Identifying and Measuring STEM Schools and Programs

2013年，国家研究理事会发布了一份报告，题为《监测成功的K-12 STEM教育的进展：一个国家在进步？》，该报告概述了14项指标以及创建一个监测全国STEM教育质量的系统所需的研究和开发。该项目的资助是为了响应亲爱的同事信要求在促进测量和评价方案的创新研究，重点是开发研究和工具，以提高国家的能力，以衡量这些指标。该项目的研究人员将解决指标1：每个地区不同类型的STEM学校和项目的数量和入学人数。以STEM为重点的学校是教育中的一个新兴现象，这些学校表现出多种多样的变化。此外，有多种类型的以STEM为重点的项目，其分布和参与机会对代表性不足的少数群体构成了严重的公平问题。研究活动将分三个阶段进行。在第一阶段，研究小组将审查文献，以确定STEM学校和项目的特点以及各州和地区开发的工具和资源。该项目将与其他研究人员和重要利益相关者召开一系列工作会议，以建立一套操作定义和框架，为STEM学校和项目的一套指标的制定提供信息。最后，该项目将举办一次更大规模的讲习班，以验证该框架，并确定制定措施所需的今后步骤。

The National Research Council in 2013 released the report Monitoring Progress toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing?, which outlined 14 Indicators as well as the needed research and development to create a system to monitor the quality of STEM education in the nation. This project is funded in response to a Dear Colleague Letter request for research in the Promoting Innovation in Measurement and Evaluation program focused on developing research and tools to advance the nation's capability to measure these indicators. The researchers in this project will address Indicator 1: Number of, and enrollment in, different types of STEM schools and programs in each district. STEM-focused schools are a rising phenomenon in education, and there are multiple variations in which such schools manifest. In addition, there are multiple types of STEM-focused programs whose distribution and opportunity for participation present serious equity issues for underrepresented minorities. Research activities will be carried out in three phases. In phase one, the research team will review the literature to identify the ways in which STEM schools and programs are characterized and the tools and resources that have been developed by states and districts. The project will convene a set of working sessions with other researchers and important stakeholders to establish a set of operational definitions and a framework to inform the development of a set of indicators of STEM schools and programs. Finally, the project will convene a larger workshop to validate the framework and identify the next steps that will be needed for the development of measures.