Broadening Participation Research Centers provide support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to conduct broadening participation research and serve as national hubs for the rigorous study and broad dissemination of the critical theories, structures and pedagogies, as well as culturally sensitive interventions that contribute to the success of HBCUs in educating African American STEM undergraduates. The project at Morehouse College, in partnership with Spelman College and Virginia State University, seeks to formally establish the HBCU STEM Undergraduate Success Research Center ? STEM-US. The mission of the center is to ?understand and tell the stories of HBCUs through convergence research for us and the Nation; thereby, documenting the legacy of excellence in STEM education at HBCUs and contributing to future educational innovation?. Among higher education institutions, HBCUs have a sustained record of consistently producing a diverse group of graduates in the STEM fields who are prepared for further education and the STEM workforce. Through research, education, knowledge building, and outreach, this center will have an impact on STEM education reform and broadening participation at all HBCUs, but will also allow all of higher education, and thus society, to benefit from the experience and lessons of HBCUs in broadening participation.
STEM-US will conduct a systematic and comprehensive investigation to elucidate how HBCUs with diverse academic cultures successfully graduate African American students at a higher rate than other institutions; produce a higher rate of African American STEM students receiving PhDs; and instill in students a greater sense of well-being. STEM-US will take a comprehensive approach that includes: 1) a strategy integrating research, education, knowledge transfer and outreach to understand and disseminate, at local, state and national levels, the contributions, impact, and positive legacy of HBCUs in broadening participation; 2) a common theoretical framework that exposes individual and systematic vulnerabilities while developing the institutional supports necessary to promote success and retention of students; and 3) research to support the development of evidence-based interventions that will inform education reform. Specific research projects will emanate from a core research hub consisting of three partner institutions – Morehouse College, Spelman College and Virginia State University – as well as fifty other HBCU participants. The center will conduct convergence research using a community-based participatory research model to include education and knowledge transfer that will allow for the sharing of data and results to improve student outcomes across the HBCU network. The center will conduct outreach to all accredited HBCUs with education and knowledge transfer strategies utilizing online newsletters, white papers, listservs, blogs, webinars, and workshop-based conferences. A robust external evaluation will monitor and assess progress on all objectives, providing both formative and summative assessment of all center activities.
This Broadening Participation Research Center is funded by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Undergraduate Program, with significant and generous cofunding provided by the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program , NSF INCLUDES, the Build and Broaden program, the EHR Core Research program, and the Convergence Accelerator program.
(Abstract taken from NSF Awards Website)
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