In spring 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, some intrepid employers quickly converted internships to virtual experiences rather than canceling them. SRI’s STEM Core Expansion Alliance evaluation team took advantage of this unprecedented growth in remote internships in STEM fields to capture innovations and lessons learned from these improvised programs.
SRI investigated employers’ strategies for recruiting, mentoring, and supporting remote interns. The team examined whether and how students used employer supports and what they gained from networking and professional learning opportunities in the virtual context. SRI paid particular attention to strategies for making virtual internships more accessible and equitable for all students and for diversifying intern cohorts.
The team used results from surveys of and interviews with employers and interns to develop guidance for employers. The resulting report offers a rich, cross-sector look at what STEM employers learned from their experiences and clearly conveys how they can improve their virtual internship programs in the future.
Kea Anderson
SRI Author
Strategies for Success in Community Partnerships: Case Studies of Community Collaboratives for Early Learning and Media
As part of the 2015–2020 Ready To Learn Initiative, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) devised a new model of community partnerships called Community Collaboratives for Early Learning and Media (CC-ELM). They then selected 30 public media stations across the United States to lead them.
The stations joined forces with organizations such as schools, Head Start programs, libraries, literacy nonprofits, afterschool learning programs, community centers, interfaith groups, clinics, housing authorities, and food pantries to establish the partnerships. They then adapted the CC-ELM model to local community needs and opportunities.
EDC and SRI researchers collaborated on the collection and analysis of data from all 30 participating stations and selected 6 stations for individual case studies. The executive summary outlines the context for the entire CC-ELM initiative and provides snapshots of the six PBS stations in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Austin, St. Louis, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The summary also includes findings on the impact of CC-ELM on partnering organizations, educators, families, and communities as well as recommendations for further implementation and sustainability.
Download the reports:
Full report
Executive summary
Individual case studies:
Austin PBS
PBS 39 (Pennsylvania)
PBS SoCal
PBS Wisconsin
Nine PBS (St. Louis)
Vegas PBS
Summative evaluation of the Research + Practice Collaboratory: Final report
To examine the Research + Practice Collaboratory’s strategy, SRI interviewed project leadership and professional association contacts, conducted observations at events, and reviewed documents to develop descriptions of strategies, activities, and routines. We later refined these descriptions by checking them against findings from other analysis tasks. To examine the Collaboratory’s outcomes, we used digital metrics (e.g., Google Analytics) to gauge the project’s reach and the uptake of its products, and then benchmarked the results of this analysis against the same metrics from several other similar entities. We also used interviews and surveys to gather the perspectives of people who partnered with the Collaboratory, participated in its events, and used its tools and resources, including professional association leaders, workshop participants, and website users. We also sought to place the Collaboratory in the broader education research-and-practice landscape by investigating the views, priorities, and needs of people involved in research-practice partnerships who had not participated in Collaboratory activities (including people who had not heard of it), as well of people who fund research-practice partnerships in education. In this way, the evaluation draws on findings regarding views and experience both within and beyond the Collaboratory’s sphere of influence.
Getting Ready to Learn: Creating Effective, Educational Children’s Media
Getting Ready to Learn describes how educational media have and are continuing to play a role in meeting the learning needs of children, parents, and teachers. Based on years of meaningful data from the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative, chapters explore how to develop engaging, playful, and developmentally appropriate content. From Emmy-Award-winning series to randomized controlled trials, this book covers the media production, scholarly research and technological advances surrounding some of the country’s most beloved programming.
What parents talk about when they talk about learning: A national survey about young children and science
This study used a nationally representative parent survey, combined with in-depth interviews and home visits with a smaller sample of families, to learn how parents of young children, particularly low-income parents, encourage and take part in their children’s learning, especially their science learning. This study also investigated parent perceptions and reported use of science-related educational media, such as television shows, videos, online games, and mobile apps.
Promising approaches to broadening youth participation in STEM
The National Science Foundation (NSF) views broadening participation in the nation’s STEM enterprise as vitally linked to the United States’ capacity for innovation. To prioritize inclusion, the ITEST program has called for reflection on best practices and lessons learned regarding broadening participation with this question: “Given the shifting demographics reflected in our current classrooms and in our country, what are effective and productive ways to ensure broadening participation by engaging dverse underrepresented populations in STEM programs and careers?”
This paper, based on a review of over 200 publications related to approximately 110 ITEST projects, seeks to respond to that question. While all ITEST projects include “broadening participation” as a central goal, we found that publications relating to 43 projects contained specific information on broadening participation. Of those, publications relating to 25 projects had “broadening participation” as the primary focus. Here, we present the range of strategies that project teams employed by highlighting some of those 25 projects.
Engaging teachers in supporting next generation STEM learning
To accelerate dissemination of educator learning models in ITEST projects, the ITEST program has called for reflection on best practices and lessons learned in response to this question: “What instructional and curricular models can effectively engage teachers to use and integrate technologies so as to enhance student understanding of STEM-related occupations?” In this paper, we address this question by taking a closer look at teacher-centered projects.
This synthesis paper highlights projects funded by the National Science Foundation’s Innovating Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant program that are either primarily designed to support teacher learning or that incorporate teacher learning in a significant way. The ITEST program seeks to increase awareness of and interest in STEM and information and communications technology (ICT) fields among PreK-12 students, with the goal of encouraging students in STEM studies and helping to prepare them for future STEM careers. Providing teachers with strategies and experiences to increase the quality and quantity of STEM instruction is an important part of NSF’s overall strategy in the ITEST program toward broadening student participation in STEM.
