Program design supporting urban youth

In this article, Lyon, Jafri, and St. Louis discuss the limitations of the concept of the “STEM pipeline,” an analogy commonly used in education and policy discussions to describe the academic progression of students from elementary school through higher education in STEM, ideally resulting in employment in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) field. Based on a decade of experience with the urban out-of-school time (OST) program Project Exploration, the authors propose a conceptual framework that supports youth development goals in addition to STEM learning. The Youth-Science Pathway model was developed to reflect the experience of urban youth in OST STEM learning environments. It has direct applications to the design and outcomes of STEM OST programs serving underserved and underrepresented populations.

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