Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust (the Trust) has committed more than $1.5 billion dollars to nonprofits and other mission-aligned organizations in the United States and around the world.
Although no longer a focus for the Trust, from 2008-2016 the Trust’s postsecondary education grantmaking focused on increasing the number of college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields—particularly female students and students of color. The portfolio focused on supporting networks of higher education institutions committed to improving instructional practices, primarily for gateway STEM courses, and creating incentives to adopt model policies, practices, and systems that can improve student retention and completion.
The Trust’s original postsecondary STEM investment came at a time when momentum was building for the field. Over the past decade, a variety of stakeholders, including colleges and universities, the National Science Foundation, the federal government, individual alumni donors, and corporations have committed to increase the number of students graduating with STEM degrees and entering the STEM workforce—and a large majority emphasized increasing diversity. There remains strong policy interest among federal agencies in maintaining STEM inclusion strategies.
The STEM Active Learning Networks
The Trust invested in networks of institutions. While the networks varied in size and scope, each was organized around the STEM active learning vision. Four of these funded networks, and their areas of focus, are:
Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) program: (19 institutions and 37 departments). Project Kaleidoscope TIDES aims to increase the learning outcomes and retention of students historically underrepresented in the computer sciences and related STEM disciplines. The project is pursuing two aims: (1) Developing and implementing curricula to enhance underrepresented STEM student interest, competencies, and retention rates; and (2) Empowering STEM faculty to adopt culturally sensitive pedagogies and sustain the changes in practice required for inclusive STEM teaching.
California State University (CSU)
CSU STEM Collaboratives: (8 institutions and 24 departments). STEM Collaboratives provides immersive educational STEM experiences beginning the summer before college and continuing through the first year at the participating CSU campus, into redesigned gateway courses essential for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Through experiential learning and real-world contexts, students develop non-cognitive and dispositional learning, such as resilience and selfefficacy, improving persistence, and closing achievement gaps. In this vignette, we showcase how CSU Fresno increased students’ sense of self efficacy, sense of belonging, as well as their critical thinking and quantitative learning skills to minimize achievement gaps.
Vertically Integrated Projects Consortium (VIP)
Vertically Integrated Projects Consortium: (16 institutions). VIP is an expanding network of engineering schools (and other STEM disciplines) that are creating multiyear project-based learning course sequences aligned with faculty research to improve retention and diversity in engineering. This effort is led by Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan.
WestEd
Reading Apprenticeship Community College STEM Network: (13 institutions and 13 departments). WestEd facilitates a network of STEM faculty teams from 17 California community colleges, to offer professional development and network exchange on an active learning strategy known as Reading Apprenticeship. The Reading Apprenticeship approach has been tested in numerous independent studies in high schools, and has had a positive impact on community college students’ academic success. In its second year, the Reading Apprenticeship Community College STEM Network, involving more than 100 STEM faculty, is showing promise as an incubator of successful adaptation of this approach in college STEM classes. In this vignette, learn about how the Reading Apprenticeship model was implemented at Pasadena Community College to develop and implement more effective pedagogies for mathematics and related STEM courses.
As the STEM Active Learning Networks evaluation and learning partner, Equal Measure tracked the implementation of the Trust’s postsecondary grantmaking on faculty, departmental, and institutional change across networks.
Supporting Network Progress
While the four networks developed different organizational structures and management processes—including network and campus leads, shared evaluators, dedicated coaches, peer-to-peer accountability mechanisms, and formal and informal training sessions—several common themes emerged across these active learning initiatives:
The network leads began with a strong vision that united individuals from various institutions toward a shared purpose, which fostered widespread engagement and commitment to a common agenda. The networks defined components for their network’s vision, and relied on the individual members to shape the implementation of these principles. For example, the vision of the TIDES network was to create new cross-disciplinary courses that emphasize connections between computational thinking and other disciplines. TIDES institutions sent teams of faculty and staff to participate in professional development interventions designed “to produce both innovative effective curricula and increased STEM faculty capacity to enhance underrepresented STEM student interest, competencies, and retention in the computer sciences and related disciplines.”
Consistent and open communication was needed within each network to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and create structures to promote self-accountability among network partners. Each network had a signature annual or biannual convening that brought together institutions to highlight project successes and offer implementation support to one another. VIP structured its annual Consortium meeting to provide an overview of its participating colleges and the evaluation of the Consortium. WestEd provided many virtual communication opportunities within its network, including monthly on-line check-ins for its community college members. The CSU STEM Collaboratives also conducted monthly web-meetings, during which CSU college leads discussed their respective projects and shared progress and challenges.
Networks supported a top-down and bottom-up approach to implementation at their member institutions. The WestEd network adopted a “grassroots,” bottom-up approach to changing teaching practice. Network educators developed a passion and commitment toward the Reading Apprenticeship approach, and became champions for better teaching practice among their colleagues. For AAC&U, it was critical that administrators create space for department chairs and faculty to transform teaching and learning. As one interviewee from the AAC&U network noted, “if somebody wants to replicate this, they have to have administrative support, and that’s why the network lead and the whole group made sure administrative support was there. Without their support, we would not have been able to achieve all these workshops and supporting elements.”
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The initiatives of these four networks should enhance the already vibrant STEM field. Through a series of vignettes, published over the next several months, we will explore how colleges in the four STEM Active Learning Networks implemented their interventions, examine the challenges they faced, and share the lessons learned. The vignettes will feature the work of:
- Pasadena Community College (WestEd RACCSN)
- California State University, Fresno (CSU STEM Collaboratives)
- University of Dayton and Wright State University (AAC&U TIDES)
- Virginia Commonwealth University (VIP)
We look forward to sharing these vignettes, beginning with a focus on Pasadena Community College, and welcome your insights about this important work.