Opportunity Matters: Investigating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the STEM Career Pipeline

机会很重要：调查 COVID-19 大流行对 STEM 职业渠道的影响

• 批准号: 2301038
• 负责人: Jennifer Hamilton
• 金额: $ 99.53万
• 依托单位: National Opinion Research Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301038&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Opportunity; Matters; Investigating; Impact; COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the educational landscape of the United States, overwhelming schools and leaving high school students with fewer opportunities to learn math and science content. This was particularly true for students from historically marginalized groups including students living in poverty, students of color, students with disabilities, and students whose primary language is not English. Reduced opportunities to learn math and science content has profound implications for the pipeline from high school, through college, to STEM careers, narrowing it to only students with the necessary resources to ensure continued access to learning opportunities. Building on prior research, this study is designed to explore disruptions in math and science high school course taking during the COVID-19 Pandemic, focusing on high school students from historically marginalized groups in the United States. The project draws upon Opportunity to Learn theory and a multidimensional conceptualization of cultural capital which incorporating Bourdieu's concept of hysteresis and Yosso's theory of Community Cultural Wealth. The project is designed to advance foundational knowledge about students’ access to and engagement with science and math courses at different time points before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from the National Opinion Research Center will partner with Infinite Campus, a leading supplier of student information and learning management systems, providing researchers with access to data on over 1.8 million high school students across the United States. The large-scale data set will enable analyses of populations often excluded from research because of their small populations, as well as intersectional groups with multiple social identities. The project team will use weighting techniques designed to warrant claims about public high schools with enrollments larger than 50 students. Data will be analyzed using concept grounding, latent class analysis, and intersectional techniques. Findings from this study have the potential to be critical for schools and districts as they work to more equitably address disparities in student outcomes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.

新冠肺炎疫情从根本上改变了美国的教育格局，使学校不堪重负，使高中生学习数学和科学内容的机会减少。对于那些来自历史上被边缘化群体的学生来说尤其如此，包括生活贫困的学生、有色人种学生、残疾学生和母语不是英语的学生。学习数学和科学内容的机会减少，对从高中到大学再到STEM职业的学生产生了深远的影响，将其缩小到只有拥有必要资源的学生才能确保继续获得学习机会。在先前研究的基础上，本研究旨在探讨2019冠状病毒病大流行期间高中数学和科学课程的中断情况，重点关注美国历史上边缘化群体的高中生。该项目借鉴了机会学习理论和文化资本的多维概念化，其中包括布迪厄的滞后性概念和约索的社区文化财富理论。该项目旨在提高学生在2019冠状病毒病大流行之前、期间和之后不同时间点获得和参与科学和数学课程的基础知识。来自国家意见研究中心的研究人员将与无限校园合作，无限校园是学生信息和学习管理系统的领先供应商，为研究人员提供美国180多万高中生的数据。大规模的数据集将使人们能够分析由于人口少而经常被排除在研究之外的人群，以及具有多种社会身份的交叉群体。该项目团队将使用加权技术，旨在保证对招生人数超过50人的公立高中的索赔。数据将使用概念基础、潜在类分析和交叉技术进行分析。这项研究的结果可能对学校和学区至关重要，因为他们在COVID-19大流行之后努力更公平地解决学生成绩的差异。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EDU核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。