Gatekeepers to Broadening Participation in Engineering: Investigating variation across high schools comparing who could go versus who does go into engineering

工程是美国经济增长最快的部门之一。然而，这一领域缺乏各种工程师和科学家。这项研究调查旨在使工程教育研究人员和其他重要的利益相关者了解和理解学校利益相关者如何更好地定位和/或培训，以支持选择就读中学后工程课程的更多样化的学生群体。通过关注高中水平，调查人员将查明教育不平等（因为它们涉及获得学校资源以及高中辅导员和教师在帮助学生选择工程课程方面的作用和准备）将如何有助于学术能力强的学生决定主修或不主修工程，特别是在代表性不足的学生群体中。这个研究项目是及时和潜在的影响力，帮助更广泛的工程界确定结构性障碍，学生经常在整个弗吉尼亚州的不同高中经历，以及这些障碍如何可能会影响代表性不足的学生的决定主要或不主要在工程，即使他们拥有这样做的学术形象。该项目还具有巨大的潜力，使重要的发现适用于弗吉尼亚州及其他地区的关键工程和非工程利益相关者。使用混合方法的研究设计，数据收集被组织成不同的阶段：检查定量数据从弗吉尼亚纵向数据系统（VLDS），以探索高中和大学入学的学生记录为每一个弗吉尼亚高中学生;进行深入的定性访谈的关键学校利益相关者（例如，教师、学校辅导员等）在选定的高中;在同一所选定的高中收集学生调查数据，以确定受访者所说的影响与学生所说的驱使他们走向或远离工程学之间的一致性;并从关键利益相关者那里收集调查数据，以补充定性访谈数据。通过收集定量和定性数据，研究调查将提供重要的答案，主要扩大参与工程问题。通过研讨会，政策简报，K-12学术会议以及与被选为案例研究的特定学校的联系，调查人员概述了一项强有力的计划，与K-12从业者和政策制定者分享调查结果。

Engineering is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy. However, there is a shortage of diverse engineers and scientists in this sector. This research investigation is designed to equip engineering education researchers and other important stakeholders with the knowledge and understanding of how school stakeholders can be better positioned and/or trained to support a more diverse population of students who choose to enroll in postsecondary engineering programs. By focusing on the high school level, the investigators will pinpoint how educational inequalities (as they relate to access to school resources and the role and preparedness of high school counselors and teachers in helping students choose engineering programs) will contribute to academically capable students' decisions to major or not major in engineering, especially among underrepresented student populations. This research project is both timely and potentially impactful in helping the broader engineering community identify the structural barriers that students often experience in different high schools across the state of Virginia and how these barriers may influence underrepresented students' decisions to major or not major in engineering, even when they possess the academic profile to do so. The project also has immense potential to render important findings applicable to key engineering and non-engineering stakeholders in Virginia and beyond. Using a mixed-method research design, data collections were organized into various phases: examining quantitative data from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (VLDS) to explore high school and college enrollment student records for every Virginia high school student; conducting in-depth qualitative interviews of key school stakeholders (e.g., teachers, school counselors, etc.) at select high schools; collecting student survey data at the same select high schools to determine alignment between what interviewees say are influences versus what students say drive them toward or away from engineering; and collecting survey data from key stakeholders to complement the qualitative interview data. By collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, the research investigation will provide important answers to major broadening participation in engineering questions. Through workshops, policy briefs, K-12 academic conferences, and connections with specific schools selected as case studies, the investigators outlined a strong plan to share findings with K-12 practitioners and policymakers.