NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Building Networks and Enhancing Diversity in the K-12 STEM Teaching Workforce

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This NSF INCLUDES 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. The goal of this planning grant is to explicitly focus on broadening participation in the K-12 STEM teaching workforce, with the theory of action that diversifying the K-12 STEM teaching workforce would in the long term help more students see STEM as accessible to them and then be more likely to choose a STEM degree or career. Currently there is a large demographic discrepancy between students and teachers in K-12 schools. Studies have highlighted that the diverse teaching workforce benefits not only students of color but all students. Since 2017, the Smithsonian Science Education Center has conducted an annual STEM Diversity Summit, with the goal of building a coalition (built on collective impact) for attracting and retaining a diverse K-12 STEM teaching workforce, in which teams of teachers and administrators representing 83 school districts, schools, and states across the country shared their problems and developed a logic model to attract and retain a diverse K-12 STEM teaching workforce in their region with annual support from a matched mentor. This planning grant supports revisiting those former teams to better understand the dynamics of systems change through close examination of the successes and challenges outlined in their logic models with the perspective of the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Under the collaborative infrastructure elements of shared vision and partnerships, this planning grant will inform and lay the foundation for a future alliance focused on diversifying the K-12 STEM teaching workforce.In this planning grant, the Smithsonian in collaboration with Howard University, as well as in partnership with other experts in STEM teacher education, professional development, and diversity - including from Harvard University, Rutgers University, 100kin10, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, MA Department of Higher Education, STEM Equity Alliance, National Science Teaching Association, and private industry - will work on four primary activities. First, a survey will be developed and conducted with faculty members of Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), including approximately 100 Minority Serving Institutions, which serve diverse populations in K-12 teacher preparation programs and STEM education across the country. The goal of the survey is to understand what roles IHEs play in organizational change management and strategic planning to diversify the K-12 STEM teaching workforce. Second, a virtual workshop will be convened to bring former STEM Diversity Summit attendees and their extended networks to reflect on their progress and activities in past years and discuss strategic long-term plans. Third, a survey with the virtual workshop participants will be conducted to better understand their practices, attitudes, and perceptions about their roles to create culturally diverse ecosystems in K-12 STEM education. Finally, all the collected information from the above activities will be used to investigate strategies and evidence-based practices of enhancing diversity in the K-12 STEM teaching workforce, and an iterative source book will be developed based on those findings as an initial resource to ground future work. Over a 12 month period, this planning grant will build a network between the former teams and with the extended partners, including the NSF INCLUDES National Network, and help them to grow as regional hubs within a Future NSF INCLUDES Alliance focused on diversifying the K-12 STEM teacher workforce, with the Smithsonian as the backbone organization. This planning grant is also supported by the NSF Discovery Research preK-12 Program, which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches.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.