DEVELOPING A NATIONAL
STEM WORKFORCE STRATEGY
A WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Joe Alper, Rapporteur
Board on Higher Education and Workforce
Policy and Global Affairs Division
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS500 Fifth Street, NWWashington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by Contract No. DGE-1449332 with the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-39158-0
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-39158-X
Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/21900
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Developing a National STEM Workforce Strategy: A Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21900.
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PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR THE NATIONAL SUMMIT ON DEVELOPING A STEM WORKFORCE STRATEGY
RODNEY C. ADKINS (Chair), Senior Vice President of Partnership Strategy (retired), IBM
DANIEL E. ATKINS, III, Professor Emeritus of Information and Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan
GREGORY CAMILLI, Professor, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University
REBECCA DERNBERGER, Vice President and General Manager, Northeast Division, Manpower, Inc.
KIMBERLY A. GREEN, Executive Director, National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium
MARY ALICE MCCARTHY, Senior Policy Analyst, Higher Education Initiative, New America Foundation
DeRIONNE P. POLLARD, President, Montgomery College
RUSSELL W. RUMBERGER, Professor of Education, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara
DEBRA W. STEWART, Former President, Council of Graduate Schools
HOLLY ZANVILLE, Strategy Director, Lumina Foundation
BOARD ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE
WILLIAM E. KIRWAN (Chair), Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Maryland
F. KING ALEXANDER, President and Chancellor, Louisiana State University
JOHN SEELY BROWN, Visiting Scholar, University of Southern California, and Independent Co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge
ANGELA BYARS-WINSTON, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison
CARLOS CASTILLO-CHAVEZ, Regents and Joaquin Bustoz Professor of Mathematical Biology, and Director, Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University
JARED L. COHON, President Emeritus and University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
RITA COLWELL, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, College Park and Johns Hopkins University
APRILLE ERICSSON, Aerospace Engineer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
RICHARD FREEMAN, Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics, Harvard University
EARL LEWIS, President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
SALLY MASON, President Emerita, University of Iowa
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ, Chancellor, Los Angeles Community College District
SUBHASH SINGHAL, Battelle Fellow Emeritus, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Staff
TOM RUDIN, Director, Board on Higher Education and Workforce
ELIZABETH O’HARE, Program Officer (until January, 2016)
NINA BOSTON, Research Associate
IRENE NGUN, Research Associate
Consultant
JOE ALPER, Rapporteur
Acknowledgments
The committee thanks the National Science Foundation (NSF) for its support of this summit and for the many experts within NSF with whom it met in the course of planning the summit, each of whom provided valuable insights and ideas in shaping the project.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for quality and objectivity. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Daniel Atkins, University of Michigan; Scott Ellsworth, Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships; Richard Freeman, Harvard University; Melvin Greer, Lockheed Martin; Peter Henderson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and William Rudman, AHIMA Foundation.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Marigold Linton, University of Kansas. Appointed by the Academies, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance
with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteur and the institution.
Collaborative Innovation at the Community College Level
Competency and Skills-Based Education
7 ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS AND ALTERNATIVE PROVIDERS
What Kind of Students Enroll in These Programs?
What Kind of Outcomes Do These Programs Achieve?
Would Immersive Models for Skills Development Work in Other STEM Fields?
8 K-12 STEM EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE READINESS
How Can K-12 Education Encourage Student Interest in STEM?
Group 1: New and Innovative Pathways
Group 2: Professional Skills or Employability Skills
Group 3: STEM Career Awareness
Group 6: Emerging Priority Content Areas
What Can Institutions, Businesses, and Federal Agencies Do Now?
What Remaining Research Questions Need Further Attention?
B Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers and Planning Committee Members
C Anonymous Participant Responses to the Pre-summit Question
Figures and Table
FIGURES
2-1 Career pathways from engineering degrees
2-2 Career pathways from social science degrees
2-3 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) literacy scores, 2012
2-4 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) numeracy scores, 2012
2-9 Percentage “at or above” and “below” established benchmarks, ACT and SAT, 2015
2-10 Changes in real wage levels of full-time U.S. workers by sex and education, 1963–2012
Acronyms and Abbreviations
AAAS | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
AHIMA | American Health Information Management Association |
ALL | Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey |
APS | American Physical Society |
ASVAB | Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery |
CGS | Council of Graduate Schools |
CRO | clinical research organization |
ED | U.S. Department of Education |
ETS | Educational Testing Service |
EXITE | Exploring Interests in Technology and Engineering |
IT | information technology |
K-12 | kindergarten through 12th grade |
MIT | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
MOOC | massive open online course |
MOORP | massive open online research project |
NAEP | National Assessment of Education Progress |
NCI | National Cancer Institute |
NIH | National Institutes of Health |
NSA | National Security Agency |
NSB | National Science Board |
NSF | National Science Foundation |
NSF-EHR | NSF’s Directorate on Education and Human Resources |
OECD | Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development |
PIAAC | Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies |
R&D | research and development |
RSS | Rich Site Summary |
S&E | science and engineering |
STEAM | science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics |
STEM | science, technology, engineering, and mathematics |
UMBC | University of Maryland, Baltimore County |