"Pushes and Pulls": Inclusive STEM Education in an Elementary Setting

• In Event: STEM as an Urban Equity Strategy: Memphis as a Microcosm

Abstract

There are still many questions that remain to be answered regarding the success of STEM schools in an urban context (Eisenhart et al., 2015). The primary objective of the proposed paper is to describe opportunity to learn (OTL) in an inclusive STEM elementary school setting in an under-served urban community.
Tate and his colleagues (2012) assert that STEM education in urban contexts must be examined through the lens of OTL. While OTL has been defined in a variety of ways in educational literature, we adopt the framework outlined by Tate and Rousseau (2007). This OTL framework centers around two variables, time and quality, which are significant because they define the parameters that can be adjusted at the school or district level. In fact, Tate and Rousseau (2007) argue that this OTL framework should be conceptualized as the starting point for an engineering design process to build more effective systems in schools. As such, we utilize this OTL framework as the lens through which we examine the inclusive STEM school in this case.
The process of capturing evidence around time and quality requires that we evaluate both categories with regard to intended as well as actual variables. For example, analyses of instructional time at the elementary school level involve both allotted time within the daily schedule and observations of actual time spent on instruction. Thus, as will be described in greater detail in the paper, the data collection that emerges from the use of the OTL framework involves both document analyses as well as observational data.
The setting of the study is a STEM-focused charter school located in a low-income urban area of Memphis. During the 2016-17 school year, there were approximately 75 students enrolled at the school. All of the students were African American or Latino/a. All students at the school attended 4-5 hours per week of STEM instruction in classes of no more than 10 students. Initially, our data collection focused only on the STEM classes, as our question involved OTL with regard to STEM. However, we soon realized that this focus was too narrow and that our OTL evaluation must extend to the entire school as a system.
One of the key themes is reflected in the title of the paper. “Pushes and Pulls” is the title of one of the kindergarten modules utilized in the STEM curriculum at the focus school. This module, part of the Project Lead the Way Launch curriculum, engages students in the engineering design process at a grade-appropriate level. This STEM module, and the larger STEM curriculum, were strengths with regard to time and quality in this case. However, these OTL strengths contrasted with areas of weakness in the school as a whole. These “pushes and pulls” illustrate the importance of evaluating OTL with regard to the system and engaging in design at the system level. The larger paper describes the findings in greater detail and offers implications with regard to the use of STEM schools as an equity strategy in urban districts.

Authors

• Celia Rousseau Anderson, The University of Memphis

• Wesam M. Salem, The University of Memphis