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

STEM的多样性问题对国家具有重要意义。美国技术劳动力的未来需求需要培养整个国内人才库，特别是在STEM历史上和目前代表不足的群体：女性、非裔美国人、拉美裔美国人和美洲原住民。成功地将代表性不足的学生过渡到研究生学习是这一愿景的关键，但大多数STEM博士项目在这方面都失败了。在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，这项国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将探索有助于增加美国女性和未被充分代表的少数群体获得物理学博士项目的机会并提高这些群体的博士毕业率的干预措施。这个创新的项目将首次调查物理教师如何招生和留住学生。该项目的评估数据将允许设计培训材料，以帮助教师使用更具包容性的实践。由于这些干预措施可能会转移到不同的领域和机构，该项目有可能彻底改变STEM研究生招生的方式，并提高美国公民在STEM博士课程中的完成率。该项目将解决STEM研究生教育在录取和保留阶段的纳入问题。为了解决入学问题，该项目将调查教师的态度和录取措施。物理学教师对多样性、优点和非认知结构的态度将作为变化准备程度的衡量标准进行评估。参与的教职员工随后将接受全面招生方面的培训，这种方法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非认知评估工具，作为整体招生方案的一部分。为了解决留住问题，教职员工将接受基于证据的支持结构的培训，这些结构可以帮助应届研究生管理研究生院艰难的头几年。该项目将开发以教师为中心的招生和留任实验研讨会，并将其提供给三所大学(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，然后在APS主办的全国会议上提供。在整个授权期内，将对这些讲习班进行形成性评估，以修订和完善材料，从而产生一个可供全国各部门使用的招生和留任教师培训计划。APS将整理生成的材料，并帮助促进项目完成期间和之后的培训，确保广泛传播和可持续影响经过验证的实践。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励为STEM研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆的、新的、潜在的变革性模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门致力于试验、测试和评估研究生教育的新颖、创新和潜在的变革性方法。

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.