Erin Huggins

The National Juntos Consortium (NJC) and STEM AP is a transformational, interdisciplinary, collaborative project that will prepare Latinx youth to become the next generation of leaders and workforce in STEM and Agriscience. Led by NCSU, STEM AP will improve STEM participation, persistence, and career readiness among Latinx youth in North Carolina and Washington. The project draws from culturally responsive pedagogy, behavioral science theory, and evidence-based practice, and will establish a replicable, scalable program that improves Latinx youth representation in post-secondary STEM education programs and advances DEIA work within the LGU Extension System. The project objectives include: 1. Increase opportunities for Latinx youth to engage in STEM education and workforce activities; 2. Enhance the skills and capacities of Latinx youth to engage with STEM APP learning and career opportunities; and 3. Increase the motivation of STEM APP youth to engage in STEM-related learning and career opportunities. 4. Develop the National Juntos Consortium to support the scalability and sustainability of Juntos and Juntos STEM AP. Through this innovative approach, combining 4-H Thriving Model, positive youth development, and the behavior change process as defined within the COM-B framework, the project will increase Latinx youth STEM identity (i.e. seeing themselves as successful in a STEM career pathway) and the likelihood to pursue and be successful in a STEM (agricultural sciences) career. The project will also launch the National Juntos Consortium, a first-of-its-kind collaborative Extension initiative with representation in all national regions focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.

In 2018, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) was awarded a Public Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant from the U.S. Department of Education of approximately $26.6 million. The Department was awarded an additional $10 million in 2019. The CSP grant will be used to implement the North Carolina Advancing Charter Collaboration and Excellence for Student Success (NC ACCESS) Program to: 1. Increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students attending high-quality charter schools and expand the number of high-quality charter schools available to educationally disadvantaged students; 2. Develop a cohort of charter school leaders who can develop and demonstrate best practices in serving educationally disadvantaged students; and 3. Broadly disseminate best practices in serving educationally disadvantaged students and foster collaboration in the charter school community and between charter schools and traditional public schools.

The Program Evaluation and Educational Research (PEER) team at the Friday Institute at NC State University and NC Central University (NCCU) will work to develop a Digital Equity Asset Inventory for North Carolina. The first phase will consist of program planning, a content analysis, and distribution of a statewide survey. A review of existing digital equity and inclusion plans will also be conducted to identify what efforts have already been established in communities. This work will give researchers a baseline view of the current state of digital equity efforts across North Carolina. For Phase II (April-May), staff and graduate students will conduct a series of in-depth interviews based on the results of the content analysis and survey to determine which digital equity offerings are working well within the state as well as which are in need of improvement. They will also identify what gaps exist in the state. Phase III (June-July) will include the development of a searchable digital equity asset tool, which will allow the public to find resources and offerings in their communities. Additionally, a report will be provided summarizing the planning and implementation, key findings, and recommendations for improving digital equity services in the state.

The proposed implementation project will enable Department of Information (DIT) Broadband Infrastructure Office (BIO) and ORH to develop a comprehensive, innovative, multi-faceted program with regional and local partners to increase access to healthcare for vulnerable populations and disadvantaged groups while simultaneously increasing the economic viability and digital skills for residents seeking to re-enter the workforce and those currently employed. DIT will contract with the Friday Institute of Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University (NCSU) to conduct a formative evaluation of the project implementation and provide data to inform the final playbook development and track outcomes and measures throughout the project.The Friday Institute Evaluation Team will work collaboratively with the project partners to develop a comprehensive evaluation plan to provide formative and summative feedback about the implementation and impact of the grant that align to the goals and objectives. A real-time evaluation approach will be used to assess the quality and effectiveness of the project in rural North Carolina. As the name suggests, this approach to evaluation will offer formative, in-the-moment feedback at critical decision points in the program with an initial goal of improving instead of proving effectiveness (Nolan and Fontane, 2012). This allows the program to use evaluation data to guide and improve its strategies in real time, rather than waiting to make important changes after the program??????????????????s conclusion.

The Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Group at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation will collaborate with the University of North Carolina (UNC) System and North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) to continue this work by conducting a third assessment and analysis of current digital learning practices within North Carolina Educator EPPs using the streamlined Digital Learning Progress Rubric and the School Technology Needs Assessment (STNA) for EPP faculty. They will also support UNC and NCICU to review and refine four professional development modules that will be submitted in June 2022, create and implement a peer review process to evaluate existing professional development opportunities, provide two half-day trainings for EPP faculty, and develop a plan for dissemination.

Researchers on the Program Evaluation and Educational Research (PEER) team at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State University have extensive experience evaluating and researching digital literacy and inclusion programs across North Carolina. Additionally, we are members of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and serve as representatives for the state???s Digital Equity and Inclusion Collaborative (DEIC). Ms. Huggins serves on the Data and Barriers working group for DEIC, which focuses on helping identify ways to deepen data collection and inventory barriers to digital equity for general and covered populations. As a result of serving within these collaboratives, we have built strong relationships with digital literacy- focused organizations leading much of the work going on in our state such as DIT, Digital Durham, the Center for Digital Equity, Kramden, E2D, the State Library, county libraries, Wake Tech, and A&T University to name a few. Our staff and graduate students also have a great deal of experience conducting literature reviews in a number of areas related to education, and would love this opportunity to explore the literature more in- depth. We are uniquely positioned as a research institute to conduct an extensive digital literacy literature review as we not only have deep experience with and knowledge of digital literacy programs and partners across the state, but we also have extensive knowledge of the data and metrics used to gauge the success of digital literacy programs.

The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (FI) at North Carolina State University (Friday Institute), will collaborate with the University of North Carolina (UNC) System, the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to develop a rubric to be used to review and assess the professional development modules submitted to DPI by the NCICU and UNC Work Groups. In addition, the FI will provide training and support for assessors who will be using the rubric to evaluation the professional development modules.

With the large majority of schools likely to continue remote learning well into the fall, this project aims to build upon the success demonstrated by Phases I of the At Home Learning initiative, which began by airing two blocks of NC standards-aligned PBS content each weekday on UNC-TV's North Carolina Channel. Phase II expanded upon these efforts to include both UNC-TV produced and teacher generated content featuring messages aired between programming, as well as printable and online materials and activity ideas curated by NCDPI to complement the UNC-TV programming. The purpose of this project is to expand the At Home Learning initiative into a third phase focused on the development of a more comprehensive set of remote learning curriculum materials and resources. Specific goals for Phase II of this initiative include: 1. Lesson Development. Recruit and support teachers to develop NC standards-aligned literacy lessons to be aired on UNC-TV??????????????????s stations (and DPI??????????????????s OER repository and DPI??????????????????s YouTube Channels). 2. Learning Supports. Work with participating teachers to develop one-page extension lessons that correspond to each video lesson filmed to be used by North Carolina teachers and families to support and extend broadcast and internet-based video lessons. 3. Research & Evaluation. Support continuous improvement and gather information on the implementation and impact of the At Home Learning Initiative. 4. Reporting & Dissemination. Report to DPI and UNC-TV on the activities, impacts, and lessons learned both formatively to help guide decision-making and summatively once all program activities have ended. ????????????????