Collaborative Research: Evaluating Access: How a Multi-Institutional Network Promotes Equity and Cultural Change through Expanding Student Voice

解决物理科学中代表性和公平性的关键问题需要有意义的文化变革。Access Network成立于2015年，通过将院校与学生主导的、以公平为导向的项目联系起来，分享和传播基于研究的战略，并为克服共同障碍提供支持，直接解决了这一国家优先事项。通过有指导的校际学生群体和年度大会，Access培养了社区，培养了学生领袖，加强了机构记忆，并提供了国家背景，这些都是可持续性和可扩展性的重要因素。该网络的核心是一种独特的理念，即认可并提升学生作为变革的推动者，将他们视为STEM社区的强大成员和物理学未来的领导者。外部评估人员、网络内的教育研究人员和内部学生评估人员之间的创新评估伙伴关系将记录网络对学生领袖、当地网站和各个部门的影响。这些活动将学生驱动的、以社区为基础的方法与外部评估人员的专业知识相结合，从而形成一个更完整的模型。这项工作将通过以下方式直接支持网络中的学生、个别机构的学生以及其他机构的学生：(i)不断改进网络活动，以支持来自不同背景的年轻科学家的专业发展和保留；（ii）培养新的学生领袖；（iii）增加材料和最佳实践库，以提高当地站点的效率。它将促进对物理科学中以公平为中心的变化的认识，并为强有力的评估开发基础设施，以记录、理解和促进对成功至关重要的网络方面。外部评价者、内部评价导师和学生评价之间提出的新型评价伙伴关系，推进了参与式评价的概念，为程序化评价树立了典范。更有效地支持地方评估有助于其可持续性，因为他们可以更好地了解并向当地利益相关者传达其影响。从评估活动中获得的见解不仅可以更全面地了解接入网模型，为网络的改进提供信息，而且还可以使其他希望在STEM中实施以股权为中心的文化变革的人受益。有关有效项目的知识将对那些制定共同领导模式的人特别有帮助，扩大学生在改变社区方面可以发挥的关键作用。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。

Addressing the critical issue of representation and equity in the physical sciences requires meaningful cultural change. The Access Network, founded in 2015, directly addresses this national priority by connecting institutions with student-led, equity-oriented programs to share and disseminate research-based strategies and provide support for overcoming common barriers. Through mentored intersite student cohorts and an annual Assembly, Access fosters community, develops student leaders, reinforces institutional memory, and provides a national context, all important factors for sustainability and scalability. At the Network’s core is a unique philosophy that recognizes and elevates students as drivers of change, recognizing them as powerful members of the STEM community and the future leaders of physics. An innovative evaluation partnership among external evaluators, educational research faculty within the network, and internal student evaluation fellows will document the network’s impacts on student leaders, local sites and individual departments. These activities combine a student-driven, community-based approach with the expertise of external evaluators, resulting in a more complete picture of the model.This work will directly support students in the Network, at individual institutions, and beyond by: (i) continuously improving Network activities that support the professional development and retention of junior scientists from diverse backgrounds, (ii) cultivating new student leaders, and (iii) growing a repository of materials and best practices that will increase the efficacy of local sites. It will advance knowledge of equity-focused change in the physical sciences and develop infrastructure for robust evaluation to document, understand, and promote Network aspects crucial to success. The novel evaluation partnership proposed among external evaluators, internal evaluation mentors, and student evaluation advance the conception of participatory evaluation and sets a model for programmatic evaluation. More effectively supporting sites in local evaluation enables their sustainability, as they can better understand and communicate their impacts to local stakeholders. Insights from evaluation activities not only result in a more complete picture of the Access Network model, informing improvements to the network, but also benefit others wishing to enact equity-focused cultural change in STEM. The knowledge about effective programs will be especially helpful for those enacting shared leadership models, expanding the critical role students can play in transforming communities.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.