Broadening STEM Participation Through Inclusive and Equitable Evaluation Practices

Abstract Information: In this presentation session, we will explore the challenges and opportunities faced by three NASA-funded projects focused on promoting science participation among diverse youth and discuss the important role that project evaluations play in achieving these objectives.

In the first project, we will share how an evaluation group provided continuous improvement feedback for a complex, multi-organizational collaboration. This collaboration works to optimize an out-of-school time planetary curriculum to engage multilingual learners, Indigenous youth, and those with diverse physical abilities. The second project describes their process for developing equity-oriented survey measures of project collaboration, including leveraging items from existing measures and collaborating with their development team to iteratively create items that reflect inclusive collaboration practices. The third project will discuss one evaluation group's efforts to learn and adapt culturally responsive methodology and practices that center neurodiverse youth voices.

In this session, we will share the goals of each evaluation group in supporting the advancement of inclusion and diversity in their projects internally and externally and then describe the various strategies that each evaluation adopted.

This session is important to evaluators interested in supporting projects that aim to create inclusive STEM learning experiences while honoring the diversity and complexity of the teams needed to make these inclusive experiences. Additionally, the session highlights the shifts that evaluators need to make in their own mindsets and practices to implement equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive evaluations.