Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Russell M Gersten

Institution: RG Research Group

Learning of fractions is a significant barrier for many in further study of mathematics and thus other science, technology, and engineering disciplines. Many students identified as struggling learners of mathematics are provided with interventions that focus on simplifying the complexity and breaking up the task into small discrete pieces, which is counter to the recommendations on supporting students in learning mathematics from the mathematics education community. The rigorous, large-scale...

Effective: 2014-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Nilanjana Dasgupta

Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst

In the past thirty years a national debate has been brewing about the scarcity of women and racial/ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and its grave implications for the American workforce in the 21st century. From middle school through college, girls and women have performed less well on standardized tests in science and mathematics than their male peers and express less confidence and aspirations in these fields. Similar findings emerge for Black and...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lisa Y Flores, Rachel L Navarro

Institutions: University of Missouri-Columbia, University of North Dakota Main Campus

The project aims to investigate the longitudinal effects of social cognitive, cultural, personality and contextual factors on engineering students and workers satisfaction, engagement, and persistence as posited by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). The longstanding underrepresentation of White women and Latina/os in engineering majors and jobs provides the rationale for this investigation of psychological factors leading to their academic and career satisfaction, engagement, and...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Gladis Kersaint

Institutions: University of South Florida, University of Connecticut

The purpose of this study is to broaden understanding about how social capital and cultural models of engineering success (CMES) contribute to the retention and degree attainment of women and minority engineering undergraduates, traditionally under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Social capital refers to the social connections of students and the resources available through those connections. CMES refer to beliefs about how to succeed in an engineering...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Catherine Riegle-Crumb

Institution: University of Texas at Austin

This study makes a major contribution to the literature on disparities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by providing new information about the STEM trajectories of boys and girls from various racial/ethnic subgroups from middle school through the end of college. Using five comprehensive, large-scale and longitudinal datasets, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin will examine differences between subgroups in intended as well as actual STEM...

Effective: 2014-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: George E DeBoer

Institution: American Association for the Advancement of Science

This project, conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), seeks to improve assessment of science understanding in K-12 students. The project will cover a wide range of 16 topics within science education. When a student takes a science test, performance will depend on cognitive factors, what the student knows, and linguistic factors, related to language. This project aims to distinguish cognitive and linguistic factors, with a focus on English language learners....

Effective: 2014-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Kevin J Crowley, Rena Dorph

Institutions: University of Pittsburgh, University of California-Berkeley

This project, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Berkeley, seeks to discover what makes middle school students engaged in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The researchers have developed a concept known as science learning activation, including dispositions, practices, and knowledge leading to successful STEM learning and engagement. The project is intended to develop and validate a method of measuring science learning...

Effective: 2014-2018

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Ellen Schiller

Institution: SRI International

Students with learning disabilities and those with autism spectrum disorder represent the largest and fastest growing groups of students with disabilities in U.S. public schools. These students are underperforming in STEM achievement as compared to their non-disabled peers, and these students are underprepared for college entry and success. This capacity building project will contribute to foundational knowledge about what is already known, and what needs to be studied, about K-12 online STEM...

Effective: 2013-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Megan E Bang, Beth Warren

Institutions: University of Washington, TERC Inc

AbstractExpansive Meanings and Makings in ArtScience will design and develop an innovative model of ArtScience learning for middle and high school age youth from communities underrepresented in STEM fields. ArtScience is an emerging movement emphasizing commonalities in thinking practices used by artists and scientists as they explore complex 21st century problems. Youth will engage in ArtScience inquiries in two scientific domains of significance to them and their communities: climate change...

Effective: 2013-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Chandra L Muller, John R Warren

Institutions: University of Texas at Austin, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

This collaborative study is investigating how the STEM skills and training that individuals from underrepresented groups acquired during high school and postsecondary education have contributed to their STEM workforce success and the types of occupations they now enjoy in midlife. It is uses the High School & Beyond (HS&B) database, a nationally representative study of high school sophomores from 1980. HS&B contains a large sample of African Americans and Latinos, women, and people...

Effective: 2013-2017

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jon D Miller

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

This project is initiating a new cohort of 7th grade students and extending the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) to a new generation. In 1987, the LSAY began with national cohorts of 7th and 10th grade students selected from a stratified probability sample of public schools in the U.S. The LSAY has provided a valuable longitudinal record of the development of student attitudes and experiences into young adult life plans, careers, and new families. The original LSAY cohorts have...