Investment Criteria for STEM Education:What Counts for Excellence in STEM Programs?

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About University of Phoenix®University of Phoenix is constantly innovating to help working adults move efficiently from education to careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant and engaging courses, and interactive learning can help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. As a subsidiary of Apollo Education Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: APOL), University of Phoenix serves a diverse student population, offering associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs from campuses and learning centers across the U.S. as well as online throughout the world. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.Apollo Education Group’s Industry Strategy team offers research and advisory solutions to help industries meet national and global talent development needs. Partnering with national and international industry associations, the Industry Strategy team helps industry leaders define the educational requirements for career success. With these insights, the Industry Strategy team helps University of Phoenix and other Apollo Education Group institutions continually adapt educational offerings and career-support services to develop career-ready industry talent. The Industry Market Insights Center, part of the Industry Strategy team, helps to inform the team’s collaborative, research-based mission. For more information, visit industry.phoenix.edu.

About This ReportThis report presents findings from the panel session, Investment Criteria for STEM Education: What Counts for Excellence in STEM Programs?, developed by University of Phoenix and held at the third annual U.S. News STEM Solutions Summit in Washington, DC in April 2014. A premier national leadership conference, the Summit focused on strategies to advance the current and future STEM workforce.The session objectives were to identify attributes of STEM educational programs that would warrant investments through corporate social responsibility programs, and to identify actions for sustaining the effectiveness of STEM investments received.Four panelists representing a wide range of viewpoints from the educational sector contributed case studies to the session. Their names are included in the Acknowledgments.

AcknowledgmentsUniversity of Phoenix expresses thanks to the subject matter experts who contributed their perspectives on the topics of this report, and to U.S. News and World Report for hosting the session on which the report is based.

Content ContributorsAmy D’Amico, PhD, Director of Professional Services, Smithsonian Science Education CenterJane Kubasik, President, 114th Partnership (Spark 101)Jane Oates, Vice President, External Affairs, Apollo Education GroupJoshua P. Starr, EdD, Superintendent of Schools, Montgomery County Public SchoolsTim Welsh, EdD, Senior Vice President, Industry Strategy, Apollo Education Group

Industry Strategy, Apollo Education GroupJames M. Fraleigh, CopyeditorCorinne Lyon Kunzle, Information Manager, Industry Market Insights CenterLeslie A. Miller, PhD, Research AssociateCaroline Molina-Ray, PhD, Executive Director, Industry Market Insights CenterGraham Smith, Graphic Designer

Learn MoreTo download this report and related STEM talent development research, visit industry.phoenix.edu.

© University of Phoenix 2014. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2

Introduction 3

Focusing Investments in STEM Education for National Advantage 3Repairing the STEM Talent Pipeline Through Educational Investments 3

Defining Excellence in STEM Education 4

Excellence in K-12 STEM Education 4Excellence in Postsecondary STEM Education 5

Examples of STEM Investment Excellence 6

Case Study: Smithsonian Science Education Center 6An Inquiry-Based Education Model Improves Outcomes 6

Case Study: Montgomery County Public Schools 8Promoting a Culture of Learning and Leadership 8

A Competency-Driven Approach 8

Case Study: The 114th Partnership 10Using Workplace Videos to Inform Career Choices 10

Case Study: Federal STEM Investment Programs 11 Three Factors Help Ensure Success 11

AMTEC: A Federally Funded Collaborative 12

Conclusions and Recommendations 13

A national workforce with strong capabilities in STEM fields—science, technology, education and math—is a vital component of U.S. economic competitiveness. Yet even as demand rises for STEM-capable talent, and despite federal STEM education spending, the supply of qualified workers is falling short, resulting in workforce deficits. At the foundation of this shortage lies an apparent breakdown in the “STEM talent supply chain,” which comprises the diverse sources of STEM training inside and outside the workplace, including K-12 schools, colleges, and universities—the primary recipients of corporate investments in STEM education.Best practices in STEM talent development must involve coalitions of diverse stakeholders, including educators, employers, nonprofits, and government entities. To ensure that STEM education investments provide all parties a valuable return, stakeholders must identify criteria for highly effective educational programs in which to invest. Likewise, educational institutions must ensure that their programs reflect these criteria for excellence.

Maximizing Benefits From Investments in STEM Education For K-12 education, research shows that highly successful districts and schools demonstrate STEM educational excellence not just by delivering curriculum that develops workforce-relevant skills, but also by fostering continuous learning and accountability among teachers, educational leaders, support staff, and students for achieving successful outcomes. For districts and schools to be successful, government policymakers must facilitate the provision of funding, programs, and policies that support the achievement of STEM educational goals. For postsecondary institutions, the American Association of Universities (AAU) has formulated a STEM education framework that facilitates benchmarking within and across higher education institutions and guides institutional commitment to using student-centered teaching techniques and fostering a culture of educational support.

Programs That Exemplify STEM Investment SuccessEmployers, government entities, industry associations, and other partnership- or coalition-based groups can play a role in STEM educational investments, either as funders or program facilitators. Examples include:

• The Smithsonian Science Education Center, which developed the Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) model, designed to promote scalable, inquiry-based science education;

• Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools, which have taken a holistic approach to helping students develop core competencies, emphasizing not only the need for students to gain STEM content knowledge, but also the need for educators, school leaders, and staff members to support students’ creative problem solving and social emotional learning;

• The 114th Partnership, which brings together leaders from industry, education, and nonprofit foundations to develop programs and materials that help students improve their college and career readiness; and

• The Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC), a consortium of dozens of community and technical colleges and companies across 12 states that codevelops and delivers a standards-based workforce development system.

Recommendations for corporate investors committed to funding STEM education, and for educators approaching such investors, are included at the end of the report.

Executive Summary

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Focusing Investments in STEM Education for National AdvantageA critical aspect of America’s economic prosperity is the ability to excel and innovate in fields collectively known as STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. Although STEM-related industries employ only 5% of the U.S. workforce,1 they were responsible for half of the country’s economic growth in the last 50 years.2 STEM fields are a component of nearly every industry—from the obvious applications in manufacturing, biomedicine, agriculture, energy, and construction to the less apparent STEM roles in financial services, retail, hospitality, travel, security, and criminal justice—to name only a sampling. Research indicates that 71% of all jobs in the United States are STEM related.3 Over the rest of this decade, STEM-related occupations are expected to grow at nearly twice the rate of non-STEM occupations.4

Repairing the STEM Talent Pipeline Through Educational InvestmentsYet as the demand for STEM-capable talent in the U.S. workforce continues to rise, the supply of qualified, skilled workers is falling short, resulting in much-publicized STEM workforce deficits at the local, regional, and national levels. Although the U.S. federal

government spends $3 billion annually on STEM education,5 employers still report difficulty in finding qualified workers to fill STEM jobs. Without solutions across the STEM talent pipeline, it is estimated that as many as 2.4 million jobs may go unfilled through 2018.6 At the foundation of the STEM workforce shortage lies an apparent breakdown in the “STEM talent supply chain,” which comprises a variety of education providers, including K-12 school systems and postsecondary institutions—the primary recipients of corporate investments in STEM education.7 According to the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. students rank below average in reading, science, and math; when compared to other countries, the United States ranks 31st in math and 24th in science.8 Because the demand for STEM workforce talent is driven by industry needs, the education community cannot be solely responsible for resolving the STEM talent shortage; rather, the best practices that are emerging in STEM talent development involve the collaborative efforts of coalitions of diverse stakeholders, including educators, employers, nonprofits, and government entities. To help ensure that investments in STEM education provide a valuable return for all parties, many stakeholders would benefit from having criteria to guide their investments in STEM education. Such criteria could help organizations better prioritize their educational investments, and help educational institutions ensure their programs meet industry-respected standards.

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Introduction

1 Anthony P. Carnevale, Nicole Smith, and Michelle Melton, STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Washington, DC: Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce, October 20, 2011, https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/cyrrqbjyirjy64uw91f6.2 U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, STEM Education: Preparing for the Jobs of the Future, Washington, DC: Chairman’s Staff of the Joint Economic Committee, April 2012, http://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=6aaa7e1f-9586-47be-82e7-326f47658320.3 Calculation by STEMconnector®, based on STEM spending by government at all levels, educational systems, business for development and recruitment, and consumers.4 David Langdon, George McKittrick, David Beede, Beethika Khan, and Mark Doms, STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future, ESA Issue Brief #03-11, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, July 2011, http://www.esa.doc.gov/Reports/stem-good-jobs-now-and-future.5 U.S. Department of Education, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education (FY 2014 STEM Crosscutting Document), n.d., http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget14/crosscuttingissues/stem.pdf.6 Carnevale et al., STEM. 7 Arguably the STEM talent supply chain also includes vocational training centers and on-the-job training programs. However, since those are not the primary recipients of philanthropic corporate STEM educational funding, they are not covered in this report.8 Joe Wiesenthal, “Here’s the New Ranking of Top Countries in Reading, Science, and Math,” Business Insider, December 3, 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/ pisa-rankings-2013-12.

STEM education occurs across a wide spectrum of educational venues, from elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions to corporate training centers and on-the-job skills training. For the purposes of this report, we will highlight attributes of STEM educational excellence for K-12 and postsecondary education only. These examples are intended to be purely illustrative, not comprehensive.

Excellence in K-12 STEM EducationAccording to a 2011 report from the National Research Council of the National Academies, highly successful K-12 school districts and schools must demonstrate a set of best practices to support excellence in STEM education.9 Likewise, national, state, and local policymakers must facilitate specific actions.10 These best practices and recommended actions are listed below.

Defining Excellence in STEM Education

9 National Research Council, Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2011, 27. See also Bayer Corporation, Planting the Seeds for a Diverse U.S. STEM Pipeline: A Compendium of Best Practice K-12 STEM Education Programs, 2010, www.bayerus.com/msms/web_docs/compendium.pdf, and National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, “Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) Education,” Washington, DC: National Governors Association, 2011, http://www.nga.org/cms/stem10 National Research Council, Successful K-12 STEM Education, 28.

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District and School Best Practices

• Adopt STEM-focused schools and programs.• Devote needed instructional time and resources to

educating K-5 students in science.• Ensure STEM curriculum focuses on the topics most

relevant to students and future employees, and that curriculum is rigorous and delivered sequentially.

• Improve the subject-matter knowledge of K-12 teachers, as well as teachers’ knowledge of how students learn subject matter, how student misunderstandings develop, and how to address student needs.

• Ensure instructional leaders receive the professional development needed for school conditions to support student achievement, and are held responsible for ensuring school environments are favorable to STEM learning.

National, State, and Local Policymaker Actions

• National agencies should fund research that takes into account student demographics and other contextual variables, and facilitates the impartial assessment of outcomes.

• National and state policymakers should dedicate funds to focused and sustainable professional development activities for STEM teachers, helping them improve teaching effectiveness.

• National, state, and local policymakers should place equal importance on science as on reading and mathematics, ensuring methods of assessment not only align with next-generation science standards, but also focus less on recall and more on science practices.

AAU’s STEM Education Framework

Excellence in Postsecondary STEM EducationWith the overall objective to ensure that university faculty in STEM fields are encouraged and supported in using evidence-based teaching practices to improve student learning and engagement, the Association of American Universities (AAU) launched a 5-year, $4.7 million STEM education project to achieve five goals (listed at the right).11 Eight AAU member universities were selected to implement STEM projects that incorporate the key elements from AAU ’s STEM education framework.12 This research-based framework is intended to help guide university commitment to having faculty use student-centered teaching techniques known to increase student engagement and teaching effectiveness. The framework is also intended to help with benchmarking within and across higher education institutions. The framework contains key components related to pedagogical practices, support, and culture that must be addressed to ensure sustainable change.

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11 Association of American Universities, Association of American Universities Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, n.d., http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/ DownloadAsset.aspx?id=14357.12 Association of American Universities, “AAU Selects Eight Campus Project Sites for Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative” (press release), June 25, 2013, http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=14474.

Association of American Universities’ (AAU’s) Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative Goals

1. Develop an effective analytical framework for assessing and improving the quality of STEM teaching and learning

2. Support project sites at a subset of AAU-member institutions to implement the framework.

3. Explore mechanisms that institutions and departments can use to train, recognize, and reward faculty members who want to improve the quality of their STEM teaching.

4. Work with federal research agencies to develop mechanisms for recognizing, rewarding, and promoting efforts to improve undergraduate learning.

5. Develop effective means for sharing information about successful undergraduate STEM education programs, approaches, methods, and pedagogies.

Adapted from Association of American Universities, Association of American Universities Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, n.d., http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=14357.

As the central component of the framework, faculty must use evidence-based practices to better engage students in learning within the classroom and to support student learning outside the classroom.

To implement evidence-based teaching practices, faculty must first be supported to learn and master the teaching techniques, and students must receive supplemental reinforcement of learning outside the classroom.

To sustain evidence-based teaching practices, key stakeholders (e.g., institutions, industry funders, and scientific societies) must take action to facilitate teachers’ continuous skill improvement and ongoing use of new teaching techniques.

Pedagogical practices

Scaffolding/support

Cultural change

Corporations, government programs, associations, and membership-based organizations play a role in investing in STEM education, or facilitating the investments of others. A few illustrative examples are described below:Bayer, a global healthcare, agriculture, and materials enterprise, invested over $400,000 in Houston-area middle and high schools to support STEM education, create a STEM education-to-workforce pipeline, implement a junior high and high school teacher training program, and fund scholarships and internships for high school graduates pursuing manufacturing careers.13 Raytheon, a U.S.-based defense, homeland security, and mission systems company, developed and made available to schools the U.S. STEM Education Model, a modeling and simulation tool designed to help stakeholders “understand the complex nature of the U.S. education system and identify potential solutions that could increase the number of STEM college graduates.” 14

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) conducts research to understand STEM education and career barriers women face, and develops programs, such as Tech Trek and Tech Savvy, to acquaint girls with successful female role models in STEM.15

The Ohio STEM Learning Network, a consortium of partners from education (pre-K through college), business, government, and local industries, is focused on student and teacher success. The network divides the state into seven regions, each centered on a STEM platform school, with the goal of connecting prospective STEM initiatives and exchanging best practices.16

Million Women Mentors, a campaign of STEMconnector®, engages employers, educational institutions, government, and nonprofit entities to provide male and female mentors to “increase the interest and confidence of girls and young women to persist and succeed in STEM programs and careers.” 17

Case Study: Smithsonian Science Education CenterAn Inquiry-Based Education Model Improves Outcomes

The renowned Smithsonian Institution has a designated Science Education Center (SSEC) which is the only formal education unit of the Smithsonian. SSEC is dedicated to transforming the teaching and learning of science for students in the United States and throughout the world.18

SSEC developed a five-pillar, inquiry-based science reform model called the Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) Model.19 This integrated reform model is designed to promote “systemic sustainability”—an environment needed to sustain STEM intervention programs. SSEC developed the model recognizing students’ need to learn through first-hand experience using inquiry-based instruction that is driven by scientific practices.

Examples of STEM Investment Excellence

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Implementing an inquiry-based science program can result in an increase in positive student and teacher attitudes toward STEM.—Amy D’Amico, PhD, Director of Professional Services, Smithsonian Science Education Center

13 Bayer Corporation, “Bayer Invests over $400,000 in STEM Education and Workforce Development in Greater Houston” (press release), April 8, 2014, http://www.bayerus.com/foundation/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=3F601D1D-DD8E-E724-0ACA380A38B7AFC9. Bayer is owned by Bayer AG.14 Raytheon Company, “Raytheon Develops First-Ever Modeling and Simulation Tool to Help Advance U.S. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education” (press release), July 8, 2009, http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1328. Raytheon is owned by Raytheon Company.15 American Association of University Women, “What We Do,” http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/stem-education. AAUW is owned by American Association of University Women, Inc.16 Ohio STEM Learning Network home page, http://www.osln.org.17 Million Women Mentors home page, http://www.millionwomenmentors.org.18 Smithsonian Science Education Center home page, http://www.ssec.si.edu.19 Smithsonian Science Education Center, “Colorado Laser Initiative,” http://www.ssec.si.edu/colorado.

The LASER Model identifies the infrastructure necessary to systemically transform science education. The model’s five pillars make up the system needed to build an effective science program. More than two decades of experience and evaluation show that addressing these elements is sufficient to achieve sustainable change.20 All the elements are equally important and must be addressed simultaneously over a sustained period of time to ensure the institutionalization and long-term success of the program.

The model’s five pillars are:

1. Professional development: Differentiated, ongoing professional development based on current research and best practices is required for educators, administrators, and community members.

2. Curriculum: Cognitively demanding, relevant, and engaging curriculum is designed to help students understand scientific concepts and develop scientific habits of mind, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

3. Assessment: Periodic assessments provide data that can be used to help students monitor and evaluate their own learning and guide teachers in their facilitation of learning experiences, in order to increase student achievement.

4. Materials support: Cost-efficient and sustainable support is needed to provide equipment and supplies to schools and teachers.

5. Administrative and community support: Administrative support helps produce the educational leadership that is necessary to drive systemic change and mobilize the community support that will champion the program in the long term.

To assess the model, and to do so objectively, a third party is currently conducting research with more than 70,000 students through an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The research will include gathering quantitative data on student achievement, and qualitative data on student and teacher attitudes toward STEM. Preliminary findings show that implementing the learning model helps improve academic outcomes even in non-STEM disciplines. For example, “English language learner proficiency is increasing,” reports Amy D’Amico, PhD, Director of Professional Services at Smithsonian Science Education Center. Full results will be publicized in the near future, after all data are collected and analyzed.

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LASER Model

Smithsonian Science Education Center’s Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) Model promotes “systemic sustainability” of STEM education programs.Source: “About the Colorado LASER Initiative,” Smithsonian Science Education Center, http://www.ssec.si.edu/colorado/about.

20 Rick Vanosdall et al., “A Randomized Study of the Effects of Scaffolded-Guided Inquiry Instruction on Student Achievement in Science” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April 2007), ftp://ftp.successforall.org/Public/Science/pam/vanosdall.pdf. Additional independent research studies have been conducted by Horizon Research, Inc. (2010) and RMC Research Corporation (2010), among others.

Examples of STEM Investment Excellence (cont.)

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Case Study: Montgomery County Public SchoolsPromoting a Culture of Learning and Leadership

Consisting of 202 Maryland schools with more than 12,000 teachers working to educate more than 151,000 students from 157 countries, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) emphasizes the need not only to understand the STEM content that students must learn, but also how best to deliver that content.21

“We should be asking not simply what we can do to invest in STEM, but rather what we can do to invest in people, since it is teachers who facilitate learning,” says Joshua P. Starr, EdD, Superintendent of Schools at Montgomery County Public Schools.

A Competency-Driven ApproachAs a school system, MCPS takes a holistic approach to helping students develop competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) in three critical areas: academic excellence, creative problem solving, and social emotional learning. MCPS has identified five strategic areas of focus in implementing this holistic approach.

1. Curriculum: To improve curriculum and ensure its relevance for students’ future careers, MCPS emphasizes problem-based learning by mapping curriculum to real-world problems that professionals in STEM and many other fields are tasked to solve. MCPS works with industry partners to align curriculum with employers’ talent needs.

2. Professional development: With a focus on creating professional learning communities, MCPS encourages virtual and face-to-face collaboration among teachers, support professionals, and school leaders to promote professional development in all roles.

3. Engagement: A key component of MCPS’s culture is fostering engagement among staff members, students, and educators. Highly engaged individuals continuously contribute their talents to the school community and demonstrate commitment, passion, and persistence in working to achieve individual and shared goals.

4 . Instructional leadership development: Providing support for educators’ leadership development is essential for increasing engagement and learning within the school community. MCPS fosters staff members’ accountability for demonstrating the leadership necessary to engage teachers, support professionals, and students—and to help increase their learning.

5. Outcomes: MCPS’s focus on outcomes means that school leaders and educators are responsible for identifying desired outcomes and continuously working to achieve them. Individuals who are outcomes-driven aim to increase equity, engagement, learning, and alignment of actions with goals.

“These five focus areas help ensure that as a school district and group of learning communities, we are coherent in preparing our students to have the academic, creative problem solving, and social emotional skills to succeed in the future,” says Superintendent Starr.

21 Montgomery County Public Schools, “Schools,” http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools; “About Us,” http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about.

We must invest in helping teachers, leaders, and curriculum developers understand how to stimulate students to ask more questions and to be more critical thinkers so that they can better analyze information and come to sound conclusions.—Joshua P. Starr, EdD, Superintendent of Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

A School District Model for Educational Excellence

Five strategic focus areas reinforce MCPS’s holistic approach to fostering core competencies. Adapted from Montgomery County Public Schools, “Building Our Future Together: The Strategic Planning Network,” http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/framework; and Joshua P. Starr, Superintendent.

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Focus areas support competency development

Curriculum Outcomes

Engagement

Professional Development

Instructional Leadership

Development

Montgomery County Public Schools’ Areas of Focus

Target Core Competencies of Students

Academic excellence Social emotional learningCreative problem solving

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Case Study: The 114th PartnershipUsing Workplace Videos to Inform Career Choices

The nonprofit 114th Partnership brings together leaders from industry, education, and nonprofit foundations to develop programs that help students improve their college and career readiness.22 The 114th Partnership is founded on the belief that excellence in business-education partnerships—for STEM or otherwise—starts by first defining common goals, supported by evaluative metrics, to inform ongoing improvements.

Employers invest in STEM education to help meet their workforce development and pipeline needs, to demonstrate corporate social responsibility, and to enhance brand image. By contrast, educator goals focus more on test score improvements and fostering self-directed student interest for postsecondary choices. As a result, educational institutions and employers often have different metrics for STEM educational success. For excellence to occur, these stakeholders must define shared value. To help ensure harmonized metrics, advises Jane Kubasik, President of the 114th Partnership, employers should treat educational institutions as if they were a client, asking questions to understand what the institutions are trying to accomplish, and in turn familiarizing educators with STEM-related problems and careers.

As an example, the 114th Partnership has created the Spark 101 video library, consisting of 10-minute, curriculum-aligned videos that engage students to solve real-world challenges by applying skills and knowledge from their current coursework.23 Teachers can access these videos for free and use them in the classroom to facilitate student engagement and inspiration. Spark 101’s research-based design and on-demand format reaches thousands of classrooms, outpacing the impact of in-person presentations.

22 114th Partnership home page, http://www.114th.org.23 Spark 101 home page, http://www.spark101.org

Examples of STEM Investment Excellence (cont.)

How Spark 101 Videos Impact STEM Education

Teachers can promote excellence in STEM education using Spark 101’s 10-minute videos that show how STEM professionals apply their skills to solve real problems in the workplace.Adapted from Spark 101, “About Spark 101,” http://www.spark101.org/about.

114th Partnership’s Spark 101 Online STEM Video Tool helps...

ENGAGE students,

educators, and organizations

CONNECT students with

real-world problems

companies face

INSPIRE students to

pursue a career in STEM

Employers have a responsibility to help help educators understand the types of problems that workers face on the job, as well as the types of careers that are available.

—Jane Kubasik, President of the 114th Partnership

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Case Study: Federal STEM Investment ProgramsThree Factors Help Ensure Success

Federal investments in STEM education require accountability, scalability, and partnerships, according to Jane Oates, Vice President of External Affairs at Apollo Education Group, and former Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she oversaw the distribution of federal grants for job training.Accountability entails detailed follow-up on desired outcomes to determine the effectiveness of the program. Tracking student enrollment, persistence, and completion of educational programs, as well as job placement and retention, are all common components required to demonstrate program accountability. Many federal funding agencies now conduct random assignment studies to determine if an investment program produces the improved results. For example, program developers might conduct an experiment in which students are randomly assigned to participate in a STEM program, while other participants with similar characteristics are not assigned to the STEM program. Both cohorts are followed for a period of time to assess whether the program actually helps participants achieve a desired outcome, such as finding a better job. Recently many federal agencies have also begun to look at the efficacy of pay-for-performance models, which make funding contingent on the program’s ability to reach defined metrics and milestones.

Scalability refers to the ability of programs to be readily modified, expanded, or upgraded to increase the reach of the model across an expanded geographic region or to a broader population. Partnerships with the desired outcome of employment should always begin with employers— particularly employers that have job openings that pay family-sustaining wages, or HR policies and programs that demonstrate a commitment to establishing career ladders. A variety of employer partnerships can help maximize project sustainability and success—for example, partnerships with community-based organizations, with a range of educational providers across the talent pipeline, and with local elected officials.

Aligning education and training programs with the specific requirements of local jobs in demand should be the top priority for workforce training partnerships.—Jane Oates, Vice President of External Affairs, Apollo Education Group

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Examples of STEM Investment Excellence (cont.)

AMTEC: A Federally Funded CollaborativeAn example of a successful STEM education program that started with federal funding is the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC).24 Originally funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), AMTEC is a consortium of dozens of community colleges, technical colleges, and companies across more than 12 states that codevelops and delivers an industry-standards-based workforce development system for the automotive manufacturing workforce. In addition to providing advanced curriculum and certificate programs, AMTEC’s partner colleges help to expand career pathways by in turn partnering with local secondary schools and employers.Fully funded by a government grant, AMTEC demonstrates the three success factors of federal STEM investment programs in the following ways:• Accountability: As one of 39 NSF Advanced Technological

Education centers, AMTEC operates on a $5.5 million, 4-year grant titled “AMTEC National Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing.” While the NSF maintains project oversight, an evaluation team from the Community College Research Center uses a balanced scorecard approach to measure the program’s success and value for a wide range of stakeholders, including

students, current and future automotive workers, suppliers, education and industry partners, the local community, and the public.25 The scorecard is designed not just to facilitate regular reporting and transparency for multiple parties, but also to offer a comprehensive composite of leading and lagging measures in four performance categories: (1) innovation and learning, (2) internal process improvement, (3) stakeholder satisfaction, and (4) fiscal effectiveness.

• Scalability: In addition to promoting sharing of best practices and educational resources across dozens of communities in multiple states, the AMTEC model is designed to enable expansion to stakeholders in other localities and other industry sectors.26

• Partnerships: As the “C” in AMTEC signifies, the model is a collaborative that is built on partnerships with colleges, advanced manufacturers, auto manufacturers, technicians, and suppliers.27 With the primary objective of advancing the auto manufacturing workforce, the collaborative relies on its partnerships with education and industry to ensure an orchestrated approach to creating, sustaining, and adapting career pathways.

24 AMTEC home page, http://autoworkforce.org.25 AMTEC, “Our Structure,” http://www.autoworkforce.org/about-amtec/our-structure.26 AMTEC, “Mission, Vision, & Goals,” http://www.autoworkforce.org/about-amtec/mission-vision-goals.27 AMTEC, “Become a Partner,” http://www.autoworkforce.org/our-partners/become-a-partner.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

There is significant discussion about what constitutes excellence in STEM education. Institutions responsible for educating the future STEM workforce, organizations hiring STEM workers, and government and nonprofit entities are forming coalitions and sharing best practices to promote excellence in STEM education.The following actions are recommended for corporate investors committed to funding STEM education, and for educators who approach investors for STEM support.28

28 Kirstin McCarthy, Jeanne Contardo, and Leila Morsy Eckert, “Corporate Investments in Education during an Economic Downturn,” International Journal of Educational Advancement 9 (2010), 263, doi:10.1057/ijea.2009.44; Bayer Corporation, Planting the Seeds.29 Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter codeveloped the concept of integrative philanthropy as a “shared value” proposition that “involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges” (emphasis in original). By broadening their conception of capitalism to include solutions to societal challenges, businesses can increase innovation and productivity by integrating the needs of communities they serve into their plans for hiring, innovation, research, and growth. See Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, “Creating Shared Value,” Harvard Business Review, January 2011, http://hbr.org/2011/ 01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value; Porter and Kramer, “Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility,” Harvard Business Review, December 2006, http://hbr.org/2006/12/strategy-and-society-the-link-between-competitive-advantage-and-corporate-social-responsibility.

Recommendations for Educators

• Obtain sustained commitment from school and district leadership, industry stakeholders, the community, and program funders.

• Know the funders you approach, focusing on their mission, vision, and the educational and operational practices they deem most appropriate.

• Be flexible and open to ideas and funding capabilities to avoid overreliance on a limited number of investors.

• Demonstrate the desire to be partners and collaborators instead of competitors with funders who desire the same outcomes.

• Use evidence-based research to show the impact or potential success of an educational intervention or program.

• Ensure program content and curriculum are challenging for students; lessons should relate to the real world and require critical thinking and teamwork.

• Base lessons in an environment of inquiry, and encourage students and teachers to collaborate as active learners.

• Define outcomes and assessment methods clearly, and ensure testing tools measure outcomes and provide data for constant program improvement.

Recommendations for Corporate Investors

• Create “shared value” by tying investments to business goals and measuring the return on investment.29

• Select grantees and assess investment outcomes using information, research, and data.

• Ensure STEM programs are inclusive, targeting diverse groups of people who may otherwise be underrepresented in STEM fields, including women.

• View grantees as partners and collaborators, treating them as “clients.”

• Align investments with educational improvement efforts at the school district or college/university system level.