NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Creating the Networks That Can Build and Sustain Inclusive, Workforce-relevant STEM Courses for Underrepresented Students

在获得和提供与劳动力有关的STEM课程方面的差距仍然存在。对于有色人种的高中生以及来自农村和低收入家庭的学生来说，这种不平等现象尤为严重。因此，这些学生不太可能在STEM课程中取得成功，也不太可能追求STEM专业和职业。当提供与劳动力相关的STEM课程时，任职人数不足和服务不足的学生也更有可能由准备不足的教师教授这类课程。这进一步加剧了教育系统中不公平的问题和失败。这笔规划赠款将开始通过大规模的社会变革驱动的协调努力来应对这些挑战。美国研究院(AIR)将与100Kin10合作，通过准备、启动和支持三个基于地点的网络来创造这一大规模变化，以提高与劳动力相关的STEM课程的质量和公平获得机会。这些网络将制定计划，一旦实施，将使更多人数不足的学生能够参加与劳动力相关的STEM课程并取得成功，并确定协作基础设施及其使用在多大程度上有助于这些系统改进。每个以地点为基础的网络，由一个地理区域内的地区、教师培训计划、商业社区和其他相关组织组成，将测试、调整和完善在地方层面推动STEM改进的战略。如果成功，这项基础性工作不仅将提供扩展和扩展模式的方法，而且还将有助于NSF致力于通过扩大高中水平的参与挑战来提高K-12教育系统的质量和包容性。在12个月的项目期限内，工作的指导框架将集中在NSF的五个设计要素中的两个，包括协作基础设施；(A)领导力和沟通以及(B)扩展、可持续性和规模。使用这一框架，这项工作将从AIR进行的文献扫描开始，以确定与PK-12教育系统的领导力、沟通、扩展、可持续性和规模相一致的循证做法和措施。AIR和100Kin10随后将与基于地点的网络合作，共同设计计划，使用循证做法在成员之间进行协作，并促进基于证据的战略，以减少系统性STEM不平等，以支持与劳动力相关的高中STEM课程的设计和交付，特别是在低收入、农村和少数族裔占多数的高中。具体地说，共同设计的计划将致力于：(1)提高教育工作者开发和教授与劳动力相关的STEM课程的能力；(2)增加参加和完成与劳动力相关的STEM课程的高中生人数；以及(3)扩大、维持和推广基于证据的做法，以支持STEM中代表性不足的学生群体。基于地点的网络计划将包括目标和衡量标准，用于跟踪在克服不平等方面取得的进展，并确定具体的协作机制在多大程度上推动基于地点的网络的目标取得进展。在确定和选择目标和指标后，项目组将与基于地点的网络合作，以了解学生进入与劳动力相关的STEM的不平等的当地根本原因；支持建立强大的基于地点的网络；起草计划，说明在克服可能推动这一进展的不平等和合作机制方面取得进展的目标和指标。这些努力的支持将由骨干组织100Kin10领导。骨干组织的作用将是支持启动三个以地方为基础的网络，通过讲习班和召集会议支持它们的伙伴关系，并将它们与来自全国30多个组织的代表组成的广泛的国家网络联系起来，这些组织在系统性STEM改革的核心杠杆方面具有专门知识，并侧重于改善与劳动力相关的STEM课程的机会。这项计划拨款是由NSF将未被充分代表的工程和科学发现者的学习社区纳入全国(NSF Includes)资助的，这是一项综合性的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性、包容性和扩大对STEM的参与来加强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Disparities in access to and availability of workforce-relevant STEM courses continue to persist. The inequities are particularly profound for high school students of color and students from rural and low-income backgrounds. As a consequence, these students are less likely to succeed in STEM courses and pursue STEM majors and careers. When workforce-relevant STEM courses are available, underrepresented and underserved students are also more likely to be taught by teachers who are ill-prepared to teach such courses. This further exacerbates the problems and failures of inequity in the education system. This planning grant will begin to address these challenges through a large-scale social-change-driven coordinated effort. The American Institutes for Research (AIR), in collaboration with 100Kin10, will create this large-scale change by preparing for, launching, and supporting three place-based networks to improve the quality of and equitable access to workforce-relevant STEM courses. These networks will develop plans that, when implemented, will enable more underrepresented students to access and succeed in workforce-relevant STEM courses, as well as determine the extent to which the collaborative infrastructure and its use contribute to those systemic improvements. Each of the place-based networks, made up of districts, teacher preparation programs, business communities, and other relevant organizations in a geographic region, will test, adapt, and refine strategies for driving STEM improvements at the local level. If successful, this foundational work will not only inform the approach for expanding and scaling the model, but it will also contribute to NSF’s commitment to improving quality and inclusion within the K–12 education system by focusing on broadening participation challenges at the high school level.Over the 12-month project duration, the guiding framework for the work will be centered on two of the five NSF INCLUDES design elements of collaborative infrastructure; (a) leadership and communication and (b) expansion, sustainability and scale. Using this framework, the work will begin with a literature scan conducted by AIR to identify evidence-based practices and measures aligned to leadership, communication, expansion, sustainability, and scale in PK–12 education systems. AIR and 100Kin10 will then work collaboratively with the place-based networks to co-design plans that use evidence-based practices for collaboration among members and promote evidence-based strategies for reducing systemic STEM inequities to support the design and delivery of workforce-relevant high school STEM courses, especially in low-income, rural, and majority-minority high schools. Specifically, the co-designed plans will work to: (1) improve educators’ capacity to develop and teach workforce-relevant STEM courses; (2) increase the number of high school students enrolling in and completing workforce-relevant STEM courses; and (3) expand, sustain, and scale evidence-based practices for supporting underrepresented student populations in STEM. The place-based network plans will include goals and metrics for tracking the progress in overcoming the inequities and determining the extent to which specific collaborative mechanisms spur progress toward the place-based networks’ aim. After identifying and selecting the goals and metrics, the project team will work with the place-based networks to understand the local, root causes of inequity in student access to workforce-relevant STEM; support the creation of strong local place-based networks; and draft plans with goals and metrics for progress in overcoming the inequities and collaborative mechanisms that may spur that progress. The support of these efforts will be led by the backbone organization, 100Kin10. The role of the backbone organization will be to support the launch the three place-based networks, support their partnerships through workshops and convenings, and connect them to its extensive national networks of representatives from more than 30 organizations nationwide with expertise in the central levers of systemic STEM change and focused on improving access to workforce-relevant STEM courses. This planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion, and broadening participation in STEM at scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.