Student Outcomes in Academic Community-Engaged STEM Projects with Multi-Dimensional Diversity

摘要

The United States lags behind most of the 72 developed countries in the 2015 international assessment of student STEM outcomes by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA). It is also below the average in mathematics and lags behind 18 of the 35 member countries for the average science score (OECD, 2015). The demand for STEM skills in the United States workforce is not at just the baccalaureate or graduate degree level; STEM-trained workers are needed to perform in the 27% of STEM postsecondary jobs requiring competencies at the sub-baccalaureate level (postsecondary certificate, some college credit, or Associate degree level) (Carnevale, Smith, & Melton, 2011). Nonetheless, attrition is disproportionately high for women, African Americans, Latinos, and people from low-income families in STEM fields, leading to substantial research exploring why people leave the field (Seymour, 2000). In order for the United States to begin to meet STEM employment projections, educational institutions at all levels of workforce development need improved approaches to attract and retain diverse students in the STEM fields (Carnevale, Smith, & Melton, 2011; Gates Jr. & Mirkin, 2012; Graham, Frederick, Byars-Winston, Hunter, & Handelsman, 2013).