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Determining the Efficacy of a K-12 and Higher Education Partnership (Evaluation)

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 7: Partnerships Making It Real! II

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43023

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43023

Download Count

157

Paper Authors

biography

Janna Jobel University of Massachusetts Lowell

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Dr. Janna Jobel received her PhD in Educational Leadership researching the ways in which social emotional competencies are taught in STEM high schools. She is now a postdoctoral research associate in the Biomedical Engineering department of UMass Lowell conducting interdisciplinary research to better understand what factors most influence the K-20 STEM pipeline.

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Adam St. Jean University of Massachusetts Lowell Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-6111-1623

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Abstract

Engineering students and professionals in the United States do not reflect the country’s demographics. Women and minority students remain largely underrepresented. To help diversify the STEM pipeline, it is essential students are exposed to and engaged in STEM active learning experiences in K-12. This is especially effective when post-secondary institutions partner with K-12 schools. Establishing the partnership can be challenging as the institutions must have congruous objectives, determine who is responsible for what, and define success similarly. To address this set of issues, a program partnership rubric was designed. The rubric was then used to plan and evaluate four piloted STEM program collaborations between the University of _____ (U--) and the ______ Academy (-- Academy) charter school.

The four programs included an -- Academy-exclusive STEM open house at U--, as well as three engineering summer camps, one for middle school students, and two for high school students. U--’s overarching objective was to increase the number of underrepresented students from -- Academy who showed interest in and applied to STEM fields at U--. -- Academy wanted to provide access to hands-on STEM activities and/or representative role models for -- Academy students from traditionally underrepresented populations. The programs succeeded in varying degrees at meeting stated objectives. The open house led to the most scalable model that U-- has now adopted with several school districts. The other programs will continue if grant funds continue to be sourced. The success of these programs in meeting their objectives demonstrates how vital it is to jointly consider three factors: Results (learner outcomes), Reproducibility (adequacy of resources), and Representation (diverse and inclusive staffing and student participation). The program partnership rubric was developed to help partnerships plan and evaluate their programs based on these three factors. How the rubric was used to plan these pilot programs and determine how and/or whether to run them again is explained.

Jobel, J., & St. Jean, A. (2023, June), Determining the Efficacy of a K-12 and Higher Education Partnership (Evaluation) Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43023

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