"RDE-RAD: Collaborative Research: Ohio's STEM Ability Alliance (OSAA): STEM Degrees and Careers for Ohioans with Disabilities" will increase the quantity and quality of students with disabilities receiving associate, baccalaureate and graduate degrees in STEM disciplines and their entry into the STEM workforce. This collaborative project includes the following partners: Wright State University, the Ohio State University, Sinclair Community College, Columbus State Community College and numerous high schools in the Dayton and Columbus regions of Ohio.
The primary goal of the project is to increase the quality and quantity of students with disabilities receiving associate, baccalaureate and graduate degrees in STEM and entering the STEM workforce, with the following specific three numerical goals:
1. Increase recruitment of high school students with disabilities (from a pool of 2000) and transition to STEM majors in OSAA community college and university partner institutions by 20% through student learning communities and mentoring opportunities.
2. Increase retention and graduation rates (associates, baccalaureate and graduate degrees) for existing STEM students with disabilities in OSAA's community college and university partner institutions from 10% to ~20% through student learning communities, mentoring (electronic and internships), and individualized STEM advisement. 3. Increase successful entry rates of OSAA STEM graduates (associates, baccalaureate and graduate) with disabilities into STEM graduate programs or STEM employment by 5% per year (from 2007 baseline measures) through focusing on employment issues in student learning communities, industry internships and parallel employer education.
The evaluation team for this collaborative project includes two independent evaluators, Dr. Dianna Newman, the Director of the Evaluation Consortium and Professor of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the State University of New York, Albany, and Dr. Jeffrey White, an Assistant Professor of Education at Ashland University. Dr. James Altschuld, Emeritus faculty at the Ohio State University will serve as an on-site evaluation team member.
Dissemination of project deliverables and reports will focus on institutions in Ohio region as well as sharing the model with a national post-secondary audience via a web-based diffusion portal, presentations at national conferences and publications in professional journals.
