NSF INCLUDES: A National Network for Access and Inclusion in Physics Graduate Education

与其他任何科学领域相比，物理学授予女性博士学位的比例（19%）和未被充分代表的少数民族和种族（7%）都要小，而代表性不足在名牌大学尤为明显。随着全球对科学人才的竞争升温以及美国人口结构的变化，培养一支强大的国内劳动力对美国的技术领导地位至关重要。我们寻求在成功的美国物理学会桥梁计划（apsbridgeprogram.org）的基础上，通过改变物理研究生教育，充分支持女性和少数民族和种族的包容。我们的愿景是建立一个由学科同事、专家研究人员和专业协会代表组成的全国性网络，他们将开发和建立基于证据的知识，以有效地实践招聘、录取和保留女性和未被充分代表的少数民族和种族。这个试点项目将包括六个大型的、高度选择性的物理研究生项目，以展示和制定一个学科范围内的努力计划。该试点项目的重点是改善招生实践，因为这一战略有望在现有研究的支持下产生立竿见影、可衡量的影响。该试点项目还将采取探索性步骤，制定可扩展的招聘和保留战略。为了完善干预措施，我们将开展研究，以确定和了解研究生物理课程中基于人口统计学的学生损失点，并了解网络参与如何促进变革。该项目还将与其他STEM学科建立联系，从数学和化学开始，探索扩大这些努力。该项目以研究生教育、组织学习和促进文化变革的网络资源的多样性研究为基础。项目团队包括制度变革、研究生招生、学生成功、多样化和包容性环境以及社会科学研究方面的专业知识。该试点通过将物理研究生教育中的招聘、录取和保留作为教师学习、专业网络和学科文化变革的相互关联的挑战，推进了一项关于STEM包容性的新研究议程。物理学研究生课程将报告入学数据和通用指标，并将记录项目活动产生的变化。教师将接受全面招生和选择过程多样性方面的培训，并在使用包容性招生实践方面得到指导。外部评估人员将检查项目的有效性和扩展到联盟阶段项目的准备情况。

Physics awards smaller percentages of PhDs to women (19%) and underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities (7%) than any other field in the sciences, and underrepresentation is especially pronounced at selective universities. As global competition for scientific talent heats up and US demographics shift, cultivating a robust domestic workforce is critical to US technological leadership. We seek to build on the successful American Physical Society Bridge Program (apsbridgeprogram.org) by transforming physics graduate education to fully support the inclusion of women and ethnic and racial minorities. Our vision is to create a national network of disciplinary colleagues, expert researchers, and representatives from professional associations who will develop and build evidence-based knowledge of effective practices for recruitment, admissions, and retention of women and underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities. This pilot project will include six large, highly selective physics graduate programs to demonstrate and map out a plan for a discipline-wide effort. The pilot focuses on improving admissions practices, because this strategy promises immediate and measurable impact backed by extant research. The pilot will also take exploratory steps to develop scalable recruitment and retention strategies. To refine interventions, we will conduct research to identify and understand demographically-based loss points of students in graduate physics programs and to understand how network participation facilitates change. The project will also establish connections with other STEM disciplines, beginning with mathematics and chemistry, to explore expanding these efforts. This project is grounded in research on diversity in graduate education, organizational learning, and the resources of networks to catalyze cultural change. The project team includes expertise in institutional change, graduate admissions, student success, diverse and inclusive environments, and social science research. The pilot advances a novel research agenda on inclusion in STEM by addressing recruitment, admissions, and retention in physics graduate education as interconnected challenges of faculty learning, professional networks, and disciplinary cultural change. Physics graduate programs will report admissions data and common metrics, and will document changes resulting from project activities. Faculty will be trained on holistic admissions and diversity in selection processes, and be guided in the use of inclusive admissions practices. An external evaluator will examine project effectiveness and readiness for scaling to an Alliance phase project.