Tracy Langkilde: Institutional self-reflection is critical for improving fair learning outcomes

Editor’s note: This space is dedicated to college updates and perspectives on higher education trends from Tracy Langkilde, Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Penn State Eberly College of Science. Langkilde was named dean in October 2020, after joining the Penn State faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology in 2007 and becoming head of the department in 2016.

New research just out this morning from two of our college’s innovative mathematics and statistics faculty has prompted me to think about the state of higher education’s approach to learning, and how much that overall approach may have changed — or, in some cases, hasn’t — over time.

Nate Brown and Neil Hatfield’s new study?analyzed academic transcripts of over 100,000 undergrad students at six peer research institutions and found strong evidence that introductory STEM courses disproportionately “weed out” minoritized students.?

This adds to a body of literature demonstrating inequities in STEM higher education and is an example of the kinds of collective analyses on student outcomes in foundational science and math courses — and beyond — that are important to pursue so that we as higher-education leaders can be self-reflective and collaborate on potential solutions.

We all need to look at this and other emerging studies in this space while taking a hard look at our own data, no matter how difficult. As with many big areas of change, it takes bravery to look in the mirror and acknowledge when we are not doing as well as we could, or that there might be unintended outcomes to our current policies, programs, curricular approaches, etc. This happens on every college campus.

Meeting pedagogical needs to create inclusive excellence is a national challenge that we all need to work on solutions for — from the policy level down to individual teaching practices — starting with an openness to look at data and beginning discussions, even when it makes us feel vulnerable.

We know we have a lot of work to do in our own college. As we reflect on these data, it is also an important time to share some of the investments that we have made within the Eberly College of Science, as well as where we’re headed.

We took some strong steps a decade ago and will continue to reflect and improve. We launched the?Center for Excellence in Science Education (CESE)?in 2010. What started as a small program aimed at improving pedagogy has grown into multiple seed fund-supported faculty learning communities; an annual Evidence-Based Teaching Academy with nearly 150 cumulative participating faculty; and one of the largest student?learning assistant programs?in the country, with more than 500 students participating this semester alone. Recently, this growing culture of curricular and pedagogical innovation has blossomed into the Science Education Collaboratory, which we launched last fall to help approach bigger, systemic issues in curriculum and to link science education research with our faculty development and innovation efforts. Two sides of the Collaboratory help to (1) understand what is happening, at a macro level, in our classrooms and (2) support faculty in implementing?evidence-based practices to modify our teaching?and work to address the kinds of issues that Brown and Hatfield are writing about.?It is an example of stronger integration of both research and teaching — two of our college’s missions.

To be clear, we know that — helpful as they are — these strategies are just a beginning. We are committed to investing in a model that will help close the equity gaps in STEM education, and to do so we will need buy-in at all levels of the University. We’re thankful to have faculty members like Brown and Hatfield doing research that keeps us accountable, and we hope you will, too.

Please take a moment to?read their work, which gives a collective, data-backed picture of a challenge we all face across the nation. And don’t be a stranger! I would love to hear from others — both within my college and campus community and at other institutions of higher education — about the challenges you are facing and your innovative ideas for improvement.

~ Tracy