NSF INCLUDES DDLP: Southeastern Compact for Inclusive Student Transitions in Engineering and Physical Sciences (SCI-STEPS)

在所有STEM教育和培训中，物理科学和工程仍然是女性、未被充分代表的少数民族和残疾人多样性最低的领域。SCI-STEPS是NSF INCLUDES设计和开发启动试点项目，将通过开发一个完整的端到端管道（或路径系统）来解决这一持续的挑战，从大学开始到博士学位，然后进入劳动力市场。许多扩大参与的孤立努力显示出了希望，但它们没有产生足够大的影响。SCI-STEPS代表了一套协调一致的干预措施——有意识地促进，系统地联系，有目的地传播。SCI-STEPS代表了主要研究型大学、传统黑人学院和大学、综合性大学、社区学院、国家实验室和主要科学组织之间广泛的区域网络。该网络的目标是确保物理科学和工程领域代表性不足的个人能够从他们在STEM高等教育的起点——两年制或四年制大学的新生——通过高等教育途径获得适当的最终学位，并在STEM劳动力中就业。女性、未被充分代表的少数民族和残疾人共同代表了进入高等教育并对物理科学和工程表达了兴趣的大学适龄个人的大多数。越来越多的研究表明，在留住学生方面，学术和社会融合可能比学术能力更有影响力。因此，旨在阻止这些人流失的干预措施最终必须以改变系统为目标——包括不受欢迎的制度氛围、种族/民族/性别刻板印象、缺乏可以识别的导师、以及强调从众而不是个人能力的评估方法——而不是改变个人。SCI-STEPS试点重点关注在四个关键阶段实施最佳实践干预措施的机构准备情况：(i)大学大一到大二；（ii）本科转研究生；（三）博士至博士后；（四）博士后进入职场。该试点将分三个步骤进行：(1)规划阶段，(2)与四个接合过渡团队一起开发初始端到端路径模型，以及(3)与所有初始合作伙伴一起扩大SCI-STEPS“网络的网络”。通过集体影响框架和嵌入式研究来实现这些目标，该试点将展示如何在每个路径节点上进行最佳实践干预，并在广泛的机构类型和广阔但独特的地理区域内进行整合和推广。因此，通过提出机构伙伴关系和最佳实践的形式，实现这些目标也将有助于在全国范围内推进“扩大参与”的努力，这些伙伴关系和最佳实践可能会为其他STEM学科和/或不同区域的其他联盟提供信息。

Physical science and engineering remain the least diverse of all STEM fields---with regard to women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities---across all levels of STEM education and training. SCI-STEPS is an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot that will address this persistent challenge by developing a complete end-to-end pipeline (or system of pathways) from the beginning of college to the PhD, and then into the workforce. Many isolated efforts to broaden participation have shown promise, but they have not produced big enough impact. SCI-STEPS represents a concerted set of coordinated interventions---consciously facilitated, systemically linked, and purposefully disseminated. SCI-STEPS represents a broad regional network among major research universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, comprehensive universities, community colleges, national labs, and major scientific organizations. The goal of the network is to ensure that underrepresented individuals in the physical sciences and engineering can get from their starting point in STEM higher education---freshmen at 2-year or 4-year college---through the higher education pathways leading to an appropriate terminal degree and employment in the STEM workforce.Women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities collectively represent the majority of college-age individuals entering higher education with an expressed interest in physical science and engineering. A growing body of research indicates that academic and social integration may be even more influential than academic abilities for retention of students. Thus, interventions aimed at stemming the losses of these individuals must ultimately be aimed at changing the system---including unwelcoming institutional climates, racial/ethnic/gender stereotyping, a lack of mentors with whom to identify, and evaluation methods that emphasize conformity over individual capabilities---rather than changing the individual. The SCI-STEPS pilot focuses effort on institutional readiness for implementation of best practice interventions at four key junctures: (i) college freshman to sophomore; (ii) undergraduate to graduate; (iii) PhD to postdoc; and (iv) postdoc to workforce.The pilot will proceed in three steps: (1) a planning phase, (2) development of an initial end-to-end pathways model with four Juncture Transition teams, and (3) scale-up of the SCI-STEPS "network of networks" with all initial partners. By addressing these objectives through a collective impact framework and embedded research, this pilot will demonstrate how best-practice interventions at each pathway juncture can be dovetailed and scaled up across a broad range of institutional types and across a large but distinct geographical area. Addressing these objectives will thus also serve to advance Broadening Participation efforts at a national scale, by suggesting the forms of institutional partnerships and best-practices that may inform other alliances in other STEM disciplines and/or different regional areas.