History

In 2002, the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (PSCTLT) implemented the Northwest Girls Collaborative Project (NWGCP) in Washington and Oregon to address the complex issue of gender equity in STEM fields.

In 2004, NSF funded the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) (HRD-0436264). The purpose of the NGCP was to increase the capacity, impact, and sustainability of existing and evolving girl-serving STEM projects and programs by replication of the Northwest Girls Collaborative Project Model in three states: California, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin.

In August 2006, the National Science Foundation funded a process for extending and focusing of the NGCP model. Using the American Association of University Women (AAUW) regional framework to organize oversight and support, this project implements and disseminates the strategies from the successful collaboration structure previously developed via the NWGCP and NGCP. The expanded National Girls Collaborative Project utilizes the leadership and expertise of additional partners, Assessing Women and Men in Engineering (AWE), and the Educational Development Center (EDC), to disseminate research-based promising practices to further advance the work of existing and evolving girl-serving projects and also to provide a forum to share results among practitioners and researchers.