Measuring the 21st Century Science and Engineering Workforce Population Evolving Needs (2018) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction and Framework for the Future
1 Introduction and Framework for the Future
Pages 7-20
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From page 7... ...
Thus, NCSES data have become the major evidence base for American science and 1 n 2010, Section 505 of the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act established a I National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics as 1 of the 13 federal statistical agencies, located within NSF and absorbing the prior functions of the Division of Science Resources Statistics (DSRS)
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From page 8... ...
Given the centrality of the measurement of the science and engineering workforce to NCSES's mission, activities, staff, and budget, NCSES and NSF requested that the National Academies' Committee on National Statistics "convene an ad hoc panel to review, assess, and provide guidance on NCSES's [current] approach to measuring the science and engineering (S&E)
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From page 9... ...
workforce population in the United States. Given the evolving data needs of NCSES stakeholders and the budget climate uncertainty under which NCSES operates, a priority for the panel is to develop a framework for measuring the S&E workforce that provides flexibility to examine emerging issues related to this unique population while at the same time allowing for stability in the estimation of key trends.
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From page 10... ...
S The Cold War and the launching of Sputnik I by the Soviet Union highlighted the continuing need for science and engineering resources and information about those resources. In 1972, the National Science Board concluded that it could provide a significant service to the nation by issu ing a series of reports on science indicators based on quantitative data, including data on science and technology personnel.
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From page 11... ...
It reflects awareness that population shifts in the United States necessitate training and employing a greater percentage of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields if the nation is to recruit and employ an adequate science and engineering workforce and maintain its global competitive advantage. According to the 2017 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering report, the representation of certain groups of people in science and engineering education and employment still differs from their representation in the U.S.
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From page 12... ...
population. Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives have gradually increased their share of science and engineering degrees, although the extent of this increase varies across fields, while they have remained underrepresented overall in educational attainment and the science and engineering workforce (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2017g)
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From page 13... ...
academic institutions granting research-based master's or doctoral degrees in science, engineering, and health fields. From each institution, the GSS collects the total number of graduate students, postdoctoral appointees, and doctoral-level nonfaculty researchers classified by gender and other characteristics, such as source of financial support.
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From page 14... ...
U.S. academic institutions National Survey of Individuals living in the United States Workforce Biennial College Graduates who have at least a bachelor's degree (NSCG)
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Yet they also still maintain some of their original design characteristics because of the need for caution in preserving trend data. They also reflect some of the important characterizations of and assumptions about the science and engineering workforce in the mid- to late 20th century: composed largely of nativeborn males who were sole or primary breadwinners, with doctoral-level scientists and engineers being a major driving force for scientific innovation and productivity, and with education and training occurring mainly in early adulthood and leading to fairly stable careers or jobs that reflected and utilized that education and training (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016a; National Science Board, 2015, 2017; Weisberg and Galinsky, 2014)
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From page 16... ...
Several changes in the past decades in the nature of work and employ ment over the life course, especially for the science and engineering workforce, have yet to fully be reflected in the current suite of NCSES surveys. Perhaps most important is the increasing variability and fluidity of occu pational and educational careers as a function of increasingly dynamic changes in the social and economic organization of society.
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From page 17... ...
To this end, there is a growing need for longitudinal data from the science and engi neering workforce surveys. Although the NSCG and SDR follow sample members longitudinally, NCSES's focus in the past has been on producing cross-sectional estimates, and the data released have not been configured in ways that would facilitate longitudinal analysis (see Chapter 4)
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From page 18... ...
The SED and SDR have been the j ewels in NCSES's crown for many decades, but capturing the science and engineering workforce across all postsecondary levels is becoming more important. Whole science and technology enterprises, most notably the information technology sector, are developed and led by people with only a bachelor's or master's degree (or even no postsecondary degree, a segment of the workforce not captured by the current surveys, in part because of sample design constraints)
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From page 19... ...
Following NSCG sample members longitudinally for longer periods throughout their life course would allow understanding of career pathways from the baccalaureate through doctoral levels and moves across those educational levels, as well as the career pathways of members of the science and engineering workforce with bachelor's and master's degrees. Although there are major practical limitations to developing a sampling frame based on institutional or administrative records for the NSCG (similar to the SED in the case of the SDR)
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From page 20... ...
CONCLUSION In summary, there is an increasing need for NCSES's data collection and products to reflect nonlinear education and work paths, as well as a science and engineering workforce that is diverse in gender, race/ethnicity, and citizenship and is highly geographically mobile beyond the United States. One can imagine a future framework for NCSES's science and engineering workforce surveys that combines survey data and administrative and other nonsurvey data into a large and representative sample (or samples)
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