| NSF Org: |
OSI Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 12, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 13, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1649142 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
James Matthew Douglass
mdouglas@nsf.gov (703)292-2467 OSI Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | November 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $292,222.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $299,998.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $7,776.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 NASSAU HALL PRINCETON NJ US 08544-2001 (609)258-3090 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NJ US 08544-1009 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES |
| Primary Program Source: |
04001718DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
General Abstract:
This NSF INCLUDES Launch Pilot project, STEPs to STEM, will create a statewide STEM pipeline within an integrated program of community college education throughout the state prisons of New Jersey. The Pilot leverages a long-standing collaboration among education,
government, and volunteer sectors including NJ-Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (STEP), all of whom commit to work together to accredit and ensure articulation (transferability) of the required STEM courses. The broadening participation challenge that will be addressed by this Pilot is to extend college-level STEM education to incarcerated persons, who are overwhelmingly minorities from the lowest socioeconomic levels of American society. Education in general and STEM education in particular equips students for high-level workforce readiness, offering improved quality of life for formerly incarcerated persons and their families and contributing to American economic success.
Technical Abstract:
Four major goals of the Pilot are: 1. consolidate and ensure articulation of STEM A.A. courses in NJ state prisons with a seamless path to B.A. study at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; 2. begin teaching new accredited STEM courses and offering REU and
internship opportunities to released students; 3. implement tracking of students in STEM courses while incarcerated and beyond, enabling a supplementary research goal to evaluate student and teacher performance in comparison with mainstream educational settings; 4. work
with partners in business, government, non-profit, development, and public sectors to build a complete STEM pipeline with a long-term goal of enabling formerly incarcerated students to clear their records through education and workforce participation in STEM. Implementation of the goals will proceed as follows. Senior personnel from each of the cooperating institutions and a jointly-supervised postdoctoral trainee will negotiate the terms of accreditation and articulation across the state system with our partner, the lead accreditation institution, Raritan Valley Community College. Teaching of STEM courses by our established team of volunteers will
commence as each course is accredited. Our industry and research partners will begin offering REU and training internships in the first summer. Educational research professional on the team will guide the design, implementation, and analysis of student and teacher performance. New partners will be brought in to the collective from the non-profit, business, and public sectors to extend the reach and impact of this initiative.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Outcomes Report: NSF INCLUDES Launch Pilot:
STEPs to STEM (NSF includes) Award 1649142
The Division of Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded this pilot grant to Princeton University.
This INCLUDES Pilot project, STEPs to STEM, aimed to increase community-college-accredited STEM course offerings in New Jersey state prisons; enable smooth transfer of course credits among New Jersey community colleges and between those colleges and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; build re-entry pathways for formerly incarcerated students, including offering Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU internships) at Princeton University; and enable educational research into the motivations and basis for STEM success among incarcerated students. The project leveraged an all-volunteer prison-teaching effort at Princeton, the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI), that since 2006 has offered STEM education in NJ prisons together with Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC), New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP), and New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJ DoC). The award of a grant to support this project affirmed the important role played by PTI's ~150 volunteers in STEM education in NJ prisons, and greatly facilitated the expansion of relationships with existing and new partners.
The award supported the implementation of new, accredited, transferable university-level laboratory courses adapted for in-prison teaching in physics, chemistry, and computer science that are approved by NJ Doc and are now being taught or are in the final stages of adaptation prior to review by NJ DoC. The award supported ten formerly incarcerated students in summer REUs with Princeton faculty, and four of these students participated in a second summer's international REU. Establishment of REUs for formerly incarcerated students is a first in the nation to our knowledge, and securing parole permission for these students' participation represents a dramatic precedent. Educational research collaborators obtained IRB approval for studies that are continuing into incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students' motivations, aspirations, and long-term success in STEM. The collective-impact aspects of the award brought PTI principals into contact with groups sharing interest in prison education nationwide. One outcome of those contacts is a book now under review to be published in autumn, 2020, STEM Education in U.S. Prisons. Another outcome is a leading role for PTI in an INCLUDES Alliance project, STEM Opportunities in Prison Settings (STEM-OPS), in which PTI's REU model will be promulgated to national impact.
Last Modified: 03/18/2020
Modified by: Jannette Carey
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