SPU Professor of Educational Administration and Supervision Thomas Alsbury is collaborating with North Carolina State University researchers and community advocates to assist school leaders, teachers, and students in isolated, high-minority, high-poverty schools in North Carolina. Their goal: Promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers (and greater opportunities) in those isolated rural communities.
The project is a $2 million National Science Foundation grant entitled STEM Teams: Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Career Interest, Skills, and Knowledge Through Strategic Teaming.
The project is headed by NCSU professor and researcher Dr. Margaret Blanchard, who leads the multidisciplinary team of researchers with the goal of increasing the interest and success of under-represented students in STEM courses and in pursuing STEM degrees and careers. An additional goal is to increase the capacity of under-performing schools to implement and sustain innovative programs linked to improved student achievement.
Schools involved in the project are in North Carolina agricultural communities that were previously sustained by tobacco and cotton production. Many of the students (100 percent African American and 60 percent female) come from families of past slaves and sharecroppers who worked in the fields in the communities where they still reside. The community schools suffer from high turnover of school staff and low student performance, while isolated rural communities offer little in the way of examples of minority professionals with college education or in STEM careers. Most students see themselves never leaving these small communities.
The three-phase project begins with middle school students and includes (a) improving STEM teaching, high-tech class materials, and career training in the classroom; (b) providing real-life experiences onsite at universities with STEM professionals of color; and (c) improving leadership and innovation capacity within the school district through the development of a strategic STEM leadership team.
Dr. Margaret Blanchard (NCSU):
- trains teachers to improve STEM instruction
- develops and provides high-tech enrichment materials and equipment for STEM classrooms
- produces career materials showing students how to pursue STEM careers
- provides students the opportunity to virtually meet and converse with African American STEM professionals
Dr. Braska Williams (NCSU):
- provides family support by working with the students at their homes to assist in success in STEM classes and in pursuing a college degree in a STEM field
- provides experiences outside of the rural community, including an onsite college experience, meeting and working with minority STEM professionals, and training on pathways to college and STEM careers
Dr. Alsbury (SPU):
- provides leadership training to a cross-district strategic team that identifies and eliminates organizational and leadership barriers to STEM program success
- trains a program support team to enhance organizational policy, structural, and relational variables known to improve the capacity for schools to implement and sustain innovation
Dr. Alsbury has been working since 2010 on leadership training academies in North Carolina, and in data collection and analysis. The project has had remarkable success with a marked increase in students taking STEM courses in middle and high school, increased school attendance, decreased discipline actions, improved STEM test scores, and 81 percent of the participating students deciding to pursue a career in education or STEM. Staff and leader turnover has also been reduced, credited to the leadership portion of the program.
Drs. Blanchard, Williams, and Alsbury have presented a paper at several scholarly conferences on the preliminary finding of the study and plan to write up the results for publication. The four-year project was completed early in 2014, and an application for an additional three-year, $1.9 million grant has been submitted to NSF.
Employers in the United States are expected to hire 2.5 million STEM workers in the next 10 years, yet many students perceive STEM careers to be less appealing than other career choices. Gender seems to play a major role, as do parental encouragement, classroom learning experiences, and ethnicity. The lack of interest and success in STEM school subjects is particularly pronounced in communities of high minority and high poverty, especially those isolated in rural areas where exposure to enrichment opportunities in STEM is limited.