Increasing Diversity

During the NCSSSMST Professional Conference held in Austin, Texas, in the spring of 1999, Mr. Ted Greenwood of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation approached the NCSSSMST Board of Directors. He indicated that a small grant might be available to the Consortium if a proposal included linking diversity and retention of underrepresented populations in mathematics, science and technology.

The Board of Directors of the Consortium, under the leadership of Dr. Betty Stapp, Ms. Pauline Lamarche and Dr. Joan Barber, developed a proposal that included summer workshops for NCSSSMST member schools with college and university affiliates providing suggestions of their respective best practices relating to diversity and retention of underrepresented populations. Those suggestions and practices were then to be used to develop a model summer program for underrepresented students in mathematics, science and technology.

During the period between spring, 1999 and summer 2001, the grant proposal was developed and NCSSSMST was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant B-2001-7.

Beginning the summer of 2001, Consortium members met at two college sites to discuss ways to increase diversity and retention of the target population. During June, school representatives met at both University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Goals, strategic directions and outcomes were collaboratively developed and presented the Consortium’s Board of Directors in fall, 2001. Sloan Grant updates were published in the NCSSSMST Journal. A working group was appointed by the Board of Directors to produce a plan based on a survey of the member schools and summer workshop proceedings. The survey instrument was developed and refined during the summer institute held at Sweet Briar College.

This working group met at the spring, 2002 Professional Conference in Durham, NC. Plans were made to convene during June, 2002 at North Carolina Central University, a historically black university, (HBCU) in Raleigh, NC. The Chancellor of NCCU, Dr. James Ammons, sponsored the working group, which was coordinated by Dr. Joan Barber of the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics. This working group produced the Increasing Diversity brochure published by the NCSSSMST. A second outcome was the start of conversations between the NCSSSMST and HBCUs, seven of which have since joined the Consortium.

Many member schools contributed in-kind resources to this effort, primarily in the way of professional expertise, which left enough of the grant money to host a pilot program for underrepresented populations in mathematics, science and technology. Rising 7th and 8th graders from four states, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, were identified and brought to the campus of the NCSSM for a nine-day summer program. Based on the success of the summer program, the Consortium is in the process of developing a grant proposal establishing four regional hubs that would replicate the pilot program model. The future student summer programs will be partnerships between NCSSSMST schools and HBCU’s and other college affiliates.

The following documentation shows how the Alfred P. Sloan Grant B-2001-7 was implemented. It is the belief of the NCSSSMST that implementation of this grant has increased awareness of the importance of diversity issues and promoted renewed efforts by Consortium members to used the strategic directions develop to improve diversity within their respective learning communities.

Links

Final Report
Photo Gallery