NSF INCLUDES Alliance: STEM PUSH (Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education) Network

STEM劳动力的多样性对于扩大人才库和为解决社会问题带来新想法至关重要，但根深蒂固的差距仍然存在。在STEM高等教育中，来自某些种族和族裔群体的学生在STEM专业和领域的代表性仍然不足。作为回应，学院和大学为来自弱势群体的高中生提供了大学预科STEM课程。这些项目已被证明对学生的分析和批判性思维能力、STEM内容知识和接触、以及通过以STEM为重点的丰富和研究经验的自我效能感产生积极影响。事实上，重要的研究表明，校外时间，大学前的STEM经历是学生追求STEM专业和职业的关键影响因素，并强调了大学前STEM课程在培养学生STEM能力方面的价值。这个NSF INCLUDES联盟：STEM PUSH——弱势学生进入高等教育网络的途径——将形成一个全国性的大学预科STEM项目网络，通过创建、传播和扩大一个公平的、基于证据的大学入学途径——大学预科STEM项目认证——来实现它们的价值。在几个成功的NSF INCLUDES设计和开发启动试点的基础上，该联盟将采用网络化的改进社区方法，通过建立大学预科STEM项目的认证程序来改变大学招生，其中基于标准的证书作为项目质量的指标，被学院和大学认可为严格的，值得在本科招生过程中给予有利考虑。鉴于来自代表性不足群体的学生在大学预科STEM项目中的入学率很高，联盟努力通过最大化大学入学机会和高等教育及其他领域的STEM成果来扩大STEM的参与。STEM PUSH网络是一个由大学预科STEM项目、STEM和文化响应教育学专家、正规和非正规教育从业者、大学招生专业人员、认证部门和其他高等教育代表组成的全国性联盟。该联盟将利用网络改进社区模式和“下一代”认证模式建立一个强大的协作改进空间，该模式将作为一种机制，将大学预科项目的力量传达给招生办公室。这项工作的框架是这样一种观念，即大学预科STEM课程的认证是对当前录取标准的公平补充，目前的录取标准通常被认为是一种有文化偏见的标准化考试分数体系。为了实现其共同的愿景和目标，联盟有四个关键目标：(1)建立并支持一个全国性的大学预科STEM项目网络社区；(2)开发一个基于标准的大学预科STEM项目认证系统，以扩大STEM的参与；(3)在网络改进社区内测试和验证该模型；(4)通过其骨干组织STEM学习生态系统实践社区传播、扩大和维持该模型。每个目标都将由外部评价人员密切监测和评价。此外，通过该联盟开发的数据基础设施将提供前所未有的机会，促进网络改进社区设计和开发领域的学术研究，提高STEM大学预科课程的有效性，以及拓宽从高中到高等教育的参与途径的有效实践。到五年后，STEM PUSH网络将把全国十个城市生态系统转变为社区，在这些社区中，来自代表性不足群体的学生增加了上大学的机会，从而有机会获得STEM机会和高等教育专业。该模式有可能被其他80个STEM生态系统复制，这些生态系统将通过骨干组织获得联盟的材料和战略。NSF INCLUDES联盟由美国国家科学基金会全国工程和科学领域未被充分代表的发现者学习者社区（NSF INCLUDES）资助，这是一项全面的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性、包容性和扩大STEM的大规模参与来增强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。它还由NSF学生和教师创新技术体验计划和推进非正式STEM学习计划共同资助。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。

Diversity in the STEM workforce is essential for expanding the talent pool and bringing new ideas to bear in solving societal problems, yet entrenched gaps remain. In STEM higher education, students from certain racial and ethnic groups continue to be underrepresented in STEM majors and fields. Colleges and universities have responded by offering precollege STEM programs to high school students from predominantly underrepresented groups. These programs have been shown to positively affect students' analytical and critical thinking skills, STEM content knowledge and exposure, and self-efficacy through STEM-focused enrichment and research experiences. In fact, salient research suggests that out-of-school-time, precollege STEM experiences are key influencers in students' pursuit of STEM majors and careers, and underscore the value of precollege STEM programs in their ability to prepare students in STEM. This NSF INCLUDES Alliance: STEM PUSH - Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education Network - will form a national network of precollege STEM programs to actualize their value through the creation, spread and scale of an equitable, evidence-based pathway for university admissions - precollege STEM program accreditation. Building on several successful NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots, this Alliance will use a networked improvement community approach to transform college admissions by establishing an accreditation process for precollege STEM programs in which standards-based credentials serve as indicators of program quality that are recognized by colleges and universities as rigorous and worthy of favorable consideration during undergraduate admissions processes. Given the high enrollment of students from underrepresented groups in precollege STEM programs, the Alliance endeavors to broaden participation in STEM by maximizing college access and STEM outcomes in higher education and beyond.The STEM PUSH Network is a national alliance of precollege STEM programs, STEM and culturally responsive pedagogy experts, formal and informal education practitioners, college admissions professionals, the accreditation sector, and other higher education representatives. The Alliance will establish a formidable collaborative improvement space using the networked improvement community model and a "next generation" accreditation model that will serve as a mechanism for communicating the power of precollege programs to admissions offices. Framing this work is the notion that the accreditation of precollege STEM programs is an equitable supplemental admissions criterion to the current, often cited as a culturally biased, standardized test score-based system. To achieve its shared vision and goals, the Alliance has four key objectives: (1) establish and support a national precollege STEM program networked community, (2) develop a standards-based precollege STEM program accreditation system to broaden participation in STEM, (3) test and validate the model within the networked improvement community, and (4) spread, scale, and sustain the model through its backbone organization, the STEM Learning Ecosystem Community of Practice. Each objective will be closely monitored and evaluated by an external evaluator. In addition, the data infrastructure developed through this Alliance will provide an unprecedented opportunity to advance scholarship in the fields of networked improvement community design and development, the efficacy of STEM precollege programs, and effective practices for broadening participation pathways from high school to higher education. By the end of five years, the STEM PUSH Network will transform ten urban ecosystems across the country into communities where students from underrepresented groups have increased college access and therefore, entree to STEM opportunities and majors in higher education. The model has the potential to be replicated by another 80 STEM ecosystems that will have access to Alliance materials and strategies through the backbone organization. This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. It is also co-funded by the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program and the Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program.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.