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Abstract Despite rapid growth of quantum information science (QIS) workforce development initiatives, perceived lack of agreement among faculty on core content has made prior research-based curriculum and assessment development initiatives difficult to scale. To identify areas of consensus on content coverage, we report findings from a survey of N=63 instructors teaching introductory QIS courses at US institutions of higher learning. We identify a subset of content items common across a large fraction (≥ 80%) of introductory QIS courses that are potentially amenable to research-based curriculum development, with an emphasis on foundational skills in mathematics, physics, and engineering. As a further guide for curriculum development, we also examine differences in content coverage by level (undergraduate/graduate) and discipline. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of our findings for the development of a research-based QIS assessment at the postsecondary level. 

Driven in large part by the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018, quantum information science (QIS) coursework and degree programs are rapidly spreading across U.S. institutions. Yet prior work suggests that access to quantum workforce education is unequally distributed, disproportionately benefiting students at private research-focused institutions whose student bodies are unrepresentative of U.S. higher education as a whole. We use regression analysis to analyze the distribution of QIS coursework across 456 institutions of higher learning as of Fall 2022, identifying statistically significant disparities across institutions in particular along the axes of institution classification, funding, and geographic distribution suggesting today’s QIS education programs are largely failing to reach low-income and rural students. We also conduct a brief analysis of the distribution of emerging dedicated QIS degree programs, discovering much the same trends. We conclude with a discussion of implications for educators, policymakers, and education researchers including specific policy recommendations to direct investments in QIS education to schools serving low-income and rural students, leverage existing grassroots diversity and inclusion initiatives that have arisen within the quantum community, and update and modernize procedures for collecting QIS educational data to better track these trends. 

Quantum mechanics is a subject rife with student conceptual difficulties. In order to study and devise better strategies for helping students overcome them, we need ways of assessing on a broad level how students are thinking. This is possible with the use of standardized, research-validated assessments like the Quantum Mechanics Concept Assessment (QMCA). These assessments are useful, but they lack rigorous population independence, and the question ordering cannot be rearranged without throwing into question the validity of the results. One way to overcome these two issues is to design the exam to be compatible with Rasch measurement theory which calibrates individual items and is capable of assessing item difficulty and person ability independently. In this paper, we present a Rasch analysis of the QMCA and discuss estimated item difficulties and person abilities, item and person fit to the Rasch model, and unidimensionality of the instrument. This work will lay the foundation for more robust and potentially generalizable assessments in the future.