STEM Equity Pipeline

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STEM Equity Pipeline

• Mimi Lufkin Chief Executive Officer
• Rick Larkey State Facilitator
• National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity
• Oklahoma May 27 and 28, 2009

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Project Overview
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Goals

• Build the capacity of the formal education
  community to provide high quality professional
  development on gender equity in STEM education
• Institutionalize the implemented strategies by
  connecting the outcomes to existing
  accountability systems
• Broaden the commitment to gender equity in STEM
  education

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Defining STEM

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
• Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
• Health Science
• Information Technology
• Manufacturing
• Transportation, Distribution and Logistics
• Architecture and Construction

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Professional Development

• Formal education community
• In-school programs
• Teacher-based
• Academic and Career and Technical Education STEM
  educators
• Train the trainer process
• Imbed the knowledge in existing professional
  development mechanisms

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Accountability

• Using existing accountability systems to inform
  program improvement efforts
• Perkins nontraditional measures for participation
  and completion in STEM related career cluster
  programs of study
• Student achievement data in STEM
• Student course taking behaviors in STEM

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The Five Step Process
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Outreach

• Increasing awareness of the need for diversifying
  the STEM workforce pipeline
• Gender and
• Race/Ethnicity
• Disability
• Creating collaborations with others to leverage
  the impact of the work

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Virtual Learning Community

• Public portal for the STEM equity community
• Listserv
• Organization Links, Articles, Resources, Reports
• Calendar of Events in STEM
• Webcasts, Webinars, Video, Podcasts, Power Points
• Online courses and Tutorials
• Five Step Program Improvement Process Training
  Materials
• Professional Development Needs Assessment
• Participating State Pages
• Expert portfolios and online request portal
• Extension Agent report portal

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Your Role

• Implementers
• Use what you have learned in your work with
  teachers and students
• Collaborators/Facilitators
• Work with your team to implement
• Extension Agents
• Share what you have learned with other educators

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Improving Performance The Five Step Process

• Mimi Lufkin Chief Executive Officer
• Rick Larkey State Facilitator
• National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity
• Oklahoma May 27 and 28, 2009

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The Five Step Process
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Perkins Act Accountability

• Core Indicators on Nontraditional CTE
• Participation in CTE programs preparing students
  for nontraditional fields
• Completion of CTE programs preparing students for
  nontraditional fields

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Nontraditional Fields

• Occupations or fields of work, including careers
  in computer science, technology, and other
  current and emerging high skill occupations, for
  which individuals from one gender comprise less
  than 25 percent of the individuals employed in
  each such occupation or field of work.

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Document Performance Results

• GOAL Understand the problem completely before
  you seek solutions

How do you analyze performance data? What
questions should be addressed? What tools and
methods can be used to present and analyze
data? How should data quality problems be
considered in analyzing data?
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Perkins Accountability Measure

• Participation Rate
• underrepresented students participating in NT
  CTE
• all students participating in NT CTE
• OR
• of females enrolled in pre-engineering
• All students (males and females)
• enrolled in pre-engineering

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Perkins Accountability Measure

• Completion Rate
• underrepresented students completing NT CTE
• all students completing NT CTE
• OR
• of females completing pre-engineering
• All students (males and females)
• completing pre-engineering

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What does the data tell us?

• Indicates trends over time
• Highlights potential data quality issues
• Identifies gaps in performance between
• Student groups gender, race/ethnicity, special
  populations
• Programs
• Generates additional questions that need to be
  answered before implementing a solution

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Homework

• Get program enrollment data from your school
• Do an analysis of the participation rates of
  females and males in programs nontraditional for
  their gender.
• Select a few programs and chart their
  participation rates for the underrepresented
  gender
• Bring this information with you to the training
  in Tulsa or Oklahoma City in May!!

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Case Study
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Implementation Planning
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The Five Step Process
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STEP TWO

• Identify
• Root
• Causes

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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
• Two types of causes
• Direct cause (i.e. instructional practice)
• Indirect cause (i.e. teacher training)

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How to Identify Root Causes

• Search for most direct highest impact causes
• Employ a systematic evidence-based process
• Draw on current research and evaluation
• Formulate and test theories or hypotheses
• Use multiple methods and data sources
• Note, youre likely to find multiple causes

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Phase 1 Identify Potential Causes

• Review Research Literature
• Review Program/Institutional Evaluations and
  Effectiveness Reviews
• Conduct Focus Groups
• Peer Benchmarking
• Interviews Surveys
• Brainstorm

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Review Research Summary

• Root Causes Tables
• Nontraditional Career Preparation Root Causes
  and Strategies
• Authors Lynn Reha, ICSPS Mimi Lufkin, NAPE
  Laurie Harrison, Foothill Associates

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Review Research Summary

• Bias Literacy
• A review of concepts in research on
  discrimination
• By Ruta Sevo, Ph.D. and
• Daryl E. Chubin, Ph.D.

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Root Causes

• Education

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Root Causes

• Access to and Participation in STEM
• Shrinking gender gap in performance on national
  assessments in math and science between boys and
  girls
• Still significant gaps when looking at gender AND
  race/ethnicity or socio-economic status
• Girls not translating their academic success in
  STEM to careers in STEM

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Root Causes

• Curriculum Materials
• Invisibility
• Stereotyping
• Imbalance/Selectivity
• Unreality
• Fragmentation/Isolation
• Linguistic Bias
• Cosmetic Bias
• Relevance

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Root Causes

• Instructional Strategies
• Questioning level and wait time
• Student/teacher interaction and feedback
• Classroom management
• Cooperative learning design
• Expectations and assessment

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Root Causes

• Classroom Climate
• Fair treatment
• Sexual harassment not tolerated or ignored
• Supportive learning environment
• Subtle messages
• Classroom location on campus
• Physical environment

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Root Causes

• Student Isolation Based on Gender
• Cohort of underrepresented students in a program
  are more likely to complete than a single
  individual
• Individuals more likely to
• Have trouble integrating effectively in to social
  structure
• Suffer decreased performance
• Drop out

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Root Causes

• School Climate
• Nontraditional faculty and staff
• Acceptable behavior in hallways, cafeteria,
  school events, busses, etc.
• Administration and staff support and
  encouragement
• Extracurricular activities

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Root Causes

• Support Services
• Tutoring
• Child care
• Transportation
• Financial Aid
• Books, Equipment, Tools, Clothing
• Tuition
• Modification of Curriculum, Equipment
• Student/Teacher Aides
• More

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Root Causes

• Career Information

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Root Causes

• Career Guidance Materials and Practices
• More than just brochures and posters
• Subtle messages
• Be careful about how you use interest inventories
• Creating opportunities to create student interest

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Root Causes

• Early Exposure
• Most students pursuing a nontraditional career
  have had a friend or family member influence them
• Spark an interest that would otherwise not be
  evident
• The earlier the better

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Root Causes

• Occupational Segregation and Choice
• Mens work vs. Womens work
• Traditional vs. nontraditional careers
• sticky floor vs. glass ceiling
• Low wages of traditionally female occupations
• Pay equity issues

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Root Causes

• Wage Potential
• Traditionally female occupations pay
  significantly less that traditionally male
  occupations
• When men and women are employed in the same
  occupation, women on average earn less than men.
• Nontraditional occupations for women are
  typically high wage occupations

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Root Causes

• Family

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Root Causes

• Family Demographics
• Girls with lower socio-economic status parents
  have higher sex-stereotyping scores
• Boys with higher socio-economic status parents
  have higher sex-stereotyping scores
• Family structure or level of education has no
  effect

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Root Causes

• Spouse/Significant Other/Parental Support
• Parents are the 1 influence of student college
  major and career choice
• Negative messages from people with emotional
  influence difficult to overcome.

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Root Causes

• Individual

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Root Causes

• Self-efficacy
• Attribution Theory
• Girls more likely to attribute success to
  external factors and failure to internal factors
• Stereotype Threat
• Stereotype that girls are not as capable as boys
  in math affects their performance
• Locus of Control
• When girls feel they are in control of their
  lives and their futures they are more likely to
  select nontraditional options

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Root Causes

• Social Attitudes
• Bias and Discrimination
• Gender schema
• Assumptions about gender from birth on
• Accumulative Advantage
• Members of a disadvantaged group have to
  accumulate more that 1 advantage to be
  considered the same as the advantaged group
• Implicit bias
• Unconscious associations

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Root Causes

• Society

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Root Causes

• Media Representation
• About-face.org

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Root Causes

• Student Attitudes/Peer Influence
• Values and beliefs
• Acceptance of differences
• Bias and stereotypes
• Peer support
• Peer harassment

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Root Causes

• Nontraditional Role Models
• Strongest evidence in the research
• Family members are significant
• Teachers
• Mentors

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Phase 1 Identify Potential Causes

• Review Research Literature
• Review Program/Institutional Evaluations and
  Effectiveness Reviews
• Conduct Focus Groups
• Peer Benchmarking
• Interviews Surveys
• Environmental Scan
• Brainstorm

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Group Root Causes Activity

• In groups of 5
• Review the root causes cards
• Arrange the root causes by your groups sense of
  their impact and relationship to students in
  programs nontraditional by gender
• Post the cards on the wall in whatever
  arrangement best fits your groups thinking

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Resources available at www.stemequitypipeline.org

• Survey Instruments
• How to Conduct Interviews
• How to Conduct Focus Groups

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Other Resources

• The New Look
• Self-Study
• Illinois Center for Specialized Professional
  Support

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Phase 2 Analyze and Evaluate Potential Causes

• Group Causes Into Two Categories
• Group 1 Causes Within Your Control
• School scheduling
• Classroom climate
• Faculty awareness and capacity
• Group 2 Causes Outside Your Control
• Media representation
• Family demographics

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Phase 3 Test and Evaluate Potential Causes
Within Your Control

• Select root causes that
• Have the strongest theory and evidence to support
  them
• Focus on direct causes of performance gaps
• Address the most critical needs
• Provide the best opportunity to have high impact
  on performance
• Are supported by stakeholders who will help
  develop and implement solutions
• (See page 17 of the OVAE Guidebook)

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Case Study
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Implementation Planning
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The Five Step Process
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STEP THREE

• Choose
• Best
• Solutions

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Choose Best Solutions

• Dont be too quick to adopt best practices before
  getting the facts straight
• How do you identify possible strategies and model
  practices?
• How do you evaluate strategies and models?
• How do you compare and assess alternative
  solutions and make a decision?

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Assessing and Comparing Alternative Strategies

• Sound Theory
• Strong Evidence
• Costs/Time of Further Testing
• Resources
• Stakeholder Support
• Failure is Expensive
• Select a Full Range of Choices

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Identify Potential Strategies and Models

• Review What Others Propose
• NSF- New Formulas for Americas Workforce
• Benchmark Peers and Leading Performers
• Programs and Practices That Work
• Best Practices in STEM Education
• EEES Best Practices
• Develop Your Own Solutions

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Review Research Summary

• Root Causes Tables
• Nontraditional Career Preparation Root Causes
  and Strategies
• Authors Lynn Reha, ICSPS Mimi Lufkin, NAPE
  Laurie Harrison, Foothill Associates

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Strategies for Recruitment
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Strategies for Recruitment

• Review career guidance materials and practices
  for gender bias and nontraditional exposure and
  support
• Guidelines for Identifying Bias in Curriculum and
  Materials
• Safe Schools Coalition
• Curricular Detecting Skills
• Gender in the Classroom, Sadker Zittleman
• Am I a Fair Counselor
• Destination Success, MAVCC
• Could This Be Your Life?
• Illinois Center for Specialized Professional
  Support

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Invite, involve and educate parents
• Talented Girls Bright Futures
• Publication by Project Lead the Way
• American Careers Magazine
• Nontraditional Careers Issue
• Career Communications, Inc.

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Conduct middle school programs
• Minot Public Schools
• Minot, North Dakota
• Programs and Practices That Work
• 2005 Award Winner

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Provide role models and mentors
• Girls E-Mentoring in Science, Engineering and
  Technology GEM-SET
• Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
• Engineer Girl
• National Academy of Engineering
• Engineer Your Life

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Conduct targeted recruitment activities
• Summer Camps
• Cisco Gender Initiative Strategies
• I am an Engineer
• Cisco Systems, Inc.

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Conduct pre-technical training programs
• Rosies Girls
• Northern New England Tradeswomen
• TechBridge
• Chabot Space and Science Center

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Collaborate with community-based organizations
• Operation SMART, Girls, Inc.
• Expanding Your Horizons
• Girl Scouts
• National Girls Collaborative Project

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Conduct professional development with teachers at
  all levels
• Generating Expectations for Student Achievement,
  Graymill
• STEM Equity Pipeline
• Career Technical Education Equity Council

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Strategies for Recruitment

• Implement and model gender-fair institutional
  strategies
• Checking Your School for Sexism
• Destination Success, MAVCC
• Gender Equity Item Bank
• Midwest Equity Assistance Center

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Strategies for Retention
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Strategies for Retention

• Evaluate all school and curriculum materials for
  gender bias and positive nontraditional images
• Gender Equity Tip Sheets
• Bias Evaluation Instrument
• Nova Scotia Department of Education

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Strategies for Retention

• Increase teacher and administrator quality and
  equity-capacity through professional development
• The Equity Principal
• Graymill
• NAPE Professional Development Institute
• Washington, DC

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Strategies for Retention

• Increase competence in diversity and sexual
  harassment prevention
• Gender Equity Tip Sheets
• Tolerance.org
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• Project Implicit, Harvard University

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Strategies for Retention

• Conduct nontraditional student support groups and
  peer counseling
• Computer Clubhouse
• Bostons Museum of Science
• NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
  Program
• (Facebook Group)

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Strategies for Retention

• Provide nontraditional role models, mentors, and
  job shadowing
• IGNITE, Seattle Public School System
• MentorNet
• How to Plan and Facilitate a Job Shadowing
  Experience
• Destination Success, MAVCC

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Strategies for Retention

• Invite, involve and educate parents
• Trailblazers
• VA Department of Education
• Ways for Parents to Support Expanded Occupational
  Options
• Destination Success, MAVCC

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Strategies for Retention

• Provide a continuum of support services
• Tutoring
• Child care
• Transportation
• Financial Aid
• Books, Equipment, Tools, Clothing
• Tuition
• Modification of Curriculum, Equipment
• Student/Teacher Aides
• More

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Strategies for Retention

• Invite, involve, and educate business
• Cisco Systems, Inc. Gender Initiative
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Society of Women Engineers

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Resources on www.stemequitypipeline.org
Dont Forget These Additional Teacher Focused
Resources!

• Gender Equity Tip Sheets
• Teacher Resources Folder

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Case Study
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The Five Step Process
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Why Evaluate?

• Make sure your improvement strategy works
  somewhere before you attempt to apply it
  everywhere

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Pilot Test

• Choose a Study Design
• Random Assignment with a Control Group
• Comparisons with Similar Populations
• Comparing Individuals Against Themselves

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Pilot Test

• Select Pilot Sites
• Student Characteristics
• Site Characteristics
• Select Outcome Measures
• Short-term
• Long-term

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Select Pilot Sites

• Student Characteristics
• Race-ethnicity
• Socio-economic status
• English language proficiency
• Special needs status

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Select Pilot Sites

• Site Characteristics
• Size of student population
• Geographical location
• Performance on state indicators
• Postsecondary participation rate
• Intensity of CTE coursework offerings
• Organization of instructional delivery

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Select Pilot Program

• Program Characteristics
• Size of enrollment
• Performance on Perkins nontraditional measure
• Potential for intervention implementation
• Access to resources
• More?

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Types of Evaluations

• Formative Evaluation
• Process measures
• How well was the program implemented
• The cook tasting the soup
• Summative Evaluation
• Outcome measures
• Did the program produce the desired results
• The guests taste the soup

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Select Outcome Measures

• Short-term measures
• Increase in awareness
• Increase in knowledge
• Change in attitude
• Change in behavior

• Long-term measures
• Enrollment
• Achievement
• Completion
• Graduation
• Transition

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Write SMART Objectives

• Evaluation objectives must be
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-limited

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Outcome Objective

• Short-term - After participating in 80 of the
  STEM career mentoring activities 75 of the
  participating students will show a one point (on
  a 5 point likert scale) increase in their
  willingness to consider pursuing a nontraditional
  career.
• Long-term STEM related career cluster programs
  will increase the participation of women by 5
  two years following the implementation of the
  mentoring program.

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Identify Data Sources and Collection Instruments

• Student transcripts
• Guidance records
• Surveys
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Classroom observations

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Data Sources and Collection Instruments

• Valid directly assess what you are trying to
  measure
• Reliable produce repeatable results
• Cost-effective
• Timely measures time sensitive outcomes

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Train Pilot Site Staff

• Share research about potential outcomes
• Conduct training on strategy implementation
• Develop technical assistance materials to support
  implementation
• Train staff on evaluation and data collection
  procedures
• Keep it simple!!

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Analyze Initial Results

• Budget time for evaluation
• Use basic descriptive or summary statistics
• Disaggregate data to see if gains are realized
  equally
• Determine if you are ready to move to full
  implementation

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Analyze Initial Results

• If the strategy doesnt work did you
• correctly identify the root cause of the
  performance problem?
• select the best solution?
• correctly implement the strategy?
• give enough time before assessing results?

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Evaluation Resources

• STEM Equity Pipeline Webinars
• Step 4 Pilot Test and Evaluate
• Building Effective Program Assessments
• Assessing Program Effectiveness Do Your
  Activities Make a Difference?
• Archived at www.stemequitypipeline.org
• Assessing Women and Men in Engineering

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The Five Step Process
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Implementation Resources

• STEM Equity Pipeline Webinars
• Step 5 Implement Solutions

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Questions?
National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity

• Mimi Lufkin
• Executive Director
• P.O. Box 369
• Cochranville, PA 19330
• 610-593-8038 phone
• 610-593-7283 fax
• mimilufkin_at_napequity.org

Rick Larkey STEM Equity Pipeline
Consultant rlarkey_at_napequity.org