Examining the Academic and Psychological Experiences of Students and Educational Stakeholders in a High School Stem Academy During the Covid-19 Pandemic

To increase participation in STEM related programs and careers, education stakeholders have explored the reconfiguration of high schools into STEM theme-based career academies However, it is critical to acknowledge the academic and psychological challenges impacting high school academy students during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, particularly for ethnically and racially diverse learners. In this study, we examined the perspectives of high school academy stakeholders as well as students in terms of the academic and psychological challenges they encountered. Further, we discuss an educational intervention to provide virtual internships for students in the STEM academies. We followed a qualitative case study design to examine the perspectives of school stakeholders and students who participated in a high school STEM academy. We conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with school stakeholders and 23 Black male academy of engineering students. Four themes emerged: Social and Student Engagement Lacking; Growing Pains: School Stakeholders and Students as Adaptive Learners; Work-based Learning Implementation Challenges; and The NAF Future Ready Lab as an Intervention. We discuss implications of our findings for educational scholars and practitioners.