INSPIRE Track 1: Primary School Organizations as Open Systems: Strategic External Relationship Development to Promote Student Engagement in STEM Topics

INSPIRE 轨道 1：作为开放系统的小学组织：战略性外部关系发展以促进学生参与 STEM 主题

• 批准号: 1344266
• 负责人: Karen Smilowitz
• 金额: $ 70.73万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-10-01 至 2018-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1344266&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: INSPIRE; Track; Primary; Organizations; Open

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Science of Organization Program in the Division of Social and Economic Sciences in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, and the Math and Science Partnership Program and the Discovery Research K-12 program in the Division of Research on Learning in the Education and Human Resources Directorate. Our country faces a decline in student engagement, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines and among underrepresented minority groups. Most often this problem is discussed in the context of an achievement gap, where racial and socioeconomic groups perform unequally on academic assessments. To understand what creates the achievement gap, researchers must understand the STEM "opportunity gap" that exists between students from different backgrounds, where these same students achieve differently because of varying exposure to out-of-school enrichment and learning experiences. The STEM opportunity gap arises from the inequity of out-of-school learning experiences for children. Therefore, efforts to engage minorities and women in STEM in primary schools will only succeed if we consider the complex organizational environment in which primary schools operate. The focus of this study is on what interorganizational relationships are necessary for schools to maintain to ensure equitable, efficient, and effective opportunities for students to engage in STEM. External relationships require schools to commit time and resources, and schools must decide which relationships to develop and maintain. Understanding what kinds of relationships particular school types invest in and what level of effort to commit to maintaining those relationships is important for improving student engagement opportunities in STEM. Specifically, the study explores the following issues in 9 schools across 3 neighborhoods in Chicago, IL: (1) How student engagement in STEM is enabled and constrained by the school's relations with its external community. (2) The similarities and differences in partnerships, particularly STEM-related partnerships, across different types of schools in three different urban neighborhoods by mapping networks, and assessing the costs and benefits of creating, maintaining, and dissolving network ties. (3) How to model school and network decisions, relations, and resources using an operations research framework. The model prescribes network configurations that address strategic, tactical, and operational concerns, to ensure the school will equitably, efficiently, and effectively utilize partners to improve student engagement in STEM.

该INSPIRE奖是由组织科学计划在社会，行为和经济科学局中的社会和经济科学划分方面部分资助的，而数学与科学伙伴关系计划以及Discovery Research Research K-112在教育和人力资源局学习研究部的Discovery Research研究计划。 我们的国家面临学生参与度的下降，特别是科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）学科以及代表性不足的少数群体的下降。在成就差距的背景下，讨论了这个问题，在成就差距的背景下，种族和社会经济群体在学术评估中表现不平等。为了了解是什么造成了成就差距，研究人员必须了解来自不同背景的学生之间存在的STEM“机会差距”，在这些学生之间，这些学生的取得不同的成就，因为暴露于校外充实和学习经验。 STEM机会差距源于儿童校外学习经历的不平等。因此，只有在我们考虑小学运作的复杂组织环境时，才能成功地吸引少数民族和妇女的少数民族和妇女。这项研究的重点是学校之间有哪些组织间的关系来维护以确保学生参与STEM的公平，高效和有效的机会。外部关系要求学校投入时间和资源，学校必须决定要建立和维持哪种关系。了解特定学校类型的哪种关系投资于哪些关系以及为维持这些关系的努力水平，对于改善STEM的学生参与机会至关重要。具体而言，该研究探讨了伊利诺伊州芝加哥3个社区的9所学校中的以下问题：（1）如何启用学生参与STEM的学生与学校与外部社区的关系构成。 （2）通过绘制网络并评估创建，维护和解散网络关系的成本和收益，在三个不同的城市社区中的不同类型的学校之间的伙伴关系，尤其是与STEM相关的伙伴关系之间的相似性和差异。 （3）如何使用运营研究框架对学校和网络决策，关系和资源进行建模。该模型规定了解决战略，战术和运营问题的网络配置，以确保学校将公平，有效，有效地利用合作伙伴来改善学生参与STEM。