Report from Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering

Posted by National Science Foundation on October 19, 2015

Ira Harkavy, Founding Director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, and Vice Chair of the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) and Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark and a Committee member, are pleased to share CEOSE’s most recent biennial report (2013-2014) to Congress. CEOSE “advises the National Science Foundation (NSF) on policies and programs to encourage full participation by persons from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups (African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans), persons with disabilities, and women within all levels of America’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enterprise.”

The report summary emphasizes that “NSF can be the catalyst to help higher education take greater responsibility for a diverse STEM workforce, transforming STEM at all levels and educating STEM domestic talent that fully reflects and represents the US population. Indeed, this is the grand challenge of broadening participation in STEM: to transform the STEM enterprise at all levels to fully engage the nation’s human capital — including women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities.”

Building upon its 2011-2012 report that called for a bold new initiative, the Committee laid out a framework for implementing the ‘grand challenge’ of broadening participation in its 2013-2014 report:

(1) Develop and implement an effective preK-20+ system of STEM pathways that significantly increase participation of underrepresented individuals at every stage of schooling and across all STEM fields. This recommendation, among other things, calls for the transformation of “institutions of higher education into more inclusive institutions with the will, know-how, and the capacity to help build these effective pathways.”

(2) Provide stable and sufficient direct support for individuals who represent the very broadened participation that we ultimately seek.

(3) Support the further development of a science of broadening participation grounded in empirical research.

(4) Conduct field experiments including assessment of interventions and outcomes to understand and mitigate the barriers to broadening participation.

(5) Recognize the field-specific nature of the broadening participation challenge by embedding and engaging the bold initiative within and across all NSF directorates and divisions.

Below are the links to the cover letter from the CEOSE committee, the two-page summary of the report’s recommendations, and the full 2013-2014 CEOSE Report to Congress.

CEOSE Advisory Committee Colleague Letter
https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/sites/netter_internal/files/CEOSE_Report_Colleague_Letter_2015.pdf

CEOSE 2013-2014 Report Summary
http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/activities/ceose/documents/CEOSE%202013-2014%20Biennial%20Report%20To%20Congresss%20Flyer-Final_08-27-2015.pdf

CEOSE 2013-2014 Biennial Report
http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/activities/ceose/documents/2013-2014%20CEOSE%20Biennial%20Report%20to%20Congress_Final%20Version_09-08-2015.pdf