Reimagining Grading to Support Nontraditional and Rural Students in High Enrollment, Gateway STEM Courses

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。常见的课堂实践，如评分和使用分数来评估知识和表现，可能会对学生产生意想不到的后果，这些学生总是从这些评分结构的结果中获得对自己学术能力的认识。事实上，这些传统做法可能会在不经意间造成和加剧不同学生群体之间的不平等，尤其是在招生人数众多的课程中，但这些问题在很大程度上尚未得到探讨。这个博士后研究奖学金项目旨在研究评分实践对自我概念和STEM持久性的影响，特别关注农村和非传统学生。该项目有望为农村和非传统学生提供关于公平课堂和评分实践的新见解，这些实践与高入学率门户课程的限制相适应。除了开展研究项目外，研究者还将通过明确的专业发展计划建立定量方法和方法的STEM教育研究能力。该项目的研究假设是，非传统学生和农村学生在高入学率的门户STEM课程中特别容易受到传统评分的限制。研究者将采用混合方法，以社区为基础的参与性研究方法，有三个目标。首先是探讨评分结构与非传统学生和农村学生的自我概念和坚持高招生门户STEM课程的意愿之间的关系。其次是描述传统和替代评分方案的各个方面如何影响非传统和农村学生的学术自我概念和坚持STEM的意图。第三是开发经验支持的公平评分策略方法，这些方法有利于高入学率的STEM教室，特别支持农村学生和非传统学生。研究结果可以为教师提供实用的评估和评分方法，以解决与评分相关的系统性不公平做法，并为学生创造更公平的学习环境。该项目响应STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划，旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Common classroom practices, such as grading and the use of grades to assess knowledge and performance, may have unintended consequences on students who invariably derive an awareness of their own academic abilities from the results of those grading structures. In fact, these traditional practices may inadvertently create and promote inequities among different student groups, particularly in large enrollment courses, but these issues have largely been unexplored. This postdoctoral research fellowship project seeks to examine the impact of grading practices on self-concept and STEM persistence with a special focus on rural and nontraditional students. The project has promise to produce new insights about equitable classroom and grading practices for rural and nontraditional students that are compatible with the constraints of high enrollment gateway courses. In addition to conducting the research project, the investigator will build STEM education research capacity in quantitative methods and approaches through an explicit professional development plan.This project's research hypothesis is that nontraditional and rural students are especially vulnerable to the limitations of traditional grading when used in high enrollment, gateway STEM courses. The investigator will use a mixed-methods, community-based participatory research approach with three objectives. First is to explore the relationship between grading structures and nontraditional and rural students’ self-concept and intentions to persist in high enrollment, gateway STEM courses. Second is to characterize how aspects of traditional and alternative grading schemes influence nontraditional and rural students’ academic self-concept and intentions to persist in STEM. Third is to develop empirically supported approaches of equitable grading strategies that are conducive to high enrollment STEM classrooms and are particularly supportive for rural students and students that identify as nontraditional. The findings could provide faculty with practical assessment and grading approaches to address the systemic inequitable practices associated with grading and create more equitable learning environments for students broadly.The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.