The National Girls Collaborative Project™ has been partially funded via a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Human Resource Development, and Research on Gender in Science and Engineering.
The program seeks to broaden the participation of girls and women in all fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education by supporting research, dissemination of research, and extension services in education that will lead to a larger and more diverse domestic science and engineering workforce.
Specific NSF grant award information can be located at: Award Number 1103073
GSE/EXT: National Girls Collaborative Project: Building the Capacity of STEM Practitioners to Develop a Diverse Workforce, Grant No. HRD-1532643.
Model Overview
The NGCP model includes a number of strategic activities to build the capacity of STEM practitioners:
- Implementation of Collaborative Model: Train and mentor NGCP participants across the United States in how to create STEM-related collaborations and assist these collaborative networks in creating action plans which utilize exemplary practices in engaging girls in STEM.
- Dissemination and Outreach: In partnership with national, regional, and local organizations invested in increasing gender equity in STEM, document and promote coordination and collaboration among girl-serving STEM programs throughout the United States by implementing an on-going communication system linking these organizations.
- Collaboration Support: Offer mini-grants to girl-serving STEM-focused programs as an incentive to collaborate and to assist in implementation of exemplary practices for engaging girls in STEM.
Research Evaluation: Conduct evaluation of the NGCP to determine effectiveness of collaboration and the impact of collaboration and implementation of STEM research-based exemplary practices at national, regional, and local levels.
Project Evaluation
The NGCP evaluation team from Education Development Center (formerly Evaluation & Research Associates) looks at the effectiveness of the implementation of the NGCP model at national and Collaborative levels and the impact that it has on those participating in the project. Data are collected from tri-annual reports completed by Collaborative Leadership Teams, an annual survey of participating programs, reports from mini-grant recipients, mini-grant youth participant surveys in selected projects, and via webinar and event post-surveys. The evaluation provides formative feedback to help guide decisions related to ongoing project activities as well as summative reporting of the outcomes of NGCP.
The NGCP evaluation aims to answer the following overarching questions about the implementation and impact of the project:
How is the NGCP being implemented?
- How effective and sustainable is the work of NGCP Collaborative Leadership Teams?
- Are girl-serving STEM programs strengthened by NGCP to effectively reach and serve underrepresented girls in STEM?
- Do K-12 school counselors access and use resources related to girls’ interest and engagement in STEM through NGCP?
- To what extent and how does NGCP impact collaboration between those supporting the involvement of girls in STEM?
- To what extent do K-12 programs participating in NGCP have increased access to and use of exemplary practices related to serving girls in STEM?
NGCP Evaluation Highlights
The report presents evidence on how NGCP has increased collaboration, sharing of resources, and knowledge and use of exemplary practices.
NGCP Summative Report
This report presents summative evaluation results from a five‐year grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) called the “National Girls Collaborative Project: Building the Capacity of STEM Practitioners to Develop a Diverse Workforce” (NGCP).