The STEM PUSH Network has partnered with the Middle States Association to accredit pre-college STEM programs to help assure admissions officers that recommendations from such programs are worthy of careful consideration.
The accreditation process will be grounded in evidence-based quality dimensions, which document and communicate the value of pre-college programs to create a currency that can be used in college admissions while building stronger partnerships with post-secondary institutions and achieving equity.
The Networked Improvement Community (NIC) will utilize improvement science methodologies to create joint work across pre-college programs, STEM content experts, university admissions experts, leaders in culturally sustaining pedagogies, and industry-affiliated professional organizations to drive program improvement and connectedness.
Improvement cycles centered around pre-college program quality standards for broadening participation in STEM undergraduate for underrepresented minoritized population will generate innovative practices to share within the NIC and with the field more broadly. NIC participants will be leaders in the field, producing knowledge and understanding about pre-college programs’ role in broadening participation in STEM.
Programs that demonstrate evidence-based quality standards will be granted accreditation.
The STEM PUSH Network plan, developed over months and with participation of dozens of critical stakeholders, involves gaining enhanced currency for pre-college STEM programs in the college admissions process to ensure broader representation of racially and ethnically minoritized students.
The STEM PUSH Network seeks to gain that currency by leveraging the power of a Networked Improvement Community or NIC to drive learning and innovation. The STEM PUSH Network has invited pre-college STEM programs to participate in a NIC to share best practices and other valuable resources.
This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is 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. It is also co-funded by the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program and the Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program (AISL).
