MIT Washington Office | October 2013
Review of the National Science Foundation’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program:
Building the Next Generation of Scientists and Engineers
October 2013
MIT Washington Office
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Review of NSF’s STEP: Building the Next Generation of Scientists and Engineers
MIT Washington Office | October 2013
Table of Contents
Executive Summaryii
Part 1 - Introduction: STEP in Context1
Part 2 - What has STEP accomplished?3
Early Years
STEP Today
Part 3 - What has been learned from STEP?8
Part 4 - Connection to Online “Blended” Learning Model of Education11
Part 5 - Concluding Remarks15
Works Cited16
Appendix A. Recommendations from President’s Council of 18
Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to
Produce One Million AdditionalCollege STEM Graduates
Appendix B. STEP Central Strategies19
Appendix C. NSF Strategic Plan 2011-201620
List of Tables
Table 1. States with Highest Number of STEP Awards4
Table 2. Active Awards Dollar Amounts By State4
Table 3. Distribution of Active and Expired STEP Award Amounts5
Table 4. Associate’s and Bachelor’s STEM Degrees Awarded in the 9
United States (2000-2010)
Table 5. Relative Impacts of Common Strategies to Enhance 9
STEM education
Executive Summary for “Review of the National Science Foundation’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP): Building the Next Generation of Scientists and Engineers”
In 2001, the Technology Talent Act was introduced in Congresson the basis that “about half of all United States post-World War II economic growth is a direct result of technological innovation, and science, engineering, and technology play a central role in the creation of new goods and services, new jobs, and new capital.” The legislation explains that economic growth significantly stems from a technicallyskilled workforce, the demand for which is projected by the US Department of Education to grow over the next decade. This is a healthy sign for the economy, but the US cannot take full advantage of that growth becauseits supply ofscientists and engineers is limited. Retention and recruitmentof students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are two factors in need of improvement if the US is to strengthen schools’ STEM programs limited by an inadequate pipeline.
To address this problem, the Technology Talent Act mandated the creation of a new program within the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase the number of students receiving associate or baccalaureate STEM degrees; what began as a $25 million proposal became the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP).STEP addresses STEM students’ lowretention by supporting competitively awarded grants for research and programs for institutional strategies and efforts to improve degree attainment and the transfer of students between 2-year institutions and 4-year programs.Data show that US students in 2010 earned nearly 60,000 more STEM degrees than those in 2000, but more progress is needed to increase the share of degrees earned by certain student populationsunder-represented in STEM fields, such as women and minorities. In 2013, STEPlaunched its Graduate 10K+ initiative, which focuses on contributing to increasing the annual number of new B.S. degrees awarded in engineering and computer science by 10,000 by 2020 with support from Intel and GE. Meanwhile,the White House has proposed consolidating higher education STEMeducationprograms across agencieswith a program lead by the NSF, as indicated in its FY2014 budget. Within the Division of Undergraduate Education at the NSF,STEP is one of three programs in identified for integration in the President’s FY 2014 budget request.
Reports from two external reviews on STEP in the past decade, in addition to recent publications on STEM undergraduate education from a variety of sectors, highlight a number of important lessons for improving the state of STEM education in the US, including:
First- and second-year undergraduate students are most at-risk for dropping out of STEM fields of study.Also,groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in STEM fields of study must be engaged in any new initiative to improve the country’s technically skilled workforce.
Cross–institution partnerships involving industry, 2-year colleges, and 4-year institutions benefit each stakeholder.
Bridge programs, hands-on research, internships, learning communities, and dedicated counselingare all strategies frequently recommended and proven effective by various sources.
Multidimensional approaches that utilize three or more educational strategies are best able to more effectively increase the number of STEM graduates than programs using individual strategies.
The White House is nearing its 2020 deadline for the country to not only educate one million new scientists and engineers,but also to train100,000 new STEM K-12 teachers who will inspire those students. STEM programs will likely continue to rely on the strategies identified and tested by STEP, but may need to adapt to new trends in STEM education, such as the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs).Connecting STEP’s history of findings with novel online “blended” learning modelsthat combine online and face-to-face education could provide valuable insight into optimizing such trends. STEP’s ability to perform these roles will also be affected by the proposed consolidation and integration of STEM programs within federal agencies.
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Review of NSF’s STEP: Building the Next Generation of Scientists and Engineers
MIT Washington Office | October 2013
Part 1 - Introduction: STEP in Context
According to the Department of Education (ED), only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in mathematics and interested in a STEM career. Poor motivation in the classroom, however, coincides with a nationwide issue with retention in the STEM fields. In 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) reported that fewer than 40 percent of college freshmen intending to major in a STEM field graduate with a STEM degree.[1] Between 2010 and 2020, the Department of Education (ED) projects a significant increase in the number of STEM jobs, such as Mathematics (+16%), Computer Systems Analysis (+22%), Systems Software Development (+32%), Medical Science (+36%), and Biomedical Engineering (+62%). The growth expected in these fields eclipses the projected 14% jump in all US occupations.[2] The PCAST report emphasizes that a modest improvement in STEM retention at the undergraduate level would resolve much of the US STEM workforce requirements.
In a2000 paperissued by the National Bureau of Economic Research (see Works Cited, below), economist Paul Romeremphasized that the size and capability of the talent base engaged in scientific and technical research and development was a critical economic growth factor. He outlined four goals to trigger the necessary growth in supply of scientists and engineers: targeting a specific increase in the number of students who receive undergraduate degrees in the natural sciences and engineering; encouraging more innovation in graduate training programs; preserving the strength of the PhD education system; and balancing government spending on subsidies for supply and demand of scientists and engineers.These goals are still relevant today; the White House recently set a target of onemillion STEM graduates, 100,000 new STEM teachers, and two million unemployed Americans retrained with high-tech skills by 2020[3](see Appendix A for White House recommendations). Romer then identified three types of programs that could make STEM goals a reality: training grants, national exams measuring undergraduate achievement in natural science and engineering, and expanded fellowships for students who continue their STEM studies in graduate school. The NSF is the principal federal funder of efforts like these, especially grants and fellowships, to promote excellence in STEM education.NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) addresses national priorities in educational innovation and research at two- and four-year colleges and universities.
Romer’s report was key to the design of the authorizing legislation and DUE’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program(STEP), which has supported a decade of implementation projects and research in STEM learning in the context of overall education reform that includes K-12 as well as undergraduate degree attainment in STEM.
A congressionally authorizedprogram born from the 2001 Technology Talent Act,[4] STEP seeks to increase the number of students (US citizens or permanent residents) receiving associate or baccalaureate degrees in established or emerging STEM fields. The program accepts two types of proposals.Type 1 proposals plan for full implementation efforts dedicated to recruitment and retention of STEM studentsat academic institutions.Type 2 proposals support educational research projects on undergraduate degree attainment in STEM. Nearly 300 projects in about 40 states have received STEP funding since the program’s start; today 15-20 Type 1 and 1-3 Type 2 proposals are funded each year.
A bipartisan group of Senators,(Joseph Lieberman (D-CT),Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Kit Bond (R-MO), Bill Frist (R-TN) and Pete Domenici(R-NM))initially introduced the founding legislation for STEP, the Technology Talent Act of 2001,to the 107th Congress on October 15, 2001. With 16 eventual cosponsors, the bipartisan legislation was passed as part of the 2002 NSF Reauthorization and was intended to increase the technically trained workforce in the United States in light of a critical need to drive economic growth through innovation, declining numbers of US STEM graduates, and increasing competition from international STEM students. The legislation grants the NSF Director the authority to award funds on a competitive basis for the strongest higher education programs that would increase the number of STEM graduates in the U.S., without specifying an exact numerical target.
The document mandated that in 2007 the NSF would report on the progress of STEP. A section of the America Competes Act of 2007 extended the program, adding provisions for national STEP centers to support instructor training, educational materials development and outreach programs for middle and high school students.[5] In Spring 2010 NSF announced a STEP Centers competition that “allows a group of faculty representing a cross section of institutions of higher education to identify a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate education in STEM and to propose a comprehensive and coordinated set of activities that will be carried out to address that challenge or opportunity within a national context. Two STEP Centers were supported: STEP Center: EHR-ENG STEP Innovation Center (Stanford University) and the STEP Center: InTeGrate: Interdisciplinary Teaching of Geoscience for a Sustainable Future (Carleton College).
In May 2013, STEP announced awards in STEP Graduate 10K+, a new proposal track to research first and second year retention ratesin engineering or computer science, subject areas that the NSF noted a particularly strong correlation between retention and graduation. In FY13, nine institutions were awarded a total of $10 million, made possible by with contributions from the Intel and GE Foundations.
That same month, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) released a five-year strategic plan to “increase the total investment in STEMeducation programs by 6 percent over the 2012 appropriated level while consolidating and reducing the number of programs spread across 14 federal agencies from 226 to 110.”[6] This planguidescoordination of STEM education programs from across numerous agencieswith the Department of Education convening planning around K-12 education, the NSF convening undergraduate and graduate planning activities, and the Smithsonian Institute convening informal STEM education planning activities. These planning meetings are under way, as well as conversations around broadening participation.
The CoSTEM report is distinct from the President’s FY2014 budget request. Among many suggestions for streamlined STEM education, the FY 2014 budget proposal consolidates NSF’s STEP, Widening Implementation and Demonstration of Evidenced-based Reforms (WIDER), and Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) into the $97 million Catalyzing Advances in Undergraduate STEM (CAUSE) program. Congress has not yet reviewed this Administration proposal, although the STEP program remains separately authorized and would be continued within the proposed CAUSE umbrella.
Given its history, its focus on postsecondary STEM education, and its relevance at a time when the nation needs it most, STEP is avaluablecase study that highlights the challenges faced by students and educators in STEM fields. Not only can these lessons be applied to standard degree programs, but also to the next generation of education tools, including massive online open courses (MOOCs). Education programs such as STEP may be consolidated under a different name, but lessons from STEP could prove to haveparticular value in the effort to meet the national goal of growing the STEM talent base.
Part 2 - What has STEP accomplished?
Early Years
STEPfocuses its missionon five general strategies: education research/policy, retention strategies, recruitment strategies, institutional issues, and student populations.These are listed in Appendix B.
Evaluations of STEP as a whole havelimited public availability, but much can be learned from two separate Committee of Visitors (COV) reviews of STEP in 2006 and 2009. COV reviews of programs and offices that conduct or support NSF research occur at regular intervals of approximately three years.Theseimportant reviews, which involve panel discussions andspecific analysis, are conducted by external expertsin order to provide NSF with feedback on the quality, integrity, and pertinence of program operations. NSF typically issues comments in response to COV suggestions; both COV suggestions and NSF remarks are then published on the NSF website.[7]
The 2006 COV reviewed 20 awards out of a total of 77 active STEP awards at the time; the 2009 COV reviewed 17 out of a total 68 active awards. The COV chooses which awardsto review based on the final digit in the proposal number in order to take a random selection of ongoing STEP projects.
The 2009 COV noted a broad geographic distribution of PIs of STEP projects, although the Type 2 projects reviewed by the committee were disproportionately based in the south and southwest. Only four of these kinds of projects were reviewed in 2009, so the data supporting this comment are not statistically significant. Texas and California are the states that have received the most STEP awards (Table 1), representing a combined $35 million of the program’s $163 million in total active awards (Table 2).
Despitethe breadth of STEP implementation and research projects, there is relative consistency among awards on a per capita basis.
Table 1. States with Highest Number of STEP Awards[8]
State / Total Number of Active and Expired STEP Awards / Number of Active STEP Awards / Active STEP Awards Per Million Capita based on 2010 US Census Bureau DataCalifornia / 26 / 14 / 0.4
Texas / 23 / 15 / 1.7
New York / 18 / 5 / 0.3
Illinois / 13 / 7 / 0.5
Michigan / 13 / 7 / 0.7
Virginia / 12 / 5 / 0.6
Washington / 11 / 7 / 1.0
Arizona / 10 / 7 / 1.2
Florida / 9 / 6 / 0.3
Maryland / 8 / 4 / 0.7
Ohio / 8 / 6 / 0.5
ALL AWARDS / 270 / 147
Table 2. Active Awards Dollar Amounts By State[9]
State / Total dollar amount of active awards / Active Award Dollars Per Capita based on 2010 US Census Bureau DataCalifornia / $18,648,434 / $0.50
Texas / $16,660,086 / $0.66
Illinois / $10,245,782 / $0.79
Ohio / $9,548,113 / $0.82
Michigan / $8,570,619 / $0.86
Washington / $5,590,608 / $0.83
Florida / $4,812,584 / $0.25
Wisconsin / $4,671,455 / $0.82
Arizona / $2,999,995 / $0.46
ALL ACTIVE AWARDS / $163,220,973
TOTAL EXPIRED & ACTIVE AWARDS / $291,837,305
Both the 2006 and 2009 COVs reported that the awards were appropriate in size and duration. Nearly half of all STEP awards provided over one million dollars in funding, as exhibited in Table 3, but the 2006 COV added that ambitious, institution-wide projects hosted by the country’s largest universities requiring more than $2 million in funding would encourage multidisciplinary efforts on a national scale. The NSF responded that this would be an appropriate option to consider should STEP funding increase “significantly.”Before 2007, there were three active STEP awards valued at $2 million. By FY13, there were 18 active awards valued at or over $2 million.
Table 3. Distribution of Active and Expired STEP Award Amounts[10]
Active / Active & ExpiredLess than or equal $50,000 / 1 / 8
Between $50,001 - $100,000 / 6 / 11
Between $100,001 - $500,000 / 32 / 64
Between $500,001 - $1,000,000 / 33 / 63
More than $1,000,000 / 75 / 124
Total Number of Awards / 147 / 270
The 2006 COV noted a lack of balance in the institutional types represented by STEP. Of the 20 reviewed projects,nine were from research 1 institutions, eight were from 4-year colleges and universities, and three were from 2-year colleges. The COV recommended increased awardee representation from the 4-year and 2-year institutions. The NSF responded that the distribution of reviewed awards did not reflect the overall STEP portfolio at the time, but admitted that doctoral institutions dominated the portfolio. The limited rate in transfers from 2-year schools to 4-year STEM degree programs was cited as evidence of a need for partnerships between 2-year and non-2-year institutions.[11]
STEP Today
In FY13, NSF especially encouraged Type 1(STEM recruitment and retention) projects committed to producing significant improvements infirst and second year retention ratesin engineering or computer science, under a special proposal track of STEP known as Graduate 10K+. With support from Intel and the GE Foundations, Graduate 10K+ aims to increase the annual number of new B.S. graduates in engineering and computer science by 10,000.
Some Graduate 10K+programs rethink the traditional four-year degree model. For example, the University of Washington and Washington Stateencourage student engagement in a continuous and intensive manner over five years to increase retention of students in engineering. By introducing students to STEM careers during their undergraduate years, the five-year projects within Graduate 10K+ utilize a “redshirt” strategy similar to that of college athletes transitioningto a new competitive setting. For students coming from under-resourced high schools, the “redshirt” strategy levels the playing field. Hartnell College and California State Monterey Bay, on the other hand, have partnered to create a three year computer science degree to decrease the time to degree for low income students. Graduate 10K+ addresses several priorities for the STEP mission:
- Partnership, especially with the private sector: Intel, GE, and a private donor on the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board have committed $10 million in total for this new program. This addresses a 2009 COV recommendation to build more “college-industry alliances early in the college experience.”
- Subject areas chosen to meet top industry needs: Graduate 10K+ supports projects that boost the US engineering and computer science workforce; the 2009 COV also recommended programs that targeted specific STEM subject areas, but named cybersecurity and energy as the two sectors in most need of a technically skilled workforce.
- Outreach to underrepresented groups in STEM education:both STEP COVs identified this as a top priority to improve STEM retention rates of undergraduates
The nineFY13 institution Graduate 10K+ awardees and their projects are: