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Designing for Tomorrow’s Students: Creating Equitable Opportunities for Undergraduate STEM Students

In advance of the symposium, an idea competition was held to ask for input from the community on what undergraduate STEM education should look like in 2040. Entries into the competition were shared with participants to spark discussions at the symposium about how to explicitly and intentionally design learning experiences that create equitable opportunities for future students. Inspired by the idea competition entries, multiple presenters in two different panels (see Boxes 5-1 and 5-2) reflected on their own experiences as students (including the challenges of being the first generation in their families to attend college), noted the important role Community Colleges play in providing access to undergraduate education, discussed the challenges of navigating education as a low-income person, explored how some students must defy the beliefs others have that a person of color does not belong in STEM, and called for increased access to relevant experiential learning.

IDEAS FOR 2040

Vicente Talanquer, university distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of Arizona, contributed to the panel discussion by elevating points made by idea competition winners about where STEM education should be by 2040. “I share the competition winners’ vision of a future characterized by inclusive and equitable educational environments that create flexible and responsive learning opportunities for all types of students,” he said. “We just need to figure out how to get there successfully.” He noted that the idea competition winners are imagining a time where internal walls

between academic units are torn down to allow for integrative and interdisciplinary curricular paths and where external walls have disappeared to allow for relevant and contextualized learning that takes place through experiences in the community (see Boxes 5-3 and Box 5-4 for some excerpts from two winning idea competition entries).

Matthews, the director of STEM learning innovation and associate vice provost for inclusive workforce development at Wayne State University, reflected on the idea competition entries and noted that many programs and interventions will need to be targeted to the needs of particular groups to be most effective, and she stressed the importance of including students in the development phase for that reason. Specifically, Matthews commented on the idea competition entry that proposed limiting or eliminating the use

of exams in engineering education. She noted that this idea became less radical during the COVID-19 pandemic when many institutions moved to a pass-fail grading system. The disadvantage, she commented, is that students graduating without a grade point average could be disadvantaged when seeking admission to graduate school or looking for a job. Other ways to assess students’ experiences, talents, and abilities will need to be devised before STEM educators eliminate exams and grading.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES NAVIGATING EDUCATION

Multiple panelists shared aspects of their own experiences in STEM education. Salomon-Fernández, president of Greenfield Community College, shared her personal background as context for her reflections. She emigrated to the United States with her family when she was 12 years old, she told the group, and grew up in an impoverished, high-crime Boston

neighborhood. She was told that she would never succeed in science or mathematics and thus now considers herself a statistical anomaly because she was able to accomplish that goal. She is committed to improving STEM education for women, people of color, and people from other marginalized or minoritized groups because she hopes to create more statistical anomalies like herself. Like Salomon-Fernández, Hope also considers herself an anomaly, and she partly credits a teacher who intervened in her early life as a student for her success at Amazon as a principal Amazon future engineer. Chandler, provost and chief academic officer at the Minerva Schools of the Keck Graduate Institute, highlighted the life-changing opportunities that Community Colleges offer, particularly for students from lower-income groups, citing the benefits that she as a low-income single mother without a high school degree derived from enrolling. “My local Community College offered me, a first-generation college student, a low-cost pathway to college that would have been impossible any other way,” she commented. The experience allowed her to qualify for scholarships and transfer to University of California, Berkeley. Matthews noted that when she says that she is a product of affirmative action, people do not assume that she was a valedictorian, that she scored a 1500 out of 1600 points on the SAT, or that she went to upper-tier, predominantly White universities for both undergraduate and graduate school. She stated that “the assumption is that I was an unprepared student given an additional leg up and supported by a series of committed faculty and programs, etc., etc. And every time I walk into a room for a certain level, I have to have those conversations. The former is actually what is true.”

DESIGNING FOR INCLUSION

Van called for STEM education to focus on and incorporate the values of today’s students and future generations of students. “We need higher education with a higher purpose,” she argued. In her view, STEM education experiences direct students’ attention to their careers. “Why do we have to wait until we graduate to feel a sense of worth and belonging in the world?” she asked. Empowering students, Van states from her perspective as an undergraduate, requires centering undergraduate education around problem definition and not necessarily problem solving, given that the diagnosis of a problem is what determines possible solutions. Van added that “the students with the most challenges know their challenges best, so they should be included in the critique of society, the reframing of what work needs to be done to adequately understand where the current society is failing them and their future.” In her opinion, empowering those students who face the biggest challenges is the only way to truly design for inclusion and equity, for these are the students who are living the problems

that need solving. “When you place the focus of education on evaluating how well students solve problems, we automatically disadvantage those with fewer resources to do the solving, but if we pivot education to how well students discover and articulate problems that would be worth their while to understand and solve for themselves, then we give those with the most problems the microphone,” said Van. She then noted the importance of giving students a clear understanding of how complex the world is, and that complexity implies that there is no one right answer to the problems confronting education.

Maldonado noted that the current student body is the most diverse generation ever (Selingo, 2018). In California, where she serves as vice president for research and innovation for the University of California system, for example, she noted, 42 percent of all undergraduates are Hispanic. This generation of students has also been shaped by the great recession of 2008 and more recently by the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences in that they are very worried about financial security, she emphasized. For this reason, she suggested, they view college differently than previous generations may have. “They seek relevance in their education for employment, and they favor student support over fancy amenities,” she said. Some 42 percent of this generation of students expect to work for themselves, she added.

In her view, the STEM community needs to stop treating STEM and the arts and humanities as mutually exclusive and to stop talking about STEM in the aggregate. In addition, the STEM community needs to think about how to talk about STEM literacy for the population as a whole, not just for STEM majors. One important trend she has heard from industry is that within 10 years, 100 percent of jobs will be affected by artificial intelligence, so every student must be ready for that. “Our degree programs are so structured that I think we are losing sight of our ability to innovate and to be entrepreneurial, which are very important mindsets if you start your own company or if you work for a big company,” said Maldonado.

Planning committee co-chair and Washington University in St. Louis faculty member Barbara Schaal asked Maldonado how the future demographic tsunami that will wash over the United States will affect university procedures and processes such as recruitment, admissions, student services, and all of the supports needed for a diverse student body. Maldonado, speaking specifically about Hispanics, said the number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) is growing. California, for example, has 170 HSIs, while 5 of the 10 University of California campuses are HSIs. The question is whether higher education structures are adapting to today’s students. Approximately half of all engineering faculty come from other countries, while the undergraduate population is primarily domestic, creating a disconnect. There is also the matter of implicit bias (NASEM, 2018a, 2020)

and sexual harassment (NASEM, 2018b) that drives students away from STEM. “When we are ready to be honest about our climate issues and recognize the demographics—who is in our undergraduate programs and who is coming in the future—the institutions themselves and the faculty and the staff need to really look and be ready and adapt to the students who are coming,” said Maldonado.

Hope, the Amazon engineer, explained that given the speed at which technology is advancing, the way institutions train and support the workforce has to be more flexible and more of an ecosystem or network of learning that creates cycles of learning and earning throughout life. Speaking about college degrees and other credentials including nanodegrees, Hope said they “all have to work as a collective to enable this idea of lifelong learning and the ability to acquire new skills as jobs and labor markets change and evolve.” She added that the notion that a baccalaureate degree and credentials are in competition is wrong. Instead, they have to work together to create additional avenues for learners to upskill and reskill and to serve as on- and off-ramps in the learning journey.

Hope explained that the work she leads in her job at Amazon is to promote equitable access to STEM for students from underrepresented groups in the technology sector, including Indigenous and rural students. She focused on the skills needed for future success in the workforce, citing findings in a recent report from the World Economic Forum. The report identified the skills most in demand across all job categories are critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving, and self-management, which include active learning, resilience, stress tolerance, flexibility, and adaptability (WEF, 2020). Employers surveyed for the report see significant gaps in the current workforce, Hope added. They estimate that 40 percent of current workers and new hires require at least 6 months of development to acquire the skills needed to ensure they remain relevant and that their companies continue to be competitive. At Amazon, Hope explained, managers describe the development employees need to thrive as requiring a “learn and be curious” mindset or lifelong learning. Reflecting on what should be expected of undergraduate STEM students in 2040, Hope suggested that they will need to “embody the tried-and-true four Cs: curiosity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.” These four skills are the foundation that will allow them to pivot and adapt in a constantly evolving labor market.

Salomon-Fernández noted that higher education today is preparing students for jobs that do not exist. “We need to understand that what prospective employers and incumbent workers, professionals and nonprofessionals will need is education that does not translate into a degree,” she said. “They are not going to need four master’s degrees or a Ph.D. for these jobs. What they need is lifelong learning and continuing education.” Salomon-Fernández answered a participant’s question about her mention

of transdisciplinarity, sharing her thoughts on why it has great potential for increasing access, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields. Salomon-Fernández first explained that when she talks about transdisciplinarity, she is referring to education that goes beyond interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity and is rooted deeply in connections with the community. What that implies, she said, is the need to connect experiential learning opportunities with the communities in which students live so that learning becomes rooted in the real world rather than remains abstract and conceptual. This approach, she noted, fits the desires of today’s students to apply their education to tackle the problems confronting their communities, the nation, and the planet. Van, in agreeing with Salomon-Fernández, said that students very much want purpose in their education.

Schaal asked the panelists to identify one important concept they feel is important given their individual perspectives. Maldonado replied that the culture within the university has to change regarding equity and sexual harassment, which points to the need for faculty, staff, and administrator development and training to be more sensitized to these issues and understand them better. Salomon-Fernández said that mentors, representation, and role models matter, particularly for first-generation students from marginalized and minoritized populations. She noted that most U.S. students can go from kindergarten to a Ph.D. and never have a Black female educator in their lives. “We need more faculty who represent nondominant groups, and that definition varies based on the discipline,” said Salomon-Fernández. “We need to have folks from the dominant groups to act not only as mentors but as sponsors for the groups that are traditionally not represented. We need people to stick their necks out because marginalized people are not going to bust open those doors themselves. What we need are allies who are committed to this work and people who have reached the pinnacle of their career or are near it who can say they support equity and that they want to help this next generation because it is the right thing to do.”

Hope, the Amazon engineer, agreed with her colleagues and stressed that achieving equity will take a village. “This is a shared responsibility as we think about reimagining how we equip and educate tomorrow’s sets of leaders and tomorrow’s workforce,” said Hope. She also pointed to the importance of recognizing the value of work-based learning and of listening to the voice of students and giving them a choice about how they move through their educational experience. Van, the undergraduate student, added that higher education needs to better recognize the value of human potential to develop and contribute.

Schaal said that what has come across to her is the idea that education does not give the student much subject-specific value and expertise. Instead, it gives them fundamental tools or virtues that will enable them to continue their education throughout their lives. She also noted the need to disrupt the

current educational system and the expectations people have for the educational system so that students develop into more well-rounded individuals.

Chemistry professor Talanquer reflected on the paper by Malcom-Piqueux (see Chapter 3 for a discussion of the paper on Transformation in the U.S. Higher Education System: Implications for Racial Equity) and agreed that achieving this imagined future will require major and sustained changes in the traditional structures, policies, and practices that have failed to serve many students. Such change cannot occur without engagement in deliberate and intentional action by all stakeholders, he added. Higher education faculty will need to change the way they think about curricular design, teaching, and assessment of student learning, he observed. Redesigning the introductory courses in STEM departments that so frequently hinder the advancement of capable STEM students, for example, would make an important difference. Similarly, many STEM curricula are designed as a series of isolated courses, but alternate curriculum designs would better prepare students for active participation in multidisciplinary projects driven by socially acute questions. Additionally, assessments that measure student growth rather than knowledge acquisition can better foster a student’s ownership and agency in their own learning.

These types of changes, Talanquer suggested, move beyond what he described as peripheral efforts to change the instruction offered by individual faculty members and instead adopt models that demand multiunit engagement in “critical action projects that have demonstrable impacts on the achievement, persistence, and retention of minority students.” This is most important in large public universities, he added, where the focus on research productivity is traditionally used as an excuse for the lack of meaningful transformation.

Matthews called for attention to equity and for “specific language around Black students, African American students, Latinx students, and immigrant students.” She noted the need for intentionality about the voices at the table and mentioned a favorite phrase of hers: “do nothing about me without me.” Harkening back to her training as an engineer, she called for treating the need to bring new voices to the table as a systems engineering problem that can be solved with a focused effort. In addition, she called for supporting faculty in the challenging task of offering more project-based learning in order to prepare students for career and research. She noted the need to incentivize this way of teaching and to support faculty in making changes.

One way for 4-year institutions to pursue these sorts of changes, Chandler noted, is to reward teachers for improving their practice to advance equity. While multiple-choice exams are very simple to grade, she said that making the transition to project- and problem-based assignments that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned and build

strong portfolios takes much more effort on the faculty member’s part. Matthews and Talanquer agreed, noting the importance of changing our concept of how faculty work, questioning and reevaluating the way teaching is approached as an individual isolated task, considering education as a collective responsibility, and considering ways to promote collaboration between educators.

A CRUCIAL ROLE FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Portland Community College president Mitsui emphasized that while talent is universal, opportunity is not, and that Community Colleges are designed to make opportunity universal. These institutions have democratized education in the United States, he noted, by offering open access while also facilitating the process of transferring to institutions that award baccalaureate degrees. A newer focus, he observed, is to strive for not only equitable access but also equitable student success. The asset-based approach mentioned by Malcom-Piqueux is one key, Mitsui noted, but analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data is needed to support strategies for reducing disparities. Narrowing the $78 billion funding gap between Community Colleges and universities, would also help, he added.

Demographic changes in the United States are likely to make the role of Community Colleges even more important, Matsui noted. By 2030, immigration will account for a larger component of U.S. population growth than natural increase (births), and Community Colleges are a key avenue by which new immigrants become integrated into U.S. society.¹ In many Community Colleges, language acquisition is embedded in the education and training Community Colleges offer and contextualized within career pathways. This is “an effective way for students to gain upward economic mobility,” he explained. In his view, culturally and linguistically relevant, technology-enhanced instruction with qualified faculty can contribute to an expanded and more diverse STEM workforce that is both bilingual and bicultural.

Income inequality and associated challenges related to food, housing, and income insecurity are significant issues for two-thirds of Community College students, Matsui went on. Creative thinking is needed to address these problems if higher education is to meet goals for inclusion by 2040. Providing support services and funding to address these basic needs could be automated, he suggested. He noted that the Internal Revenue Service already collects most of the information needed for means-tested benefits.

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¹ See https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf.

This system could be the foundation for other uses, such as determining eligibility for Pell grants, food stamps, section 8 housing, and other supports.

Chandler observed that Community Colleges and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) have adopted practices that all institutions of higher education can learn and scale to accelerate needed changes, and agreed with the concept developed in a paper submitted to the idea competition (“Improving Diversity in STEM through Community College Partner Programs” by Kathryn McGill²) that expanding partnerships between Community Colleges and 4-year institutions is a good pathway for improving diversity in STEM. “But facilitating transfer will not be sufficient,” Chandler went on to say. “Institutions must incorporate cultural assessment and other kinds of practices from Community Colleges and MSIs to support those students’ successes.” If the higher education community is to meet the National Science Board’s goal of bringing the “missing millions” into STEM, she noted, institutions need to move immediately to welcome and include all students and implement and scale proven practices (National Science Board, 2020, 17). Achieving the goal of having the STEM workforce represent America’s demographics by 2040, she added, will mean twice the current numbers of female and African-American workers in STEM fields and three times the number of Hispanic/Latinx workers. Accomplishing that will entail unprecedented changes and cooperation across the STEM education ecosystem.

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² Video is available at https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/10-21-2020/imagining-the-future-of-undergraduate-stem-education-symposium.

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