In STEM PUSH, the networked improvement community (NIC) is our learning engine.

Our networked improvement community is the learning engine in which pre-college STEM programs to strengthen their capacity to support Black, Latina/o/e/x and Indigenous students in STEM. 

Pre-college STEM programs try out small changes to improve their programs’ ability to serve Black, Latina/o/e/x, and Indigenous students. They also improve pathways leading to undergraduate institutions for STEM study. 

Based on our learning, we hope that these tested routines can then be used by other out-of-school providers to better serve Black, Latina/o/e/x and Indigenous students in STEM.

By 2026, the STEM PUSH Network will increase the capacity of 40 pre-college STEM programs to support Black, Latinx, and/or Indigenous students on a pathway to STEM undergraduate study.​

Explore Our Learning Engine

Root Cause Analysis

We first engaged in a collaborative process to understand why precollege STEM programs working alone had not significantly broadened participation in STEM.

The STEM PUSH Network uses a collective impact approach called a networked improvement community.

What is a Networked Improvement Community?

A Networked Improvement Community (NIC) is a specialized form of a network, defined by four key characteristics that make it a powerful structure to engage in the complexity of broadening participation in STEM:

Focused

Focused on a well-specified common aim.

Guided

Guided by a deep understanding of the problem, the system that produces it, and a shared working theory of how to improve it.

Disciplined

Disciplined through an approach to testing changes using the methods of improvement science.

Coordinated

Coordinated to accelerate the development, testing, and refinement of interventions, their rapid diffusion across participating programs, and their effective integration into varied contexts.

From Bryk, A. S., Gomez, L. M., Grunow, A., & LeMahieu, P. G. (2015). Learning to improve: How America’s schools can get better at getting better. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Root Cause Analysis

We first engaged in a collaborative process to understand why precollege STEM programs working alone had not significantly broadened participation in STEM.

Root Cause Analysis

We first engaged in a collaborative process to understand why precollege STEM programs working alone had not significantly broadened participation in STEM. To do this, our root cause analysis engaged a range of partners and stakeholders in a disciplined, collaborative exploration of the system causing the problem the network is seeking to address, stated as:

While many precollege STEM programs are successful in attracting and supporting racially/ethnically minoritized (REM) high school students, these programs have not been systematically leveraged to increase the number of REM students admitted to undergraduate STEM programs. Why?

Through this process, we reflected on the various ways in which oppression functions to exclude racially minoritized students from STEM, and then considered how that manifests in the context of PCSPs and admissions. This included looking at data, research, practitioner voices, and student experiences. 

A fishbone diagram is an improvement science tool we use to help us visualize the results of our “root cause analysis” process.

Explore the STEM PUSH Network Fishbone Diagram

Root Cause Analysis Process

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Theory of improvement

Once we had mapped our best understanding of the system producing our problem, we brought our stakeholders together to agree on what we wanted to accomplish (our aim) and to identify the most high leverage areas that we could work on to achieve that aim (our theory of improvement).

Theory of Improvement

Once we had mapped our best understanding of the system producing our problem, we brought our stakeholders together to agree on what we wanted to accomplish (our aim) and to identify the most high leverage areas that we could work on to achieve that aim (our theory of improvement).

Students at Chicago Botanic Garden PCSP

A theory of improvement is a set of hypotheses about how we get to meaningful collective impact on our shared problem. It combines our understanding of the system creating the problem we are seeking to solve with our “best bets” about the most high-leverage areas we can target to achieve our aim.

A driver diagram represents our working theory of improvement, and is therefore subject to revision as we learn. We use it to organize, capture learning, and then refocus our work together. Our driver diagram articulates the overarching aim that STEM PUSH Alliance partners are collectively working toward, the shared aim of the Networked Improvement Community (NIC) specifically, and the key drivers that we’re targeting in order to achieve that aim.

As part of the NIC, pre-college STEM programs test “change ideas” rooted in our working theory of improvement, which identifies the key levers we believe will increase programs’ capacity to serve Black, Latina/o/e/x and Indigenous students and move us towards our collective aim of increasing STEM undergraduate enrollment and persistence. Programs engage in improvement cycles during which they implement change ideas and work with STEM PUSH improvement science experts to use tools and metrics which support testing these changes as part of a disciplined inquiry process.

STEM PUSH Driver Diagram

Our networked improvement community tests change ideas against our overall aim to increase the capacity of pre-college STEM programs to support Black, Latina/o/e/x and Indigenous students on pathways to STEM undergraduate studies.

Here is a deep dive into our change ideas identified at the beginning of our work.  

"If we want to accomplish [aim], we must [primary driver]."​

Driver Diagram
Quality Standards for Broadening Participation in STEM

Quality Standards for Broadening Participation in STEM

Focusing all this work is a set of evidence-based practices for precollege programs to effectively support Black, Latino/a/e/x, and Indigenous students on a path to STEM postsecondary education. We use the standards to help programs reflect and plan, to help us see network needs and assets, and to help us benchmark progress over time.

Upon joining the network, each program partner completes a self-study that is aligned with this set of standards. We use the standards to tether our work to evidence-based practices, to help programs reflect and plan, to help us see network needs and assets, and to help us benchmark progress over time.  

Learn More about Quality Standards

Quality Standards

Focusing all this work is a set of evidence-based practices for precollege programs to effectively support Black, Latino/a/é/x, and Indigenous students on a path to STEM postsecondary education. We use the standards to help programs reflect and plan, to help us see network needs and assets, and to help us benchmark progress over time.

What are we learning?

Focusing all this work is a set of evidence-based practices for precollege programs to effectively support Black, Latina/o/e, and Indigenous students on a path to STEM postsecondary education. We use the standards to help programs reflect and plan, to help us see network needs and assets, and to help us benchmark progress over time.

1. Program Goals
1.1 Formal program goals include broadening participation of underrepresented minoritized students in STEM undergraduate college programs.
1.2 Program goals reflect an intentional focus on building students’ connection to a STEM community
1.3 Program goals demonstrate a deliberate effort to develop students in STEM Competencies.
1.4 Program goals reflect exposure to and development of familiarity with college planning, college life and resources available on campuses.

2. Student Recruitment
2.1 The program intentionally and effectively recruits underrepresented minoritized students. (Overall assessment of recruitment practices.)
2.2 Recruitment strategies reach into spaces frequented by minoritized students in the program’s feeder area.
2.3 Recruitment practices demonstrate STEM fields’ relevance to minoritized students’ interests, cultures, and identities.
2.4 Recruitment practices go beyond self-selection to include active identification and referral from organizations and individuals who have regular contact with the population of potential program participants (e.g., counselors, parents, community members, peers, schools, community groups).
2.5 Recruitment strategies employ a variety of messages and methods aligned with common communication mechanisms used within the underrepresented minoritized communities from which the program is trying to recruit.

3. Program Design and Implementation
3.1 The program utilizes well-trained, consistent staff and/or volunteers who demonstrate cultural competence and have appropriate expertise given the program goals.*
3.2 There are measurement routines and tools in place for continuous program improvement efforts around areas such as recruitment, program implementation quality, student/parent satisfaction, and outcomes attainment.
3.3 Program has articulated curriculum (activities and experiences) driven by its established goals for students.

3.3.1 Program is focused on rigorous STEM content.

3.3.2 Program content is reflective of advances in applicable STEM fields.
3.4 Program utilizes culturally responsive practices and approaches that engage, energize and empower students in their own learning. (Overall assessment of culturally responsive practices).

3.4.1 Program environment, activities and policies promote understanding of and respect for the cultural backgrounds of youth and their families.

3.4.2 Activities stimulate positive STEM identities and sense of belonging in both STEM community and on college campus.
3.5 Program utilizes research-based instructional practices aligned with what is known about how people learn.
3.6 Program is implemented in ways that broaden students’ understanding of and first-hand experience with college campus and culture, STEM careers, STEM professionals, and STEM workplaces.
3.7 Program implementation includes effective formation and sustaining of meaningful connections to students’ families and communities.
3.8 Program sustains a network of peers and program alumni to serve as an ongoing STEM resource for student participants.

4. Student Services
4.1 Program utilizes practices that proactively identify and address barriers to participation (these may include transportation, cost of participation, meals, social- emotional, and/or other barriers).
4.2 Program includes responsive support for students based on needs identified at application and/or during program implementation (these may include tutoring for STEM content, study skills, professional communication skills, social-emotional support, etc.).
4.3 Program provides age-appropriate college advising and supports (these may include letters of recommendation, financial aid resources, application process, etc.).

5. Assessment and Evidence of Performance
5.1 Valid and reliable assessment practices are in place to measure student growth with regard to targeted outcomes. (Please respond to this standard with respect to the outcomes you listed above).
5.2 Program can demonstrate meaningful student growth with regard to targeted outcomes for at least three of the last five years. (Please respond to this standard with respect to the outcomes you listed above).
5.3 Program has a method to track alumni college enrollment, persistence and attainment and, specifically, rates for STEM majors.
5.4 Program can demonstrate improvement trends in college enrollment in STEM fields by program alumni over three or more program years or cohorts of students.

6. College Pathways
6.1 Program has established methods to engage parents/guardians in ways that provide support, guidance, and/or access to resources with regard to college pathways.
6.2 Program has established pathways to other experiences and/or programming that act as a bridge to STEM college opportunities (e.g., internship with STEM employer, preference for admission to another STEM precollege program, etc.).
6.3 For programs serving high school students, there is an established relationship with at least one college admissions department that provides some benefit to program alumni in the admissions process.

*While it is recognized that staff and/or volunteers reflecting the demographic characteristics of the students being served is important, it is also recognized that many programs have limited personnel, and this may put undue burden on potential staff/volunteers that are underrepresented minorities in their fields.