Event Description

There is considerable scholarship on how to build more equitable schools and models for successful, inclusive STEM schools. But there is very little about how to combine the two into best practices to build more equitable STEM schools. The purpose of this conference is to convene researchers and practitioners whose work centers around these two areas to discuss what is known and what needs to be known to advance the field and support practitioners.

Conference Goals

1. Create a collective understanding among a community of stakeholders regarding the role of equity in whole-school STEM models.
2. Map, synthesize, and report the terrain of existing research around the role of equity in whole-school STEM and non-STEM models including both strengths and gaps in the research base.
3. Identify central issues and questions that can guide future research in order to prioritize these topics and initiate productive collaborations among participants to pursue questions.

The agenda will address connections between integrating culturally relevant practices and key elements of whole-school STEM programs and models, all of which must be a part of a future research agenda on whole-school STEM reform.

Key outcomes will include:

1. A practitioner-centered logic model that integrates equity into the design and implementation of STEM at the whole-school level.
2. A research model that supports building an empirical understanding of the intersection between equity and whole-school STEM programs.

All attendees are invited to contribute and coauthor final publications stemming from the workshop.