How a nationwide departmental change database could support equitable STEM education

We discuss a potential new tool that would bring together several existing projects to support physics departments in departmental change efforts and support departmental change researchers in identifying and understanding key features that support departmental change and equity. It has long been argued that the department is the most important unit of change in higher education. Careful qualitative analysis of individual departments engaged in change has led to promising results about the key factors that make a difference in departmental change. However, because change is a complex process with a long time scale and many interacting factors, it is often difficult to determine which factors make a difference in creating and sustaining change. There is a lack of systematic long-term quantitative data about institutional and departmental change, making it difficult to make many empirical claims. ASCN has brought together change researchers and change leaders to identify research questions that could be answered with such data. The Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) Initiative has produced a large collection of recommendations for physics departments engaged in change. The PhysPort Data Explorer is a tool for physics departments that provides analysis and visualization of research-based assessment results. These projects could be brought together to create a new tool, the Departmental Data Explorer, that would (1) systematically collect data from many physics departments (and eventually STEM departments more broadly) on their change initiatives, program-level outcomes, assessments, and activities, and (2) share de-identified and anonymized data with change researchers through a national database of departmental practices, program-level student learning outcomes and equity goals, programmatic assessments, assessment results, and change strategies. This tool would support research on change in a broadly representative sample of departments with a particular focus on equity. We are actively seeking new collaborators and funding sources for this tool.