Investigating STEM Identities of Students and Educators Through the Coder-in-Residence Program in Lane County, Oregon

• In Event: Can Low-Cost, Short-Duration Randomized Controlled Trials Support Long-Term, Collaborative Relationships Between Researchers and Practitioners?

Abstract

PURPOSE: Lane Educational Service District (ESD), Connected Lane County, and the University of Oregon partnered to evaluate the Coder-in-Residence (CIR) program, a program designed to increase STEM identity in 4th and 5th grade students across 14 school districts in Lane County, Oregon. The study investigates the effects on students’ knowledge, perceptions, and academic performance. It also investigates the effects on educators and the extent to which student, educator, and contextual characteristics moderate the relationship between participation and outcomes of interest.
FRAMEWORK: Lane County, Oregon, has 47,000 K-12 students and 53% of them live in poverty. Data regarding post-secondary enrollment in STEM fields, industry partners’ perceptions, and employment projections clearly indicate Lane County does not have enough youth who are interested or prepared to enter the workforce locally and/or compete in STEM fields. School districts in Lane County have struggled to provide adequate opportunities in STEM subject areas. Not surprisingly, Lane County students also show low achievement in STEM subject areas. While a number of efforts to improve access to STEM are underway at the secondary level, few STEM opportunities are available for younger students. The CIR program began as a means to help students build a positive STEM self-identity. CIR matches industry representatives with programming expertise (“coders”) with elementary school teachers (“teachers”) and together, these teams of educators teach a six-week, hands-on robotics and programming curriculum.
METHODS AND DATA SOURCES: During 2018-19, programming was delivered in more than 50 classrooms. Preliminary analyses are underway, with formal analyses to follow once all data has been collected from district data systems. Student surveys and assessments of students’ interest in and knowledge of coding and related skills serve as the most proximal and immediate outcomes and moderators. Teacher’s surveys provide information about implementation context. District data regarding (1) grades, (2) attendance, (3) easyCBM scores, (4) state assessment scores and (5) student characteristics serve as more distal and longer-term outcomes and variables to include in exploratory analyses.
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESULTS: The study was designed as a randomized controlled trial comparing students in participating classrooms who engage in coding and robotics lessons to students in classrooms that provide the business-as-usual condition. The research-practice partnership team hypothesizes that the CIR approach provides students the interest, confidence, and knowledge to pursue additional STEM education and training. Preliminary analyses are underway, with formal analyses to follow once all data has been collected from district data systems. All analyses will be complete by spring 2020.
SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPLICATIONS: From its inception, the schools have utilized the expertise of the Lane Education Research Network (LERN) to design meaningful, low classroom impact data collection strategies. LERN is a network of K12, post-secondary and local research partners who collaborate on research projects, studies, and program evaluations. The presentation will discuss how these existing data systems were able to be fed directly into the low-cost, short duration evaluation thus enabling the research team to have the ability to examine a rich set of moderators and outcomes.

Authors

• Heidi Larwick, Lane ESD/Connected Lane County

• Mari Strand Cary, University of Oregon - Center on Teaching and Learning

• Patrick Kennedy, University of Oregon