Inclusive STEM high schools increase opportunities for underrepresented students

Spillane, Nancy; Lynch, Sharon J.; Ford, Michael T.

doi:10.1177/0031721716647021

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Surprisingly, seven of eight ISHS school principals/heads had backgrounds in the humanities or social sciences rather than STEM, perhaps requiring that leadership be shared with teachers and other members of the school community with STEM expertise (Gronn, ). This distributed leadership appeared to help create and maintain a high functioning, innovative ISHS (Spillane, Lynch, & Ford, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

et al. 2017

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Inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) can be viewed as opportunity structures for students underrepresented in STEM. By opportunity structures, we mean an education that provides not only access to high quality STEM curriculum and instruction or "opportunity to learn," but also the capacity to create learning environments where students can build STEM social capital and the dispositions, knowledge, skills, and networks to be successful in STEM college majors and careers. This is a cross-case analysis of case studies that describe the design and implementation of eight "exemplar" ISHSs. Beginning with 10 hypothesized critical components, we found evidence for all 10, but present in unique patterns of prominence, depending on the school context. Further inductive analysis located an additional four emergent critical components that complete the picture of how these successful ISHSs were able to achieve their goals. Importantly, across schools, four components stood out as foundational: a flexible and autonomous administrative structure; a college-preparatory, STEM-focused curriculum for all; well-prepared STEM teachers and professionalized teaching staffs; and supports for students in underrepresented groups.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

et al. 2017

Self Cite

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“…Given the increased time commitment, this study also noted the important role that administrators play in helping support STEM instruction. Recent research suggests that STEM schools are highly collaborative environments that benefit from distributed leadership models and a re‐envisioning of the relationship between teachers, students, and knowledge (Spillane, Lynch, & Ford, ).…”

Section: Background Literature and Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We do STEM”: Unsettled conceptions of STEM education in middle school S.T.E.M. classrooms

Kloser

Wilsey

Twohy

et al. 2018

School Sci & Mathematics

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STEM education has received attention both as a reform pedagogy and as a public means for economic growth and national security. Yet, despite this attention, clarity about what "counts" as STEM and how the individual disciplines relate to an integrated approach remains ambiguous. This article elicits the conceptions about what constitutes STEM education from middle grade teachers across the United States who teach a STEM discipline. Based on coded interviews and drawn conceptual models, participating teachers were more likely to describe essential aspects of integrated STEM found in the literature, but when asked to draw their conception of STEM education in their context, they often represented less ambitious conceptions.Furthermore, nontraditional subjects like engineering and technology were sometimes represented in subordinate ways to traditional subjects like science and mathematics. These findings have implications for preparing teachers to engage students in integrated STEM learning experiences as well as policy implications for what requirements must be in place to fund new STEM learning opportunities. K E Y W O R D Sinquiry/discovery, learning processes, professional development, science/science education, teachers and teaching A Research to Practice article based on this article can be found alongside the electronic version at

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“…Inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) have recently popped up in states across the country, such as California, Massachusetts, Texas, and Ohio. These exclusive STEM-focused secondary schools accept students based on interest and not on achievement or aptitude (Spillane et al, 2016). Although the practice of choosing students based on STEM interests is a powerful method of recruiting invested students it can further decrease the number of girls and underrepresented populations.…”

Section: Stem Fields With Lesser Stem Programming Options During Midd...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analytic investigation of the impact of middle school STEM education: where are all the students of color?

Thomas

Larwin

2023

IJ STEM Ed

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Background Integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education initiatives are becoming an increasingly popular approach to narrow the opportunity gap among underrepresented minority (i.e., Black, Hispanic, and first-generation) students. However, there are limited studies on the impact of exposure to integrated STEM education on academic achievement and an even lesser amount on performance among underrepresented minority (URM) groups. Students exposed to STEM programming in middle school are more likely to pursue a STEM field in college or a STEM-related career. However, despite increases in middle school STEM programming initiatives, STEM college graduation rates have declined, particularly among URM populations. This meta-analysis aims to determine the effectiveness of STEM education in middle school, focusing on URM students. Results A total of 20 studies containing 45 independent samples met the study criteria. The studies included were published from January 1, 2011 to May 1, 2022, and identified from the following academic databases: ERIC, Google Scholar, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and SCOPUS. Integrated STEM programming was most impactful when: engineering was incorporated into science courses and at full STEM integration, occurring over one academic year (d = 0.89) and occurring in 8th grade (d = 1.55). Overall, the effect size estimate demonstrated heterogeneity, with a large positive significant effect across the studies (d = 0.558, 95% CI [0.514–0.603], p < 0.001), indicating a significant impact on student achievement. The most notable finding was the lack of empirical studies involving URM groups, with only one effect size estimate reported for Black students and other minority groups and 40 effect size estimates for non-minority groups revealing a non-significant difference in effect size estimates. Conclusions Students benefit from STEM program participation, with the average STEM student outperforming approximately 70% of their same-age, same-grade peers not participating in STEM programming. In particular, URM students benefit even more from quality integrated STEM education initiatives, given one caveat—students must be given the opportunity. We conclude that the issue is not that URM students are not academically benefiting from middle school integrated STEM education programs, based on the available research—they are merely not participating. We highlight the need and suggest interventions for providing collaborative and focused attention on the societal and cultural factors impacting URM student participation and retention in integrated STEM education programs.

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Inclusive STEM high schools increase opportunities for underrepresented students

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

“We do STEM”: Unsettled conceptions of STEM education in middle school S.T.E.M. classrooms

A meta-analytic investigation of the impact of middle school STEM education: where are all the students of color?

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