Collaborative Research: NRT-IGE: Deploying Holistic Admissions and Critical Support Structures to Increase Diversity and Retention of US Citizens in Physics Graduate Programs

STEM的多样性问题具有全国性的重要性。美国技术劳动力的未来需求需要培养整个国内人才库，特别是历史上和目前在STEM中代表性不足的群体：女性、非洲裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人和印第安人。成功地将代表性不足的学生转移到研究生学习是实现这一愿景的关键，但大多数STEM博士课程在这方面都失败了。罗切斯特理工学院和美国物理学会（APS）的研究生教育创新（IGE）轨道上的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将探索可能有助于增加美国女性和代表性不足的少数民族获得物理学博士课程的干预措施，并提高这些群体的博士完成率。这个创新的项目将首次调查物理学院是如何录取和留住学生的。该项目的评估数据将有助于设计培训材料，以帮助教师采用更具包容性的做法。由于这些干预措施可能会转移到不同的领域和机构，因此该项目有可能彻底改变STEM研究生的录取方式，并提高美国公民在STEM博士课程中的完成率。该项目将在入学和保留阶段解决毕业生STEM教育的包容性问题。为了解决准入问题，该项目将调查教师的态度和录取措施。物理教师对多样性、优点和非认知结构的态度将被评估为变化准备程度的衡量标准。然后，参与的教师将接受全面招生方面的培训，这种方法已被证明可以增加研究生教育的多样性。该项目将开发和验证一种非认知评估工具，作为整体招生包的一部分。为了解决保留问题，教师将接受基于证据的支持结构的培训，以帮助新研究生应对研究生院第一年的困难。该项目将为三所大学（罗切斯特理工学院、中佛罗里达大学和丹佛大学）的四个合作项目开发和提供以教师为中心的招生和保留实验研讨会，然后在APS主办的全国会议上进行。在整个资助期间，这些研讨会的形成性评估将用于修改和完善材料，从而形成一个招生和保留教师培训计划，该计划可能被全国各地的院系使用。该方案将管理所产生的材料，并在项目完成期间和之后协助促进培训，确保广泛传播已证实的做法并产生持续影响。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门用于试点，测试和评估新颖，创新和潜在的变革性研究生教育方法。

The issue of diversity in STEM is of national importance. The future needs of the US technological workforce necessitate cultivating the entire domestic talent pool, especially groups historically and currently underrepresented in STEM: women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. Successfully transitioning underrepresented students to graduate studies is key to this vision, but the majority of STEM PhD programs are failing in this regard. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to the Rochester Institute of Technology and the American Physical Society (APS) will explore interventions that may help increase the access of US women and underrepresented minorities to physics PhD programs and increase the PhD completion rates of these groups. This innovative project will, for the first time, investigate how physics faculty approach admissions and student retention. Evaluation data from this project will allow the design of training materials to help faculty use more inclusive practices. Because these interventions are likely to be transferrable to different fields and institutions, the project has the potential to revolutionize how STEM graduate admission is carried out and to increase the completion rates of US citizens in STEM PhD programs.This project will address graduate STEM education inclusion at both the admission and retention phases. To address access, the project will investigate faculty attitudes and admission measures. Physics faculty attitudes toward diversity, merit, and non-cognitive constructs will be assessed as a measure of change readiness. Participating faculty will then be trained in holistic admissions, a method that is proven to increase diversity in graduate education. The project will develop and validate a non-cognitive assessment tool as part of the holistic admissions packet. To address retention, faculty will be trained on evidence-based support structures that can help new graduate students manage the difficult first years of graduate school. Experimental faculty-centered workshops on admissions and retention will be developed and delivered by the project to four partnering programs at three universities (Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Central Florida, and University of Denver) and then at national meetings hosted by the APS. Formative assessments of these workshops throughout the grant period will be used to revise and refine the materials, resulting in an Admissions and Retention Faculty Training Program that may be used by departments across the country. The APS will curate the resulting materials and help facilitate training during and after project completion, ensuring wide dissemination and sustainable impact of proven practices.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.