CAREER: Tapping Hidden Potential: Multilevel Factors that Improve the STEM Outcomes of Racial Minorities, and Youth with Lower Socioeconomic Status or a Disability Classification

这项教师早期职业发展（Career）资助将建立一个综合研究和教育项目，重点关注种族少数民族持续代表性不足的问题，社会经济地位较低的青年（SES），以及STEM领域的残疾分类。总的来说，解决这些差异缺乏明确的方向。该计划旨在促进对少数族裔、残疾人士和低社会经济地位人士全面参与STEM领域的情况的了解。这一努力与NSF更广泛的目标是一致的，即扩大STEM领域中代表性不足群体的参与和努力。在这些代表性不足的群体中，青年的平均成绩水平较低，在积极的stem态度和选择方面面临文化和社会情感障碍。该项目通过将重点放在结构性和制度性因素以及个人态度和选择上，并从确定差异转向量化与STEM差异最密切相关的因素，从而推进知识的发展。本项目的研究工作将使用准实验技术来分析2009年全国代表性高中纵向研究中23,000多名9年级学生的数据，以回答以下问题：1)9年级学生的STEM潜力和STEM学习环境在种族，社会经济地位和残疾状况的交叉点上是如何变化的？2)哪个学生、教室和学校的特点对种族、社会经济地位和残疾状况在STEM成果方面的差异贡献最大？3)哪些课堂和学校的特点可以提高高中时STEM潜力水平相似的学生的STEM成果？描述学生、课程、家长、老师和学校的指标可以细致入微地考虑STEM的潜力和潜在的混杂因素。数据分析将使用因子分析、分解分析、多层次建模和倾向评分匹配。这个项目的教育目标是：1)组建并领导一个数据科学家本科生工作组，2)为波特兰州立大学（PSU）的学生增加STEM实习，特别是涉及数据分析的实习，3)为PSU的教师和研究生发起并促进一个大数据和大问题跨学科研究小组，4)通过研究助理奖学金和将研究成果整合到PSU教授的课程中来增加研究和STEM知识。职业生涯计划是美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的一项全国性活动，旨在为那些通过杰出的研究、优秀的教育以及在其组织使命的背景下将教育和研究结合起来，体现教师学者角色的初级教师提供奖励。该奖项由EHR核心研究（ECR）支持，该研究强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant will establish an integrated research and education program focused on questions underlying persistent underrepresentation of racial minorities, youth with lower socioeconomic status (SES), and disability classifications in STEM fields. In general, there is a lack of clear direction for addressing these disparities. The project aims to promote understanding of the conditions under which racial minorities, persons with disabilities, and persons with low SES are full participants in STEM fields. This effort is consistent with broader NSF goals of broadening participation and expanding efforts to increase participation from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Youth in these underrepresented groups have lower average levels of achievement and face cultural and socioemotional barriers to STEM-positive attitudes and choices. This project advances knowledge by incorporating a focus on structural and institutional contributors as well as individual attitudes and choices, and by moving beyond establishing disparities to quantifying factors most closely implicated in STEM disparities.This project's research efforts will use quasi-experimental techniques to analyze data on over 23,000 9th graders from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer these questions: 1) How do 9th graders' STEM potential and STEM learning environments vary at the intersection of race, SES, and disability status? 2) Which student, classroom, and school characteristics contribute the most to disparities by race, SES, and disability status in STEM outcomes? 3) Which classroom and school characteristics improve STEM outcomes for students who began high school with similar levels of STEM potential? Measures describing students, courses, parents, teachers, and schools enable a nuanced consideration of STEM potential and potential confounders. Data will be analyzed using factor analysis, decomposition analysis, multilevel modeling, and propensity score matching. This project's education goals are to: 1) form and lead a Data Scientists Undergraduate Work Group, 2) increase STEM internships, particularly those that involve data analysis, for Portland State University (PSU) students, 3) initiate and facilitate a Big Data and Big Problems Interdisciplinary Research Group for PSU faculty and graduate students, and 4) increase research and STEM knowledge through research assistantships and the integration of research findings into PSU courses taught by the investigator.The CAREER program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This award is supported by EHR Core Research (ECR) which emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.