Closing STEM Student Academic Performance Equity Gaps Through Student Research Exposure and Faculty Professional Development in Pedagogy and Curricular Innovation

在改善本科STEM教育的支持下：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划），该轨道2实施和评估项目将实施以证据为基础的教师发展，从而在少数民族服务社区学院的STEM学科中形成支持多样性，公平和包容性的机构文化。此外，它将展示这种教学和课程实践与持续的，多方面的学生支持的综合影响，并加强接触本科研究经验，以建立STEM身份，从而提高学生的学习成绩，并成功转移到学士学位STEM学位课程。 每年，RCC为30，000多名学生提供服务。来自传统上代表性不足的种族背景的学生占RCC学生的73%，其中西班牙裔学生占多数（63%）。对于RCC的学生来说，教育，特别是STEM教育，为改善他们的社会流动性和生活质量提供了希望。 然而，这些学科是最严格的，有很高的课程失败率和减员率。 在核心STEM课程表现，STEM内的持续性以及西班牙裔，非洲裔美国人和其他高等教育中代表性不足的群体转移到四年制大学方面存在显着的公平表现差距。 我们寻求通过持续改进教学和学习来改变这种状况。 为了实现这一目标，我们正在与加州州立大学圣贝纳迪诺（CSUSB）合作，复制他们围绕包容性和响应性STEM教学法与教师发展所做的工作，并扩大有针对性的学生支持，指导和接触学生的研究机会。 将实施两套互补的活动：（1）同行领导的教师专业发展，重点是STEM的教学和课程改进;（2）在STEM学科内和跨STEM学科扩大学生体验式学习和研究，并通过在转学目的地大学接触夏季研究经验。这些活动将导致（1）增加STEM教师的知识，技能，并利用文化敏感，包容性和主动学习教学法;（2）增加STEM学生的保留率，学期持续性，课程成功率和转移率，并缩小学生公平差距;（3）对STEM中多样性，公平和包容性（DEI）的知识库做出贡献。 该项目将创建一个STEM教师学习社区（FLC），以开发和实施公平的，以证据为基础的实践证明有效支持西班牙裔和其他代表性不足的学生在中学后STEM教育中取得成功。研究将通过采用混合方法全面评估项目在多个层面的实施情况和成果，为少数民族服务机构内的STEM教育知识做出贡献。该项目将衡量FLC参与者对STEM中DEI问题的高影响力实践和知识的认识和实施的变化，以及学生与STEM相关的身份，归属感和职业规划的变化，以及他们的学业成绩和轨迹。该项目的结果将被告知，并有助于文献上代表性不足的少数民族学生的坚持和成功的干学科，以及干教师专业发展的重点是高影响力的教学实践。这项工作的结果将通过学科会议传播给多个受众，并在专门针对社区学院和西班牙裔服务机构的会议上发表演讲。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于不同的性质和背景下的HSIs，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（一）参与学生学习，（二）关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM的参与，以及（三）提高我们对如何在HSIs建立机构能力的理解。HSI计划所支持的项目也将从这些方法中汲取经验，以产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 Implementation and Evaluation project will implement evidence-based faculty development leading to an institutional culture supportive of diversity, equity, and inclusion within STEM disciplines at a minority serving community college. Further, it will demonstrate the combined impact of such pedagogical and curricular practices with sustained, multi-faceted student supports, and enhanced exposure to undergraduate research experiences for building STEM identity, leading to improved student academic performance and successful transfer to baccalaureate STEM degree programs. Annually, RCC serves more than 30,000 students. Students from traditionally underrepresented ethnic backgrounds represent 73% of students enrolled at RCC, of which Hispanic students are the majority group (63%). For the students of RCC, education, especially STEM education, offers the promise of improving their social mobility and quality of life. However, these disciplines are among the most rigorous, and have high course failure and attrition rates. There are notable equity performance gaps in core STEM course performance, persistence within STEM, and transfer to four-year universities for Hispanic, African American, and other underrepresented groups in higher education. We seek to change that through sustainable improvement in teaching and learning. To accomplish this goal, we are partnering with California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) to replicate work they have done with faculty development around inclusive and responsive STEM pedagogy, and to expand targeted student support, mentorship and exposure to student research opportunities. Two complementary sets of activity will be implemented: (1) peer-led faculty professional development focused on pedagogical and curricular improvements in STEM; (2) expansion of student experiential learning and research within and across STEM disciplines, and through exposure to summer research experiences at a transfer destination university. Those activities will result in (1) increased STEM faculty knowledge, skills, and utilization of culturally sensitive, inclusive, and active learning pedagogy; (2) increased STEM student retention, term-to-term persistence, course success, and transfer rate, and closing of student equity gaps; (3) contributions to the knowledge-base about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in STEM. The project will create a STEM faculty learning community (FLC) to develop and implement equity-minded, evidence-based practices proven effective for supporting Hispanic and other underrepresented students to succeed in postsecondary STEM education. Research will contribute to the knowledge on STEM education within minority serving institutions by employing a mixed-methods approach to holistically assess the project’s implementation and outcomes at multiple levels. The project will measure changes in FLC participants’ awareness and implementation of high-impact practices and knowledge of DEI issues in STEM, and changes in students’ STEM-related identity, belonging, and career plans, as well as their academic performance and trajectory. The project results will be informed by and contribute to the literature on underrepresented minority student persistence and success in STEM disciplines, as well as STEM faculty professional development focused on high-impact teaching practices. Results of this work will be disseminated to multiple audiences via disciplinary conferences, and presentations at conferences specific to community colleges and Hispanic serving institutions. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.