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Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM

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Conference

2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference

Location

Crystal City, Virginia

Publication Date

April 29, 2018

Start Date

April 29, 2018

End Date

May 2, 2018

Conference Session

Undergraduate Track - Technical Session II

Tagged Topics

Diversity and Undergraduate Education

Page Count

4

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29582

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29582

Download Count

516

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Paper Authors

biography

Kelly Mack Association of American Colleges and Universities

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Dr. Kelly Mack is the Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). As such, she leads national efforts to reform STEM higher education that are uniquely focused on empowering STEM faculty to implement evidence based/culturally responsive pedagogies and, ultimately, graduate more students who are competitively trained and liberally educated.

Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Mack was the Senior Program Director for the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Program while on loan from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) where, as a Professor of Biology, she taught courses in Physiology and Endocrinology for 18 years. Dr. Mack earned the BS degree in Biology from UMES and, later, the PhD degree from Howard University in Physiology. She has had extensive training and experience in the area of cancer disparities research, with her more recent research efforts focusing on the genotoxic effects of endocrine disruptors on estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast tumor cell proliferation.

Dr. Mack has served on numerous boards including: the Board of Governors for the National Council on Undergraduate Research; the National Institutes of Health Review Subcommittee for Training, Workforce Development and Diversity; and the Shimer College Board of Trustees. Currently, Dr. Mack serves as the co-founder and chair of the board of the Society of STEM Women of Color, Inc. Her work has been highlighted in U.S. News and World Report and Diverse Magazine, where she was honored as one of the top 25 women in higher education.

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biography

Kate Winter Kate Winter Evaluation, LLC

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Kate Quinn Winter, PhD, leads the team at Kate Winter Evaluation, LLC (KWE). Dr. Winter has worked with major NSF initiatives (e.g., ADVANCE, HBCU-UP, S STEM) since 2003. KWE is the external evaluator for the AAC&U Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) initiative, Metacommunity for Broadening Participation; AAC&U PKAL’s Undergraduate STEM Education Reform (USER) project; and two five-year long consortia-based projects funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education (a FITW and an HSI-STEM). KWE’s areas of evaluation expertise include diversity in STEM, college student access and retention, professional development for faculty, and institutional cultural change.

Dr. Winter is a member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and the European Evaluation Society (EES), adheres to AEA professional and ethical principles, and follows the “What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)” standards established by the U.S. Dept. of Education (ED) and the “Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development” of the Institute of Education Sciences and NSF. Dr. Winter has published research findings in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, the Journal of the Professoriate, the Journal about Women in Higher Education, the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, the Department Chair, Academe, and Change. She is an editorial board member for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and the Journal of the Professoriate and an ad-hoc reviewer for the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice.

She received her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington.

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Abstract

While the US economy is expected to create over 120,000 new jobs requiring at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science, only approximately 48,000 computer science baccalaureates are produced each year (NSF, 2017). This dilemma is further complicated by the systemic marginalization of the “new majority” of undergraduates (Schneider, 2005) who represent rich sources of untapped talent and the diverse worldviews that are essential for addressing the most vexing computer/information science problems of our day.

Education researchers have identified pedagogical reform as one of the most advanced mechanisms for redressing these trends (Tsui, 2007). However, mastery of the pedagogy – particularly culturally responsive pedagogy – commonly poses a substantial challenge for STEM faculty (Froyd, et al., 2005).

In 2014, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) launched the Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) initiative – with 19 diverse institutions of higher education – to increase awareness of and self-efficacy with culturally responsive pedagogy among computer/information science faculty. This effort included specific, campus-based projects designed to support the recruitment and/or retention of diverse students in computer science. Additionally, TIDES included a three-year long professional development program for STEM faculty that included structured learning and application opportunities, as well as extensive institutes, continuous communications, and a rigorous assessment strategy. While the TIDES professional development component was consistently applied across STEM faculty participants, the campus-based projects varied depending on the campus climate, culture, and needs.

To date, TIDES has positively impacted nearly 300,000 STEM students – over 50% of whom are from diverse populations. More importantly, TIDES has illuminated how STEM faculty came to know what needed to be done to positively impact the success of these diverse STEM students.

This presentation will showcase the design, implementation, evaluation strategies, and impacts of TIDES to encourage replication of proven STEM faculty professional development practices.

Mack, K., & Winter, K. (2018, April), Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM Paper presented at 2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference, Crystal City, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--29582

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