CAREER: Tapping Hidden Potential: Multilevel Factors that Improve the STEM Outcomes of Racial Minorities, and Youth with Lower Socioeconomic Status or a Disability Classification

这笔学院早期职业发展(Career)赠款将建立一个综合研究和教育计划，重点关注少数族裔代表持续不足、社会经济地位较低的青年以及STEM领域的残疾分类等问题。总体而言，解决这些差距缺乏明确的方向。该项目旨在促进对少数族裔、残疾人和社会保障水平低的人充分参与STEM领域的条件的了解。这一努力符合国家科学基金会更广泛的目标，即扩大参与和扩大努力，以增加STEM领域中代表性不足的群体的参与。在这些代表性不足的群体中，青年的平均成就水平较低，在STEM积极的态度和选择方面面临文化和社会情感障碍。这个项目通过将重点放在结构性和制度性的贡献者以及个人的态度和选择上，并通过超越建立差异而量化与STEM差异最密切相关的因素来促进知识的进步。本项目的研究努力将使用准实验技术来分析来自2009年全国代表性高中纵向研究的23,000多名9年级学生的数据，以回答以下问题：1)9年级学生的STEM潜力和STEM学习环境在种族、SES和残疾状况的交叉点上如何变化？2)哪些学生、教室和学校特征对种族、SES、以及STEM结果中的残疾状况？3)对于具有相似STEM潜力水平的高中开始的学生，哪些课堂和学校特征改善了STEM结果？描述学生、课程、家长、教师和学校的措施使人们能够细致入微地考虑STEM的潜力和潜在的混杂因素。数据将使用因子分析、分解分析、多水平建模和倾向得分匹配进行分析。该项目的教育目标是：1)组成并领导一个数据科学家本科生工作组，2)增加波特兰州立大学(PSU)学生的STEM实习机会，特别是那些涉及数据分析的实习机会，3)为PSU的教职员工和研究生发起并促进一个大数据和大问题跨学科研究小组，以及4)通过研究助学金和将研究成果整合到PSU课程中来增加研究和STEM知识。职业计划是国家科学基金会(NSF)的一项广泛活动，为通过杰出的研究、出色的教育、以及在其组织的使命范围内将教育和研究结合起来。该奖项得到了EHR核心研究(ECR)的支持，该研究强调STEM教育的基础研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant will establish an integrated research and education program focused on questions underlying persistent underrepresentation of racial minorities, youth with lower socioeconomic status (SES), and disability classifications in STEM fields. In general, there is a lack of clear direction for addressing these disparities. The project aims to promote understanding of the conditions under which racial minorities, persons with disabilities, and persons with low SES are full participants in STEM fields. This effort is consistent with broader NSF goals of broadening participation and expanding efforts to increase participation from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Youth in these underrepresented groups have lower average levels of achievement and face cultural and socioemotional barriers to STEM-positive attitudes and choices. This project advances knowledge by incorporating a focus on structural and institutional contributors as well as individual attitudes and choices, and by moving beyond establishing disparities to quantifying factors most closely implicated in STEM disparities.This project's research efforts will use quasi-experimental techniques to analyze data on over 23,000 9th graders from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer these questions: 1) How do 9th graders' STEM potential and STEM learning environments vary at the intersection of race, SES, and disability status? 2) Which student, classroom, and school characteristics contribute the most to disparities by race, SES, and disability status in STEM outcomes? 3) Which classroom and school characteristics improve STEM outcomes for students who began high school with similar levels of STEM potential? Measures describing students, courses, parents, teachers, and schools enable a nuanced consideration of STEM potential and potential confounders. Data will be analyzed using factor analysis, decomposition analysis, multilevel modeling, and propensity score matching. This project's education goals are to: 1) form and lead a Data Scientists Undergraduate Work Group, 2) increase STEM internships, particularly those that involve data analysis, for Portland State University (PSU) students, 3) initiate and facilitate a Big Data and Big Problems Interdisciplinary Research Group for PSU faculty and graduate students, and 4) increase research and STEM knowledge through research assistantships and the integration of research findings into PSU courses taught by the investigator.The CAREER program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This award is supported by EHR Core Research (ECR) which emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.