STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

Broadening Participation in STEM

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

Effective Years: 2017-2024

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.

12 Publications Related to This Project: