A Logic Model for Inclusive STEM High Schools: How Interrelationships Among Critical Components Explain Students' Success

• In Event: Five Years of Research: Inclusive STEM Schools as Vehicles for Improving Educational Opportunity

Abstract

STEM schools are a growing phenomenon across the U.S. because they are perceived to serve the needs of state and local economies and provide a 21st century education to students who graduate ill-prepared for the world of work or STEM college majors. This study focuses on Inclusive STEM High Schools (ISHSs) that deliberately attract and prepare students in groups underrepresented in STEM fields (gender, SES, ethnicity, first generation in family to attend college). Many such students may have school experiences that provide few opportunities for a high quality education, especially in STEM. They may lack the financial means and social capital required for a strong preparation for STEM.

This paper will present a logic model illuminating Critical Components, Emergent Critical Components and their interactions for 8 carefully chosen, “exemplar” ISHSs located in seven states, and unaffiliated with one another. They are all “schools of choice” with highly diverse student bodies and high graduation and college admission rates for students well prepared in STEM. This model summarizes what we have learned over a four year study.

First, in the proposal stage, we conducted a search of the literature to develop a list of 10 hypothesized Critical Components to guide systematic instrumental case studies. Researchers conducted site visits to each school, collected and analyzed the data for each case, focusing on whether there was evidence for each component, its prominence and for emergent components in a school. After conducting cross-case analyses, we found evidence for all 10 components plus new emergent themes. Next, with an expert facilitator, we created a set of mid- and far-term outcomes for the schools, and used groupings of the components to build the first logic model. An important insight was that the near-term desired outcomes (STEM achievement and educational experiences to build social capital, soft skills, and confidence) occur developmentally during high school. Next, the logic model was sent to the eight ISHS principals, and they came to Washington DC for a Principal Leadership Forum to critique the model. Using their feedback, we created the beta version of the model, presented in this symposium. It was modified to reflect the principals’ views and researchers growing understanding of the components and how they inter-relate to produce successful students in diverse high functioning STEM schools.

The model is the culmination of five years of study. If the field could understand critical to exemplar ISHSs and model how they interact to support the successes of diverse students, then this would be a huge benefit to education research and policy. Given the proliferation of STEM schools, researchers could use the model to help explain the successes and failures of other STEM schools, or test the model in other circumstances to understand its parameters. Policymakers could use policy levers to encourage the use of the critical components intelligently in the creation new STEM schools or improve STEM education more generally in comprehensive high schools.

Authors

• Sharon J. Lynch, The George Washington University

• Erin E. Peters Burton, George Mason University

• Tara Behrend, The George Washington University

• Ann House, SRI International

• Barbara M. Means, SRI Education