Institution/Organization
Arizona State University
Principal Investigator
Caroline VanIngen-Dunn
Co-Principal Investigators
Maria Reyes
Shelley Haydel
Cynthia Pickering
Felisha Herrera Villarreal
Goal: The ALRISE Alliance is developing a network of faculty, staff, administrators, and students at 2-yr and 4-yr Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs (eHSIs) to accelerate Latinx representation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
Challenges such as (1) campus environments that are not intentionally culturally-responsive to Latinx STEM students; (2) deficit mindsets of STEM educators that devalue Latinx students’ strength and resilience; (3) Latinx STEM retention and graduation rates that are significantly lower than enrollment; and (4) the underrepresentation of Latinx professionals in STEM job clusters compound broadening participation efforts. The ALRISE Alliance provides professional development for faculty, staff and industry to serve Latinx students with intentionality through culturally-responsive undergraduate research and work-based experiential learning.
The Networked Improvement Community (NIC) collaborative infrastructure of the ALRISE Alliance will mobilize large-scale change through shared vision, partnerships, common goals and metrics, leadership and communication, and potential for expansion, sustainability, and scale. The ALRISE backbone organization, Science Foundation Arizona Center for STEM at Arizona State University, provides leadership and communications structures to connect and collaborate amongst four Regional Hubs that coordinate a total of 26 HSI/eHSI institutional members and their STEM Planning educator teams.
Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected and analyzed at the student, institutional, and experiential learning program levels to provide evidence for practices supported and disseminated by ALRISE. Triangulated findings from multi-level mixed methods research, and outcomes from formative and summative evaluation, will advance knowledge on culturally responsive practices, HSI intentionality, and as-yet undiscovered common challenges and synergies within and across Alliance members. Instilling intentionality to serve Latinx students at the institutional level, and through asset-oriented educator professional development and coaching, will build capacity to effect change at each member institution. This capacity-building approach will not only serve the Latinx students actively engaged in experiential learning programs but also retain the knowledge and programs to impact a far greater number of students in the future.