S-STEM-Hub: Investigating the Capacity of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Develop, Accommodate, and Graduate Low-Income STEM Students

S-STEM研究中心由少数民族优质教育(QEM)网络与美国研究院(AIR)合作协调，旨在更好地了解吸引低收入STEM学生并使其毕业的战略。QEM-AIR研究中心(The Hub)将为HBCU战略联盟提供基础设施，以便就支持国内、低收入、有才华的STEM学生的有效战略进行合作并扩大他们的知识库。这一知识对美国具有极其重要的战略意义，因为目前科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)劳动力的构成并不反映美国当前的种族多样性，种族和社会经济地位的交集掩盖了目前通过只关注种族来扩大参与的努力。根据美国国家科学基金会国家科学与工程统计中心的数据，2017年，黑人或非裔美国人在18-年龄段的美国成年人口中约占12%；然而，2016年，他们在S和E学院授予的理工科学士学位中所占的比例分别为9%和4%。从历史上看，黑人学院和大学(HBCU)在非裔美国人的STEM教育中发挥着突出的作用，这种作用与他们在全国高等教育机构中的代表性不成比例。尽管HBCU只占全美高等院校的3%，但菲尔格纳·普罗德福特律师事务所的数据显示，到2013年，对于大部分非裔美国人S博士研究生来说，HBCU仍然是全美最顶尖的学士学位院校之一。HBCU有着共同的使命，即为服务不足的社区提供和增加教育机会，并处于独特的地位，可以为国家促进STEM劳动力多样化的努力做出贡献。了解HBCU吸引和毕业低收入STEM学生的战略对未来的STEM工作至关重要。这一研究中心的基础设施将包括策划的虚拟学习和共享机会、能力建设和技术援助网络研讨会以及传播活动。此外，该中心将以留存理论为框架，对开始或过渡到HBCU专上教育的国内低收入STEM学生的发展、适应和毕业进行严格的初步研究。该项目的目标是：1)开展稳健和创新的研究，以了解低收入学生进入HBCU并在STEM成功就业的最佳途径；2)为HBCU研究人员提供能力建设、技术支持和战略联盟，以帮助我们共同理解低收入STEM学生的成功途径；以及3)传播关于低收入学生进入HBCU并在学术、政府、非营利组织和行业内成功就业的最佳途径的研究成果。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审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This S-STEM Research Hub is coordinated by the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and seeks to better understand strategies for engaging and graduating low-income STEM students. The QEM-AIR Research Hub (The Hub) will provide an infrastructure for a strategic HBCU alliance to collaborate and expand their knowledge base on effective strategies to support domestic, low-income, talented STEM students. This knowledge is of utmost strategic importance for the Nation because the current composition of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce does not reflect the current racial diversity of the U.S., and the intersection of race and socioeconomic status belies current efforts to broaden participation by exclusively focusing on race. According to the National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, in 2017, Blacks or African Americans represented approximately 12% of the U.S. adult population between the ages of 18-64 years; however, in 2016, their share of bachelor’s degrees awarded in science and engineering (S&E) were 9% and 4%, respectively. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a prominent role in the STEM education of African Americans, a role that is disproportionate to their representation among the Nation’s institutions of higher education. Although HBCUs represent only 3% of the nation’s institutions of higher learning, Fiegener & Proudfoot demonstrated that by 2013 they remain among the nation’s top baccalaureate-origin institutions for a significant proportion of African American S&E doctoral recipients. HBCUs share a common mission to provide and increase educational opportunities for underserved communities and are uniquely positioned to contribute to the nation’s efforts to diversify the STEM workforce. Understanding HBCUs strategies for engaging and graduating low-income STEM students is vital to the future STEM workforce.This Research Hub infrastructure will include curated virtual learning and sharing opportunities, capacity building and technical assistance webinars, and dissemination activities. Also, The Hub will use retention theory as a framework and conduct rigorous, primary research on developing, accommodating, and graduating domestic low-income STEM students who begin or transition into postsecondary education at HBCUs. The project goals are to: 1) conduct robust and innovative research to understand the optimal pathways by which low-income students matriculate at HBCUs and enter successful careers in STEM; 2) provide capacity building, technical support, and strategic alliances for HBCU researchers to contribute to our collective understanding of pathways to success for low-income STEM students; and 3) disseminate research findings on optimal pathways for low-income students to matriculate at HBCUs and enter successful careers in STEM within academia, government, nonprofits, and industry.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.