ABSTRACT

Persons with disabilities are one of the most significantly underrepresented groups in STEM education and employment, comprising a disproportionately smaller percentage of STEM degrees and jobs compared to their percentages in the U.S. population. The NSF INCLUDES Alliance of Students with Disabilities for Inclusion, Networking, and Transition Opportunities in STEM, also known as the NSF INCLUDES TAPDINTO-STEM Alliance, will employ a collective impact approach with dozens of partnering organizations to increase the number of students with disabilities (SWDs) who complete associate, baccalaureate and graduate STEM degrees and enter the STEM workforce. Auburn University is leading this NSF INCLUDES Alliance?s primary partnerships with five institutions of higher education (IHE) that will direct regional hubs of collaborating IHEs to address this national need. The hubs will be championed by Auburn University (Southeastern Hub), Northern Arizona University (Mountain Hub), The Ohio State University (Northeastern Hub), the University of Hawaii-Manoa (Islands Hub), the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Midwest Hub) and the University of Washington (West Coast Hub). The NSF INCLUDES Alliance partners include 27 IHEs with three professional organizations: The Association of University Centers on Disability, the Association on Higher Education And Disability and the Learning Disabilities Association of America. The partners will expand the NSF INCLUDES TAPDINTO-STEM Alliance to include over 50 IHEs to address the broadening participation vision of increasing the education of SWDs in STEM at the post-secondary academic levels and their transitions to STEM employment. The University of Missouri-Kansas City serves as the backbone organization, led by Alexis Petri, to support communication, engagement, networked systems, data collection and analyses, sustainability, scaling and dissemination. An internal evaluation will be led by Auburn University personnel, and a team of external evaluators will be led by Linda P. Thurston, who is a professor emerita at Kansas State University.

The primary project work targets three objectives, two focused on students and the other on institutions: 1) Increasing the quantity of SWDs completing associate, undergraduate, and graduate degrees in STEM; 2) Facilitating the transitions of SWDs from STEM degree completion into the STEM workforce; and 3) Enhancing communication and collaboration among IHEs, industry, government, national labs, and local communities in addressing the education needs of SWDs in STEM disciplines. To support SWDs in successfully completing their degrees, the NSF INCLUDES TAPDINTO-STEM Alliance will provide professional development for faculty, staff and STEM professionals to increase their formal involvement, as mentors and research collaborators, with SWDs. Furthermore, the Alliance will increase collaboration among IHEs, industry, government, national labs, and communities to address the education needs of SWDs in STEM disciplines, leading to increased opportunities for SWDs in internships, apprenticeships and employment in the STEM workforce. Additionally, each of the Alliance?s hub institutions will lead a research study about SWDs in STEM. The Auburn University team, which leads the Southeast Hub, will investigate the relationship between student background experiences and dispositions (e.g., student demographics, family background, motivation, academic efficacy) and persistence; and they will study the relationship between organizational context factors and student experiences on student commitment, persistence, and academic retention. The Northern Arizona University team, which leads the Mountain Hub, will investigate, using an intersectionality lens, what are the disconnections and gaps between: a) the experiences of students related to bias, discrimination and stigma; b) the information and messaging available to IHE faculty and staff pertaining to inclusion and recognizing intersectionality; and c) IHE faculty and staff perceptions that perpetuate bias, discrimination and stigma. The Northeast Hub team, led by The Ohio State University, will study what support services used by students with autism spectrum disorders promote academic success and are valued by students; and which academic, social and employment experiences are correlated with increased employment outcomes. The Islands Hub team, led by the University of Hawaii-Manoa, will investigate how a variety of factors (e.g., historical, social, cultural, disability, and personal) facilitate or impede the development of student attitudes toward and access to postsecondary education in STEM, identity development in STEM, and persistence towards and graduation with a STEM degree. The Midwest Hub team, led by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will examine how the student success model each NSF INCLUDES TAPDINTO-STEM Alliance institution implements increases the access, entry, progress and completion of students in their programs; and they will study how the student success model each institution implements aids in the transition of students from college to the workforce. The University of Washington team, which leads the West Coast Hub, will compare information from the NSF INCLUDES TAPDINTO-STEM Alliance students with data from an ongoing longitudinal study to examine which interventions students regard as most valuable, investigate patterns linking student demographics or interests with the interventions used, and study suggestions for improving or expanding interventions. Together, this research will advance knowledge about the STEM academic pathways of SWDs and their transitions to the workforce.

This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is primarily funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The Alliance is jointly funded by the NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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