Scaling Up the JROTC STEM Leadership Academy: Leveraging the JROTC Network to Increase the STEM Pipeline
Abstract
The Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS), in partnership with STEMWorksII LLC and the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), seeks funding to scale its JROTC STEM Leadership Academy to other JROTC programs across the nation over the four years of the project. As a result of Scaling Up the JROTC STEM Leadership Academy: Leveraging the JROTC Network to Increase the STEM Pipeline, 14 JROTC programs across the country will implement the JROTC STEM Leadership Academy as a hybrid Junior Cadet Leadership Challenge (JCLC) impacting over 5,000 cadets, 350 Cadre, and 275 STEM Instructors. The JROTC STEM Academy is an established and evidenced-based summer residential STEM workforce development initiative that combines STEM and workforce experiences with the US Army JROTC required JCLC summer leadership camps. The US Army Cadet Command is eager to substantially increase the number of sites that include this workforce component in their required and funded JCLCs in order to meet US Army and DoD’s need for high quality STEM workers. Objectives for the project include: 1) Scale the STEM Academy to 14 additional sites and investigate how the replication of the Academy model is implemented with fidelity as it is adapted to each context, impacts cadets, and is ultimately sustained by adopters; 2) Produce a blended (in-person and virtual) professional development and coaching model designed to develop site-based STEM Leadership Teams eventually able to provide stand-alone implementation for their site; and 3) Develop STEM leaders at each site and web-based resources to enable future scaling of the Academy beyond the 14 sites and across the JROTC national network. The project follows a scale out plan that begins by adding two sites in year one, three sites in years two and three, and six sites in year four for a total of 14 sites by the final year, in addition to the MCPSS’s JROTC STEM Academy which serves as a demonstration site throughout the project. The incremental addition of sites allows adequate time to develop the human capacity (STEM Leadership Teams at each site and Academy Coaches to support those sites) and digital resources needed to successfully implement and sustain these. Success and impact will be measured through a mixed-method between-subjects design led by USM. By the end of the project, 14 sites will have implemented the Academy; the professional development and coaching model will be complete; and each site will have its own STEM Leadership Team with the capacity to continue offering the Academy, serving 2,240 students annually. The Academy Coaches and digital resources will support the expansion of this hybrid JCLC, the JROTC STEM Leadership Academy, and then have the potential to scale throughout the entire JROTC network.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 10, 2021
- Source ID
- HQ00342110009
Entities
People
- R. Frank Barrow
Organizations
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Washington Headquarters Services