To grow a diverse workforce and address inequality Chicago companies need to innovate with STEM hiring and promotion.

The Illinois STEM workforce is the sixth-largest in the US and growing fast. With an innovative job market and strong universities, students come to Chicagoland from around the world and often stay after graduation. Between 2013 and 2017, Illinois doubled the number of computer science degrees granted statewide, and Illinois continues to be an international leader in cultivating talent in STEM fields. There are jobs for these new graduates, too. In 2021, Chicago's fastest-growing industries included software, healthcare, and life sciences. Chicago's startup scene is also thriving, with 375 tech companies founded in the last five years alone.

Unfortunately, many Black and Latino Chicagoans have been left behind. While most of Chicago's population is Black or Latino, they make up only 14 percent of the city's tech jobs. Some successful initiatives have helped to close this gap. The University of Chicago is working with City Colleges of Chicago, a network of community colleges, to build a more diverse STEM talent pipeline.

We at CPASS recommend that communities focus on these strategies to help serve diverse communities:

Expand talent recruitment. Several Chicagoland universities have established internship and career pathway programs to connect diverse talent with future employers. Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, for example, has paid internships and mentoring programs for students in pre-med and nursing majors. Research shows that when Black and Latino students have opportunities to attend conferences and build relationships with scientists who look like them, they're more likely to successfully complete a STEM degree in college. Businesses also are expanding their internship programs and recruiting at more diverse universities.

Reexamine hiring practices. To eliminate biases, experts recommend holding panel interviews, rather than one-on-one meetings. Large Chicagoland firms like architecture and engineering company Clayco have established diversity and inclusion goals and track the progress of hiring and promotion targets using data. Clayco also developed a mentorship program that supports career advancement for workers at every level.

Invest in inclusive school and work environments. In the wake of experiencing racial microaggressions, Black and Latino students often report feeling a need to prove to their peers that they belong. At tech companies, senior Black leaders report having to outperform their peers to be successful and being lumped together with people who look like them. Successful business leaders report that diversity and inclusion are critical to build and maintain creative, collaborative teams and better understand a diverse customer base.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students by introducing them to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for students in Illinois to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

The pandemic accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and automation. Now students as young as pre-K are learning to code.

The pandemic forced laboratories, factories, and warehouses around the world to replace humans with robots. As the world reopens, robots are sticking around. Chicago hotels already have the help of robots that deliver amenities to guests? rooms. Recently, at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, Segway Robotics unveiled a service robot designed for restaurants. This autonomous robot is designed to support touchless food delivery and help restaurants lower labor costs. Illinois manufacturing also became more automated during the pandemic, enabling businesses to increase their output even as hiring human workers became more difficult.

But these robots, and the artificial intelligence used to program them, need to be designed and managed by humans. Recent data from Zip Recruiter and ADP found that the average AI robotics engineer in Chicago earns about $90,000 a year in a job that usually requires experience in programming languages and an undergraduate or a master's degree in computer science or engineering.

We at CPASS recommend that communities focus on these strategies to help serve diverse student communities:

Connect robotics with science and math. Using robots to teach science and math engages students and makes abstract concepts real. Math topics like algebra and geometry are relevant in robotics. To figure out how a robot is going to interact with its environment, students need to be able to apply skills such as measuring and graphing dimensions and finding the shortest distance between two points.

Get robotics experience. Programs such as the FIRST Robotics Competition provide opportunities for Illinois students in pre-K through grade 12 to explore science and engineering. In Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the FIRST Robotics Competition is run by The Office of Computer Science, which also holds regular programs that connect students and parents with industry leaders.

Learn to code. There are a multitude of free coding programs available for learners of every age. FreeCodeCamp offers free online courses with certifications in coding languages and web design. Career Karma reviews the highest-quality free online coding bootcamps for aspiring programmers. Students and teachers in grades K-12 can access free coding classes and programs on free sites such as code.org and Khan Academy. There are many free coding games that students can use to practice and apply their skills.

Earn degrees. Chicagoland universities have excellent robotics programs. Independent organization EduRank lists the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University as two of the top robotics programs in the world. The University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, and Northern Illinois University also boast strong undergraduate and graduate robotics programs.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students by introducing them to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for students in Illinois to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Between COVID vaccines and mass lockdowns, humanity just experienced some of the largest medical and health experiments ever. This made it harder for STEM students to continue their own studies and transformed STEM university education.

From accessing cadavers for anatomy classes to continuing research in laboratories, COVID lockdowns prevented students from continuing educational experiments. Government regulations and recommendations required labs to add new ventilation to prevent the spread of COVID, which added time and expenses that universities and labs often couldn't quickly fund. Instead, universities often shifted to connecting students with their labs virtually or remotely.

This shift to virtual and remote learning in science education is continuing, even as universities and labs have reopened. The University of Illinois Chicago's registrar now labels how classes deliver content: synchronous, asynchronous, on-campus, hybrid, and off-campus. DePaul University has even started connecting instructors with instructional designers to help them navigate the process of designing courses that meet in person, online, or on a hybrid schedule.

We at CPASS recommend that communities focus on these strategies to help serve diverse student communities:

Go virtual. Interactive courses such as anatomy can access a multitude of free or inexpensive resources online. Some university courses found success in having student lab groups work virtually through Zoom or Microsoft teams and held virtual office hours with professors and teaching assistants. Without access to labs to conduct prescribed experiments and demonstrations, students are forced to. A study by Life Sciences Education quarterly shows that undergraduate STEM students have more effective learning when they're able to design part of their investigations and labs.

Conduct lectures from labs. According to one study, students felt more connected with their lab work and campus life when attending a virtual lecture with a professor who called in from inside a lab. Labs also opted to shift to human-remote systems, where a few instructors were granted access to a closed campus and used equipment including DSLR cameras to help students connect remotely. Human-remote system labs were able to be recorded, allowing students to attend their lectures and labs asynchronously, helping them fit their university learning into their own schedules.

Robo-scientists. Scientists at the University of Liverpool used a preprogrammed robot to conduct many of their lab's experiments during COVID lockdown. The chemistry team used their robot-scientist to conduct experiments for 21.5 hours daily, pausing work only to recharge its battery. Ph.D. students and scientists who worked on the project see robot-scientists as tools to prevent human error and efficiently conduct experiments that humans might not otherwise have time to do

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At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students by introducing them to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for students in Illinois to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

These doctors are here to teach everybody, on several platforms.

Americans spend at least four hours a day looking at their phones. In 2020, 59 percent of American internet users looked online for health information. Social media is an efficient way to reach diverse, underserved communities and share new, important information in easily accessible platforms. It also gives health professionals a helpful way to get feedback from communities and see what information resonates with patients.

Research shows that by engaging the public through social media, health professionals can reach patients in the most personal spaces, even during social distancing. The American Medical Association (AMA) recently recommended that doctors use social media as a way to proactively define their online presence so they can control how patients perceive them on the web. As patients spend more time online, doctors are competing with digital content that may or may not be accurate to gain patients' trust.

We at CPASS recommend that communities focus on these strategies to help serve diverse communities:

Learn how to identify credible information. Almost 1 in 10 Americans use social media to get medical information, and it's not always accurate. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends identifying who wrote the information, who reviewed it, what their credentials are, and when they wrote it. MedlinePlus, an NIH service that's part of the world's largest medical library, has helpful health information written in multiple languages and is designed for people who aren't necessarily medical professionals.

Promote reliable social media sources. Battling misinformation is a frustrating challenge for health professionals. Organizations gain trust when they correct false information and make clear, research-based recommendations. Several board-certified doctors are using their social media accounts to debunk misinformation and promote the advantages of preventative healthcare for specific communities. Dr. Erica Montes, M.D., FACOG's social media focuses on empowering female patients and answering questions from how to treat period pain to birth control best practices.

Customize messaging for the audience. Communities get most engaged in content when they are part of the conversation. Researchers suggest that mobilizing underserved communities through social media empowers leadership and fuels advocacy. A recently updated US Census website now includes demographic data for all towns of 5,000 or more people, giving healthcare leaders critical information to target their messages. It's important to appreciate how historically marginalized communities have been harmed by healthcare professionals in the past when crafting messages designed to build trust.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students by introducing them to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for students in Illinois to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Vaccination Catch-Up Time

It's never been more important for schools and communities to collaborate to ensure that all students catch up on routine childhood and adolescent vaccines they may have missed during COVID lockdowns.

A recent CDC study found that the number of routine vaccination doses given has decreased significantly from before the pandemic. There were 68 percent fewer mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) doses given to children ages 2-8 in March-May 2020 than during the same period a year earlier. With older kids, 71.3 percent fewer human papillomavirus (HPV) shots were given to teens ages 13-17.

Illinois law requires students in grades k-12 and those attending post-secondary institutions to receive immunizations to protect against several serious contagious illnesses. Cook County students are required to submit updated immunization forms to their school by Oct. 15 each year. After Oct. 15, children who don't submit the forms will be excluded from school until they can produce a medical or religious exemption.

We at CPASS recommend that communities focus on these strategies to keep students healthy:

• Education. Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found that people become most wary of inoculation after a vaccine has become so effective in large populations that its side effects are more visible than the disease it prevents. To combat this, the AAP recommends that providers give parents specific information about vaccines and how they're made. But these conversations take a lot of time, and a recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found that having to advocate for vaccines is a significant source of frustration for healthcare professionals. To help educate families, the Cook County Department of Public Health is giving grants to community-based organizations, community health centers, and schools to support populations that the pandemic has most impacted.

• Collaboration. Several community-based programs are already operating in Chicagoland to help educate families about the importance of catching up with routine vaccinations. Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership works with churches, food pantries, and community groups to run vaccine outreach programs.

• Access. Several Chicagoland programs offer routine vaccinations at no cost. There are 33 school-based health centers across Chicago Public Schools open to all students enrolled in school, and often to the greater community as well. Families can also schedule an appointment with Chicago CareVan, a mobile immunization clinic that provides all CDC -recommended vaccines (except chickenpox) free of charge. The Vaccines for Children (VFC) program is offered through Cook County's CountyCare Medicaid Health Plan to eligible families in Chicagoland, free of charge. CountyCare's member benefits include a monetary reward for each immunization given to a baby less than 2 years old, and for annual health screenings for members of any age.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students by introducing them to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for students in Illinois to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Shockingly, less than 3% of STEM workers are Black and Hispanic women.

A recent Pentagon report concluded that one of the biggest threats to US national security is the lack of highly skilled workers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Tech companies complain that they can’t find enough qualified employees. With a low percentage of Black and Hispanic women (less than 3%) going into STEM careers, the American workforce is missing out on a tremendous amount of potential talent due to an opportunity gap.

Specific data are not available to explain why this opportunity gap is so severe, but Black and Hispanic women in postgraduate school and in advanced STEM careers can reflect on their own career paths to find answers. “In 1916, Saint Elmo Brady became the first African American to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry in the United States. Eighty-four years later, I was one of only 44 Black chemists in the country to earn a PhD that year,” writes chemistry professor Sibrina N. Collins in the journal Nature. Collins found that women who were denied tenure at major universities didn’t have more senior colleagues whose intellectual interests aligned with their own. Nor did they have access to strong mentors, as their white male colleagues did.

Recent research showed that the interview process at tech companies might also be an unnecessary roadblock. “Candidates often get so flustered from the pressure and the mechanics of the interview that their performance is significantly hindered,” writes Cheryl Winokur Munk in The Wall Street Journal. A recent study showed that when completing a performance task for an interview with a tech company, “among women with a proctor present, no one successfully solved the problem, whereas all of the women working alone solved the problem.”

We at CPASS recommend that teens, their families and their teachers focus on these values to build productive social and professional networking skills:

• Mentoring. Barnard University chemistry professor Jonelle White credits her high school math and science teachers with inspiring her to study a STEM subject in college. A genetics professor recommended she join a lab research program and guided her to join a support program for minority students in STEM majors. The Chicago STEM Pathways Cooperative strives to increase equity and access to STEM careers through building mentoring relationships for future and current college students.

• Encourage exploration. In Chicagoland, several high-quality programs strive to help girls of color thrive in STEM careers. Black Girls CODE Chicago connects girls ages 7–17 with volunteer leaders from major tech companies and universities. Girls4Science offers six-week Saturday Science Academies on college campuses. SMASH Academy is a tuition-free STEM summer college prep program that continues with monthly events through the school year. ChickTech High School is a year-long program designed to connect high school girls with engineering projects and engineering mentors and internships.

• Build inclusive cultures. Several university and corporate programs are looking for ways to build more inclusive environments. Chemistry professor Sibrina Collins highlights an applied physics program at the University of Michigan that recruits Black, Hispanic and Native American women who have earned PhDs. IBM is working with 13 historically Black colleges and universities to prepare underrepresented students for careers in quantum computing. Boeing is funding STEM k-12 learning programs to recruit and retain a more diverse student body on Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support with introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Coaching teens to use social media responsibly can teach productive networking early on

Teens use social media. A lot. More than 7 hours a day. According to Common Sense Media, tweens ages 8 to 13 spend almost 5 hours a day looking at a screen outside of school. The good news is that spending time on devices can create opportunities for students to start learning how to build a professional and productive social network that will help prepare them for high school and college.

In a Harvard Business Review survey, less than half of working professionals who identified as people of color said that they prioritize networking to help build their career. This is striking, especially when compared with a 2017 LinkedIn study that found that 80 percent of professionals said networking was important for career success. The same study found that 70 percent of people were hired at a company where they already had a connection. To prepare students for high school and college, it’s important to teach them how to responsibly use social media as a productive tool for learning and socializing.

We at CPASS recommend that teens, their families and their teachers focus on these values to build productive social and professional networking skills:

• Responsibility and autonomy. Harvard Graduate School of Education developmental psychologist Nancy Hill explains that spending time online is a way to help teens grow. “Socializing is an important need at this point in a young person’s life and helps them develop their own identity. Let them connect safely with friends.” In addition to using social media to safely connect with friends, Forbes Magazine writer Susan Adams encourages students to join LinkedIn while they’re in high school. LinkedIn allows teens to network with professional adults who are doing work that interests them. It shows prospective colleges and employers that a teen is serious about building a career and gives teens opportunities to share recommendations and endorsements.

• Productive discourse. To help teens learn to be responsible digital citizens, get them involved in debunking misinformation. The Poynter Institute’s Teen Fact Checking Network “publishes daily fact-checks for teenagers, by teenagers.” Their teen users fact check stories about everything from California banning screaming on amusement park rides because of COVID-19 (not true) to whether or not NASA gave spiders drugs to see how it would affect how they spun webs (legit).

• Privacy. Media non-profit Internet Matters recommends that parents talk directly with their teens about the challenges of managing their digital footprint. “Stay interested in what they’re doing online and discuss what they might have come across. Don’t be afraid to tackle difficult subjects like cyberbullying, and sexting and pornography.” Psychologist Dr. Linda Papadopoulos recommends that parents help their children build a good online reputation and fully understand the long-term impact of what they post and who can see it. “Your child can set privacy settings on most social networking sites so that only close friends can search for them, tag them in a photograph or share what they’ve posted,” she recommends.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support with introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

After more than a year of distance and hybrid learning, the US Department of Education expects all schools to return to in-person learning this fall. 

Transitioning back presents welcome challenges, though some families still aren’t ready for their children to return to the classroom.

Now that half of all people in Cook County and 45% of the US have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, many students have returned to full-time in-person learning and all schools and universities are expected to resume in-person classes in the fall. This recovery continues to highlight students’ disparate access to necessary resources. During distance learning, almost 30% of Black students in Chicago never logged into virtual school, compared with only 14% of white students. This isn’t surprising: a McKinsey report estimates that Black and Hispanic students were about twice as likely to have had no access to live teachers during virtual learning.

Yet now that schools are opening back up, many parents are hesitant to resume in-person learning. A recent Brookings Institution report showed that 38% of Black parents and 27.7% of Hispanic parents either plan to continue remote learning in the fall or aren’t yet sure about their plans, compared with only 17% of white parents. Most of those parents say they’re not ready to send their children back to school because they don’t trust the school to be safe enough or because their child is doing well working remotely. 

We at CPASS recommend that students, families and learning institutions focus on these three factors when transitioning back to in-person learning:

• Anxiety. Families across the world are grieving and may be nervous about the ramifications of returning to in-person learning. According to the Mental Health Foundation, “the way that children and young people respond to those feelings of loss and grief will differ widely – some may seem sad or withdrawn, others may appear irritable or angry.” Returning to in-person interactions after more than a year in isolation may also raise feelings of social anxiety for children and adults. A RAND Corporation study found that stress on teachers was the most common reason teachers cited for leaving the profession, both before and during the pandemic. To prevent compassion fatigue, it’s recommended that schools reach out to community groups and support agencies for support.

• Learning gaps. Before the pandemic, only 8% of US high school students enrolled in Calculus calculus classes were Black. COVID-19 deepened the disparities between students of color and those who are white. McKinsey estimates that by the end of the 2020–2021 school year, Black and Hispanic students could be 6–12 months behind in their learning, compared with only 4–8 months for white students. The gap continues beyond K–12, too. Overall undergraduate enrollment decreased by 4.4% between fall 2019 and fall 2020, but 5.4% fewer Hispanic and 7.5% fewer Black undergraduate enrolled for the fall 2020 semester.

• Interventions. To set students up for success after months away from the physical classroom, the National Association of School Psychologists advocates for students to receive at least a month of high-quality in-person instruction before assessing students. To help students catch up, a recent University of Chicago study showed that “individualized, intensive tutoring can double or triple the amount of math high school students learn each year, increase student grades, and reduce math and non-math course failures.”

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support with introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Being a frontline healthcare worker during COVID can be risky, and lucrative

Demand for frontline healthcare workers, particularly nurses, is surging in the wake of the pandemic.

Competition for nurses in the COVID world is fierce. Chicago-area hospitals are offering sign-on bonuses as high as $15,000 to attract new nursing staff. Simultaneously, 41% of doctors told a recent Merritt Hawkins survey that they’ve experienced at least 26% fewer patients. While this may seem odd, during the pandemic patients have canceled or postponed elective procedures or don’t feel comfortable visiting a hospital or doctor’s office.

For students interested in jobs in the healthcare ecosystem, the pandemic has created a shift in demand.  According to LinkedIn’s recent list of 15 Jobs on the Rise, in addition to nurses there’s an increased demand for healthcare support staff such as pharmacy technicians and home health aids, mental health specialists including therapists and psychologists, and data science specialists who can help analyze information during this unprecedented time.

STEM is shaping the future of health care. Over the last decade, jobs in STEM occupations grew significantly faster than non-STEM careers (24.4% vs. 4.0%, respectively). Patients now have increased access to mobile health apps, wearable devices, and electronic health records, giving them more tools and information to manage their general wellness. Telemedicine is increasing accessibility between patients and practitioners. Medical professionals are being empowered with the growing Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Robotics allow surgeons to create smaller, less painful incisions that enable shorter recovery times. Personalized medicine programs can use genetic data to more precisely and safely prescribe medical treatment plans.

We at CPASS recommend these exploring these healthcare careers in the current economy:

• Nursing. Many Chicagoland nurses have been traveling around the United States supporting communities where they are most urgently needed. According to a recent University of Chicago paper, traveling nurses have been earning as much as $10,000/week during the pandemic. Chicago has some of the best nursing schools in the country, including the University of Illinois–Chicago, Rush University, and Loyola University Chicago. But being a nurse during COVID isn’t without its dangers. Hundreds of nurses at the University of Illinois Hospital went on strike in September to protest a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and call for higher wages. In November, hundreds of workers from 11 Illinois nursing homes went on strike also demanding more PPE and hazard pay.

• Physician Assistant (PA). In Illinois, PAs are healthcare professionals who are licensed to write prescriptions, examine patients, and assist in surgery. In addition to completing prerequisite science coursework, PA candidates attend a graduate program for at least two years. According to US News & World Report, five of the top PA programs in the country are in Illinois. PAs in Chicago earn an average annual salary of $122,403. Demand for PAs will continue to grow as the nation ages.

• Mental Healthcare. The new normal of life during the pandemic has led to a sharp increase in demand for mental health support. This year alone, an estimated $16 billion has been invested in innovative virtual behavioral health programs. Symptoms of anxiety and depression have tripled since the beginning of the pandemic, disproportionately impacting people of color. Salaries in mental and behavioral health jobs vary, often depending on how much education the job requires. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marriage and family therapists in Chicago earned an average salary of $74,690 in 2019. These health professionals are required to earn a master’s degree and have 2,000–4,000 hours of clinical experience before being permitted to practice. Chicago school psychologists, who work with students to identify learning and behavioral needs, earn an average of $76,440. Psychologists in Illinois are required to have at least a master’s degree, and often go on to earn a doctorate.

• Support shift to digital medicine. Digital health care support is projected to be the fastest-growing occupation by 2028. As the healthcare ecosystem becomes more digitized, medical administrative assistants will be replaced with software. Developers and engineers will be needed to design and support these complex programs that support telemedicine, hospitals, and health care. The average salary for these STEM careers in the Chicago area was $97,780 in 2019. Software developers often have an undergraduate degree in computer science but often go on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees. Developers also learn to code in bootcamps such as General Assembly rather than attending a traditional university program.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support with introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields. Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Socially distanced but more connected than ever before: How to get academic support during remote learning

Where and how students get academic support may have changed, but many best practices have stayed the same.

Before COVID-19, students could study and receive in-person tutoring in offices, libraries, classrooms, and coffee shops. With the pandemic still raging in Cook County, students of all ages now need to try to focus on learning at home. Achieving that focus and having academic support for remote learning are critical for success: a recently updated McKinsey study found that students of color are projected to be 8–12 months behind in reading and math by the end of this school year.

The need for best practices and academic support is similar between at-home study and in-person education. The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) recommends that student affairs teams continue their regular programs and services remotely as much as possible. Universities and K–12 schools are starting to do this. Student services that were previously available in person have shifted online. Universities have online learning support, libraries offer free remote homework help, and schools have online office hours. 

We at CPASS recommend these action steps for students to get the help they need in this time of distance learning:

1. Make a schedule. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) emphasizes that creating a schedule can help students focus and know what to expect, particularly during this time of extraordinary change. Post the schedule prominently so that students (and people students live with) can regularly reference it. “A structured day will help you feel ‘more in control’ over your coursework,” Stanford University’s Jenae Cohn advises.

2. Workspace. Create a clutter-free, quiet, well-lit workspace with a comfortable chair, advises the AOTA. If only a common area is available, keep school materials in a consistent container to make a temporary, consistent space. To help stay focused, create a sign or tell other people in the household when they can talk without interrupting study. Noise-cancelling headphones can also help minimize distractions.

3. Tutoring. There are several free tutoring programs for K–12 students in Chicagoland. The Chicago Public Library offers online programs like chatting with librarians, homework help from teachers, support with using software and hardware, and appointments with CPL makers to help with design projects. Students also can connect with tutors who are in high school and college through Connecting Chicago, an online program started by six Chicago public school students. College students should contact their school’s student services office for distance support. Loyola University Chicago’s Online Tutoring Center and Success Coaches, for example, offer graduate students who are near peers to work with students to build study plans. They also offer tutoring services and help students establish remote-study groups.

4. Study tools.It’s estimated that the development of digital products and services has fast-forwarded seven years since the beginning of the pandemic. More free online learning software is available than ever before. Assistments is a math program that gives teachers and students immediate feedback and actionable data on their learning. Mathsnacks gamifies math concepts to help students stay engaged and better understand challenging concepts. Both tools were found to have a significant positive impact on student outcomes according to a recent Department of Education study.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support with introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields.  Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Tech is reshaping education, but there’s nothing like a live teacher

As teachers start returning to classrooms, there are several new education technology trends they should bring back with them.

Google Classroom has become so ubiquitous that Chicago Public Schools threatened that if teachers didn’t report for the first day of in-person learning on Monday, January 11, they’d be locked out of their accounts. While tech is not a replacement for a live teacher, COVID-19 is reshaping how technology is used in education.

The ed-tech sector is expected to more than triple in North America from $76.4 billion in 2019 to $285.2 billion in 2027. Even before COVID-19 forced schools to move to remote learning, tech tools increasingly were used to support students’ diverse learning needs. Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization, argues that tech can help create equity in schools. “It removes barriers to learning materials, supports students where they are across varied learning contexts and needs, and gives educators more insight into the learning environments they’re creating.” Even though the FCC estimates that one-third of Americans still don’t have access to high-speed internet at home, 99% of public schools have broadband internet, up from just 14% in 1994.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) doesn’t yet know if this class of applicants is more diverse than in previous years. But people of color in the US are 3.5 times more likely than whites to get COVID, making it more important than ever that historically underrepresented pre-med candidates know how to be competitive when applying. Most undergraduate classes have moved online and medical school admissions teams have shifted to virtual interviews, though the MCAT exam has resumed in-person testing (MCAT rescheduling fees are waived). 

We at CPASS recommend these action steps for schools to take advantage of the latest education technology trends:

1. Remote learning. At both the K–12 and university levels, distance learning has allowed for the continuity of schooling while COVID-19 surges, though not without frustrations. According to the 2020 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) survey, “students are traumatized by the overall experience of the pandemic and at times equate that with online learning,” shared one university’s chief online officer (COO). But for students who are resilient enough to stay engaged, distance learning has the potential to be effective and accessible. A recent Brookings Institution report explains how artificial intelligence is beginning to help students learning online to identify their misconceptions, and why they’ve made specific errors. 

2. Assistive technology in special education.Tech empowers students with learning differences to access information in ways they can understand. For students with dyslexia, speech-to-text software allows students to dictate ideas that otherwise would be challenging for them to write or type. The Livescribe Smartpen is a tool that records notes as they’re written so they can be played back as audio later. Or, if someone is talking too fast to take notes, the pen has a microphone that connects with the device’s text-to-speech computer software.

3. Blended learning to personalize learning experiences. Teachers now can work with a small group of students while the rest of the class learns using engaging apps. Engaging (and mostly free!) programs such as Khan Academy, BrainPOP, and Duolingo can help make learning more efficient, interactive, and fun for students while collecting helpful assessment data that teachers and students can analyze to figure out what to focus on next.

4. Flipped classroom resources. Some students may need more time or physical space to digest new information. Flipped classroom programs allow teachers to record lectures and mini-lessons that students can play back at their own pace, learning from the teacher they’re used to. Explain Everything has tools to record a screen so the teacher can share video and notes. The Nearpod app has an interactive presentation tool where teachers can build in quizzes, virtual reality experiences, and live polls.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support with introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school, and college students to STEM subjects, majors, and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields.  Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

To make their application stand out, pre-med students need to be flexible and creative during our time of unprecedented public health challenges.

Medical school admissions offices are calling it “the Fauci Effect”. Stanford University School of Medicine has so far reported a 47% rise in applications compared with last year; Boston University School of Medicine has seen a 27% increase. Overall, US medical schools have seen an 18% rise in applications compared with last year, thought to be inspired by the work of health professionals like NIH immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) doesn’t yet know if this class of applicants is more diverse than in previous years. But people of color in the US are 3.5 times more likely than whites to get COVID, making it more important than ever that historically underrepresented pre-med candidates know how to be competitive when applying. Most undergraduate classes have moved online and medical school admissions teams have shifted to virtual interviews, though the MCAT exam has resumed in-person testing (MCAT rescheduling fees are waived). 

We at CPASS recommend these action steps for pre-med students:

1. Prepare for virtual interviewing. Per public health recommendations, the AAMC recommends that medical schools and teaching hospitals conduct virtual interviews for the indefinite future. The organization has created a comprehensive guide to help applicants and interviewers prepare for phone and video conferencing interviews, including PowerPoint, videos and webinars. Kaplan Test Prep recommends that candidates prepare by researching the institutions they’re interviewing with and crafting succinct, detailed responses to commonly asked questions. Make a list of questions to ask the interviewer that demonstrate you’ve done your homework. If possible, have a mock interview with a professor on the same platform you’ll use for your real interview. Look professional for video interviews, as you would for an in-person interview. Have the interview in a quiet space with an uncluttered background and front-facing lighting that highlights your expressions. Test your device and internet connection to ensure that you’ll have enough consistent bandwidth for a clear video call.

2. Earn at least 100 hours of volunteer experience. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends that medical school applicants have clinical service and volunteer experience. “Volunteer hours are typically among the most heavily weighed factors in the medical school admissions process,” reports the AMA’s Preparing for Medical School blog. Extensive lists of virtual and in-person opportunities have been compiled by Northwestern University’s Health Professions Advising team and DePaul’s College of Science and Health.

3. Attend a Summer Pathway Program.The University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine is currently accepting applications for its Summer Pathway Programs, which “prepare and inspire talented high school and college students to pursue careers in medicine and in health-related research.” The School of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has compiled a list of additional programs beginning in spring and summer 2021. The list is available from the university’s Career Center.

The CPASS Foundation was created to support introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school and college students to STEM subjects, majors and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields.  Contact Dr. Stephen Martin to learn more about how you can partner with the CPASS Foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Back in 2005 when laptops needed a removable card to access wi-fi, distance learning was predicted to narrow the socioeconomic divide. Education writers Blaylock and Newman wrote that online courses could be “a solution to inequities in educational opportunities that exist due to factors such as geographical location, school size, demographics of income and race/ethnicity, budgeting constraints, and substandard teachers.” 

The pandemic has put this theory to the ultimate test. Yes, the 4 out of 5 children in Chicago with access to high-speed broadband have access to more information than ever before. But 100,000 students in Chicago under the age of 18 still don’t have regular access to broadband internet. In October, almost 20% of American parents reported that they quit their job or took a leave of absence to facilitate their child’s online learning, something many families cannot afford to do. 

Student attendance. Many families who can afford it have started sending their children to “learning pods” or “micro-schools,” small groups of students who do their distance learning together with the supervision of a teacher or nanny. This past spring, 90% of high-income students regularly logged into online learning platforms either from home or a learning pod, compared with only 60% of low-income students. The pandemic is expected to make student attendance even more important. A recent McKinsey study estimated that low engagement in online school may lead to more than a year of learning loss. The study also predicted that Black and Latinx students will experience the most loss. 

Isolation. Learning pods also give students the opportunity to socialize in person, allowing them to develop necessary skills like self-control and teamwork. Grants and free school micro-programs are available for low-income students, but they are limited and often require significant involvement that not all parents may be able to contribute. Students at all income levels are missing in-person traditional milestones like graduations and proms and are experiencing increased depression and anxiety as a result of months of isolation. Recently, the CDC reported that in March through October, almost a third more children were admitted to an emergency room for mental health reasons compared with last year. 

Special needs. Distance learning is particularly challenging for students with special needs who rely on in-person socialization to support their development. For students whose families can afford a learning pod, it still can be challenging or impossible to find one that supports different learning needs. For students from low-income families, school has often been the only place where their family can afford counseling and specialized academic services. Last spring, instead of remotely receiving their services in real time, many students were simply given additional packets of work. Sometimes, parents without any prior training were given videos instructing them how to provide services for their children themselves.  

Homelessness. Students experiencing homelessness already manage more stress than their peers. For many children, school was a second home that was a stable, safe environment. Now that place is no longer available. While many communities continue serving free meals as schools are closed, students no longer have the reliable safety of eating breakfast and lunch where they are learning, adding yet another level of stress.

We at CPASS recommend these action steps:

1. Build family-school relationships. Make sure school staff and teachers are routinely reaching out to students and families to ask what kind of support they need before offering services that might not be relevant to their situation.

2. Reach out to community-based organizations. Local community-based organizations and faith groups like these have established relationships and resources. They know where there is need, and where there are resources.

3. Make remote learning centers available for all students. Chicago Public Schools is running Child Learning Hubs, but space is limited and the adults supervising students can’t always provide academic support.

4. Remote services. Covid-19 has accelerated the development of telemedicine. Distance learning creates a great opportunity for schools and communities to explore the benefits of offering remote counseling and special education services. Remote instruction allows In-demand special education teachers to work with students across schools, regardless of their geographic location or the location of the students.

At CPASS Foundation, we are here to support teachers and students by introducing traditionally underrepresented middle school, high school and college students to STEM subjects, majors and training. We provide guidance and thought leadership to help create opportunities for Illinois-based students to participate in STEM-related fields. We encourage you to reach out to Dr. Stephen Martin, CPASS executive director, to learn more about how you can partner with the foundation to create more opportunities for Black and other underrepresented students in the Chicago area.

Our students have access to more information than ever, making teaching and learning more challenging. To keep up with this constant change, teachers in K–12 and post-secondary programs increasingly focus on research skills and problem solving across the curriculum. While it’s possible to teach these skills remotely, it’s difficult to compare Zoom breakout rooms with group work in a physical classroom, or virtual science experiments with work in a lab. Remote learning also makes it challenging to build and maintain relationships and teach students how to navigate the culture of college and workplace settings.

This New Normal has exacerbated digital and learning divides. High-speed internet access is now indispensable, though more than 40% of students in low-income US households lack consistent access to computers with internet. Students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and other large school districts are given computing devices if they don’t have their own through programs like “Chicago Connected”, which helps. But it’s unclear how those devices will be maintained, or how families will have high-speed internet once funding for these programs runs out. Even with fast internet and a working device, “students need to be in classrooms that inspire them—spaces that are light, airy, and filled with examples of work that they aspire to do,” Rita Pin Ahrens, director of education policy for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, told The Atlantic.

Students also gain inspiration from the peers and adults who surround them during their learning. Families who can afford it are forming learning pods, hiring tutors and teachers for as much as $50,000 a year. CPS has opened “Child Learning Hubs” for select high-needs students in grades K–8, but even there the classroom supervisors can’t provide sufficient academic support. Neither option is sustainable long-term.

The pandemic also is widening divides on college campuses. Most colleges moved to virtual learning, shutting down their campuses to prevent spreading COVID. In response to college becoming virtual, six times more Black and Latinx students decided to take a leave of absence this year compared with last year, while only twice as many white students took time off. It’s unclear how many of these students will return.

Here is what to expect moving forward in the New Normal in education.

• Learning Pods. There are growing options for families that can’t afford to hire their own teachers and don’t qualify for public services like Child Learning Hubs. Small businesses in and around Chicago have transformed gyms and coffee shops into safe spaces where students can continue remote learning with adult supervision. The North Shore YMCA has created learning pods with flexible pricing that resemble day camp, complete with STEM blocks and access to gymnastics and pool facilities. While the learning pod model isn’t ideal, we can expect that it will lead to long-term changes in how we define school. Distance learning empowers families to allow students to learn from anywhere and take advantage of the resources around them.

• College Life. Hybrid and online college programs already were becoming popular before the pandemic began. In 2018, 47% of undergraduate students took degree programs online so they’d have more flexibility for other commitments. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 98% of undergrad programs have moved online. Online programs make college more accessible for students from historically underrepresented communities, but students are much less likely to complete online programs than in-person ones.

• The key to student success in distance learning: relationships with each other and with their teachers.

• 21st Century Skills. An organization of top companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Verizon recently identified that collaboration, flexibility and adaptability, information literacy, and problem solving are critical skills to prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet. Our New Normal in education is forcing students, families, and educators to build and use these skills more than ever. As the learning experience evolves, the education sector will continue to develop ways for students to become better problem solvers and for students and teachers to collaborate.