM schools, the proposed research is highly relevant to current policy initiatives and debates. Moreover, the research has the potential to promote diversity in the STEM pipeline by influencing policymakers in states and districts that have yet to implement ISHSs at scale.