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

这个S-STEM研究中心由少数民族优质教育（QEM）网络与美国研究所（AIR）合作协调，旨在更好地了解吸引和毕业低收入STEM学生的策略。QEM-AIR研究中心（该中心）将为HBCU战略联盟提供基础设施，以合作并扩大其有效战略的知识基础，以支持国内低收入，有才华的STEM学生。这一知识对国家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）劳动力的构成并不能反映美国目前的种族多样性，种族和社会经济地位的交叉掩盖了目前通过专门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，黑人或非洲裔美国人约占美国18-64岁成年人口的12%;然而，在2016年，他们获得科学与工程学士学位的比例分别为9%和4%。历史上，黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）在非裔美国人的STEM教育中发挥着重要作用，这一作用与他们在国家高等教育机构中的代表性不成比例。虽然HBCUs仅占全国高等教育机构的3%，但Fiegener Proudfoot证明，到2013年，他们仍然是全国最高的学士学位起源机构之一，非洲裔美国人的SE博士学位获得者占很大比例。HBCUs有一个共同的使命，即为服务不足的社区提供和增加教育机会，并具有独特的地位，为国家实现STEM劳动力多样化的努力做出贡献。了解HBCUs吸引和毕业低收入STEM学生的战略对未来的STEM劳动力至关重要。这个研究中心基础设施将包括策划的虚拟学习和分享机会，能力建设和技术援助网络研讨会，以及传播活动。此外，该中心将使用保留理论作为框架，并进行严格的，主要研究发展，容纳和毕业的国内低收入STEM学生谁开始或过渡到中学后教育在HBCU。该项目的目标是：1）进行强有力的创新研究，以了解低收入学生在HBCU入学并进入STEM成功职业的最佳途径; 2）为HBCU研究人员提供能力建设，技术支持和战略联盟，以促进我们对低收入STEM学生成功途径的集体理解;以及3）传播关于低收入学生进入HBCUs并在学术界，政府，非营利组织中进入STEM成功职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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，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.