Successes in Increasing Nontraditional Participation and Completion – Local Strategies and State Policies

May 12, 2011NACTEI

Courtney Reed Jenkins

National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity Education Foundation

608/886-0728creedjenkins@napequity.org

Overview

• What would you like as a take-away?

• STEM Equity Pipeline Project – Overview

• Local Strategies

• State Policies

• Please join us!

What the STEM Equity Pipeline Project is doing to recruit and retain women and girls in STEM

STEM Equity Pipeline Project: Goals

• Build the capacity of the formal education community

• Institutionalize the implemented strategies by connecting the outcomes to existing accountability systems

• Broaden the commitment to gender equity in STEM education

STEM Equity Pipeline Project: Intellectual Specialization

• Accountability – Using Data to Drive Program Improvement– The Five Step Process

• Professional Development - Implementing Effective Extension Services in the Formal Education Community

The Five Step

Process

STEP 1Document

Performance Results

STEP 5ImplementSolutions

STEP 4Pilot Test and

Evaluate Best Solutions

STEP 3Choose

Best Solutions

STEP 2Identify

Root Causes

STEM Equity Pipeline Project: Methods

• Professional Development

• Teacher Training

• Consulting and Technical Assistance

• Virtual Web-based Professional Learning Community (www.stemequitypipeline.org)

• Best Practices Handbook

State Teams

• 11 states– California– Missouri– Illinois– Oklahoma– Wisconsin– Iowa – Minnesota– New Hampshire – Ohio– Texas– Georgia

• Secondary/Postsecondary collaboration

• Led by the agencies that administer career and technical education in the state

Virtual Learning Communitywww.stemequitypipeline.org

• Public portal for the STEM equity pipeline community – Listserv– Links– Articles, Resources, Reports and Research– Calendar of Events in STEM – Webcasts, Webinars, Video, Podcasts, Power Points– Online courses and Tutorials– Performance Data on Women & Girls in STEM– Professional Development Needs Assessment– Project Evaluation Instruments and Surveys – Suggestion Box– More!

How can I be involved?

• Visit the Virtual Learning Community– Register for the listserv– Complete the professional development

needs assessment– Access resources and best practices

• Participate in a webinar/webcast/online course

• Host a 5-step training

Local strategies

STEP 1Document

Performance Results

STEP 5ImplementSolutions

STEP 4Pilot Test and

Evaluate Best Solutions

STEP 3Choose

Best Solutions

STEP 2Identify

Root Causes

The Five Step

Process

Data analysis

• Look at the entire STEM pipeline: where are the leaks?

• Compare between “academic” and CTE STEM programs for participation and performance

• Benchmark with other programs in the state, country

• Sex-segregated? Nontraditional?

STEP 1Document

Performance Results

STEP 5ImplementSolutions

STEP 4Pilot Test and

Evaluate Best Solutions

STEP 3Choose

Best Solutions

STEP 2Identify

Root Causes

The Five Step

Process

Why Search for Root Causes?

Keep from fixating on the

“silver bullet” strategy• Identify the conditions or factors that

cause or permit a performance gap to occur

• Direct cause (i.e. instructional practice)

• Indirect cause (i.e. teacher training)

Resources available at www.stemequitypipeline.org

• Survey Instruments

• How to Conduct Interviews

• How to Conduct Focus Groups

STEP 1Document

Performance Results

STEP 5ImplementSolutions

STEP 4Pilot Test and

Evaluate Best Solutions

STEP 3Choose

Best Solutions

STEP 2Identify

Root Causes

The Five Step

Process

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Education: Academic/Technical Proficiency

– Successful programs: • Rosie’s Girls, Northern New England

Tradeswomen http://www.vtworksforwomen.org/programs_for_girls/rosies_girls.html

• Technical Opportunities Program, Chicago Women in the Trades http://www.chicagowomenintrades.org/artman/publish/article_206.shtml

Proficiency

• Introduction to 3-D Spatial Visualization, Sheryl Sorby, http://www.delmarlearning.com

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Education: Access to and participation in math, science, and technology

– Successful programs:• Minot Public Schools, Minot, North Dakota,

Programs and Practices That Work, 2005 Award Winner http://pages.minot.k12.nd.us/votech/File/fair.htm#2009

• Summer Camps http://www.stemequitypipeline.org/Resources/OnlineResources/Programs/default.aspx

Access

• Computer programming for middle school girls, http://www.rapunsel.org

• Tech team: manuals to coordinate teams on computer programming, http://www.knowitall.org/techteam

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Education: School/Classroom climate – Successful programs:

• Checking Your School for Sexism http://02b47b1.netsolhost.com/foundation/e107_images/custom/(10h)%20CheckingforSexism.pdf

• Destination Success, MAVCChttp://www.mavcc.org/

• Gender Equity Item Bank, Midwest Equity Assistance Center http://www.meac.org/Resources/pdf/assessment.pdf

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Education: Support Services

– Successful programs: • Informal support groups (HCC)• Support groups (Tools for Tomorrow, Madison

Area Technical College; IA State – Women in Science and Engineering)

• Child care• Tools, books, resources

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Career information: Materials and Practices– Examples of programs:

– Michigan’s Breaking Traditions Award– Cisco’s Gender Initiative marketing materials– Changing College Freshmen’s Attitudes toward Women

in STEM (NTAW2, p. 38)– U of O IT Program (NFAW2, p. 44, and NTAW, p. 39)– WOMENTECH at Community Colleges (NFAW, p. 195):

» Community College of Rhode Island» College of Alameda

– NASA

Career info, cont.

• Guidelines for Identifying Bias in Curriculum and Materials, Safe Schools Coalition http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/guidelinesonbiasscreen.pdf

• Careers for Men in Early Childhood Education, National Association for the Education of Young Children http://sales.naeyc.org/Itemdetail.aspx?Stock_No=594&Category=CBrochure&SText=

Career info, cont.

• American Careers

• Am I a Fair Counselor, Destination Success, MAVCC http://02b47b1.netsolhost.com/foundation/e107_images/custom/(10i)%20FairCounselor.pdf

• Could This Be Your Life, New Jersey Nontraditional Career, Resource Center, Rutgers Univ.

Career info, cont.• • Gender Equity Tip Sheets http://

02b47b1.netsolhost.com/foundation/page.php?14

• Bias Evaluation Instrument, Nova Scotia Department of Education http://www.ednet.ns.ca/pdfdocs/studentsvcs/bias_evaluation/bias_eval_ss.pdf

• Are You Man Enough to Be a Nurse, Oregon Center for Nursing http://www.oregoncenterfornursing.org/documents/poster_67k.jpg

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Career Information: Early Intervention

– Successful programs:• Girls Redesigning and Excelling in Advanced

Technology, http://www.miamisci.org/great/index.html

• Go-Girl: Gaining Options – girls investigate real life, http://www.smartgirl.org

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Career information: Characteristics of an occupation

– Successful programs:• Beyond the Beakers: Smart Advice on Entering

Graduate Programs in the Science and Engineering, http://www.bcm.edu/smart/?PMID=2993

• Think again…girls can! Videos, http://www.girlscan.org

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Family: Family Characteristics and Engagement

– Successful programs: • Talented Girls Bright Futures, Publication by

Project Lead the Way http://www.pltw.org/inforeq.shtml

• American Careers Parent Magazine, Nontraditional Careers Edition, http://www.napequity.org/page.php?18

• Tech Savvy Girls Video and Resource Guide, http://www.aauw.org/research/all.cfm

Family, cont.

• FIRST (Female Involvement in Real Science Technology), http://www.chabotspace.org/visit/programs/first.asp

• Explanatoids, http://www.explanatoids.com

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Internal/Individual: Self-efficacy

– Successful programs: • Carol Dweck, Mindset• National Science Partnership for Girl Scouts and

Science Museums, http://www.fi.edu/tfi/programs/nsp.html

• Improving Girls’ Self-Efficacy with Virtual Peers, http://www.create.usu.edu/mathgirls.html

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Internal/Individual: Attribution

– Successful programs:• Gaining Confidence in Math: Intelligent Tutors with

Custom Design for Girls, http://k12.usc.edu/AW/index.html

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Internal/Individual: Stereotype threat

– Successful programs: • Girls Creating Games,

http://programservices.etr.org/gcgweb/• Imagination Place!,

http://www.edc.org/CCT/imagination_place/• Challenging gender stereotypes with computer-

based social models, http://ritl.fsu.edu/_Website/projectsPals.asp

Stereotype threat, cont.

• Engineering, Science, and Math Increase Job Aspirations (Es Mija), http://www.idra.org

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Societal issues: Media (positive)– Successful programs:

• Men Teach http://www.menteach.org/• Cisco Gender Initiative Strategies, I am an

Engineer, Cisco Systems, Inc. http://gender.ciscolearning.org/Strategies/Strategies_by_Type/U.S._High_Schools/Index.html

• SciGirls, http://www.pbskids.org/dragonflytv• NASA Space Club• Her Own Words, videos and posters

Positive media

• Transforming the Role of Women and Girls in Science and Engineering (CD set) and Audio Portraits of Women in STEM, http://www.womeninscience.org

• You can be Anything! A music video, http://www.umbc.edu/be-anything

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Societal issues: Peers

– Successful programs:• After-school science plus,

http://edequity.org/afterschool_materials.php• Scheduling

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)

– Societal issues: Role Models/Mentoring

– Successful programs:– IWITTS– Community-based Mentoring (NFAW, p. 49)– RISE: Research Internship in Science and Engineering

(NFAW, p. 21)– MentorNet: http://www.mentornet.net/– IA State Women in Science and Engineering (Carol

Heaverlo, Outreach Coordinator, (515) 294-5883 orheaverlo@iastate.edu)

Role models, cont.

• Girls E-Mentoring in Science, Engineering and Technology GEM-SET, Univ. of IL, Chicago http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/

• IGNITE, Seattle Public School System http://www.ignite-us.org/

• Nontraditional Student Mentoring Program, Northeast Community College http://www.napequity.org/page.php?16

• Telementoring, http://www.edc.org/CCT/telementoring/index2.html

Identify Root Causes (Step 2)Select Best Solutions (Step 3)– Societal issues: Collaboration– Successful programs:

• Girl Scouts• Operation SMART, Girls, Inc.

http://www.girlsinc.org/about/programs/operation-smart.html• National Girls Collaborative Project, Program Directory

http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org/ngcp/• Expanding Your Horizons

http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org/

Resources

• STEM Equity Pipeline Projecthttp://www.stemequitypipeline.org/

• National Science Foundation, New Formulashttp://www.nsf.gov/ehr/hrd/Newformulas/newformulas.jsp

• WEPAN Knowledge Centerhttp://www.wepanknowledgecenter.org/home

State policies

• Require LEAs to participate in 5-step/data retreat when they do not meet nontrad participation and completion requirements– KS– MO

State policies, cont.

• Align discretionary grants with the 5-step/data retreat process– IA ($100,000-$150,000/yr investment)

State policies, cont.

• Host voluntary annual 5-step/data retreat for LEAs– IL– MN– WI– TX– CA

Please join us!