Promising Practices for
Strengthening the
Regional STEM Workforce
Development Ecosystem
Committee on Improving Higher Education’s
Responsiveness to STEM Workforce Needs:
Identifying Analytical Tools and Regional Best Practices
Board on Higher Education and Workforce
Policy and Global Affairs
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by Contract No. 2014PG-EDU024 with The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. 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: 978-0-309-39111-5
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-39111-3
DOI: 10.17226/21894
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Copyright 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Promising Practices for Strengthening the Regional STEM Workforce Development Ecosystem. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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COMMITTEE ON IMPROVING HIGHER EDUCATION’S
RESPONSIVENESS TO STEM WORKFORCE NEEDS: IDENTIFYING
ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND REGIONAL BEST PRACTICES
Cochairs
RICHARD CELESTE, President Emeritus, Colorado College; and Former Governor, State of Ohio
TERESA SULLIVAN, President, University of Virginia
Members
RITA COLWELL (NAS), Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, College Park, and The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
BRIAN FITZGERALD, CEO, Business-Higher Education Forum
ELSA GARMIRE (NAE), Sydney E. Junkins Professor of Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College
WILLIAM E. KIRWAN, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Maryland; and Regents Professor of Mathematics, University of Maryland
SUSAN LAVRAKAS, Consultant on Workforce, Aerospace Industries Association
MARY WRIGHT, Senior Program Director, Demand Side Engagement and Analytics, Jobs for the Future
Staff
ELIZABETH O’HARE, Study Director and Program Officer, Board on Higher Education and Workforce, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
NINA BOSTON, Research Associate, Board on Higher Education and Workforce, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
IRENE NGUN, Research Associate, Board on Higher Education and Workforce, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
THOMAS RUDIN, Director, Board on Higher Education and Workforce, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
BOARD ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE
Chair
WILLIAM E. KIRWAN, Chancellor Emeritus, University System of Maryland; and Regents Professor of Mathematics, University of Maryland
Members
F. KING ALEXANDER, President and Chancellor, Louisiana State University
JOHN SEELY BROWN, Visiting Scholar, University of Southern California; former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation, and former Director, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
ANGELA BYARS-WINSTON, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Wisconsin
JARED COHON (NAE), President Emeritus and University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
CARLOS CASTILLO-CHAVEZ, Regents and Joaquin Bustoz Professor of Mathematical Biology, School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the School of Sustainability; and Director, Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University
RITA COLWELL (NAS), Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, College Park, and The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
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 (NAE), Battelle Fellow Emeritus, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Staff
THOMAS RUDIN, Director
ELIZABETH O’HARE, Program Officer
NINA BOSTON, Research Associate
IRENE NGUN, Research Associate
ADRIANA COUREMBIS, Financial Associate
Preface
This report summarizes an 18-month study by the Committee on Improving Higher Education’s Responsiveness to STEM Workforce Needs: Identifying Analytical Tools and Regional Best Practices, organized under the auspices of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report’s primary audiences are business and university leaders, key intermediary organizations such as chambers of commerce and regional economic development groups, and state and local government policy makers who seek to create and/or sustain partnerships based on mutual understanding and a shared commitment to regional economic development. We hope the recommendations offered here can serve as a set of promising practices that can enable both sectors to collaborate in sustainable ways that benefit students, universities, companies, regional economies, and national competitiveness.
The committee was composed of a group of experts on subjects related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, workforce development, university-industry partnerships, and university leadership and administration. The committee’s charge was to explore the effectiveness of selected higher education institutions in educating STEM-trained workers who can meet regional workforce needs. To fulfill this charge, the committee organized five regional workshops around the nation—Phoenix, Arizona; Cleveland, Ohio; Montgomery, Alabama; Los Angeles, California; and Fargo, North Dakota.
In each location, the committee convened leaders and employers from the business community; administrators, faculty, and students from 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities; regional economic development experts; chambers of commerce; state and county policy makers; government officials; and philanthropic foundations. The committee reviewed evidence on effective practices for creating and sustaining university-industry partnerships, including interventions known to improve student retention in STEM majors. The committee also commissioned analyses to look at real-time labor market information in the regions it visited.
In addition to the five regional workshops and commissioned analyses mentioned above, the committee met twice and studied prior efforts addressing STEM workforce development, relevant research findings, and other promising programs and practices not featured in the geographical regions visited by the committee. Beyond the gathering and synthesis of this information, this report reflects the professional and personal judgments and experiences of the committee members.
We are grateful to the staff of the committee: Libby O’Hare, Tom Rudin, Nina Boston, and Irene Ngun with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce. We also acknowledge the invaluable technical assistance of Daniel Bearss from the National Academies’ Research Center.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The committee gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance provided by the organizations and institutions that hosted the series of workshops described in this report. These include Arizona State University, the Ohio Aerospace Institute, Alabama State University, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and North Dakota State University. The committee is grateful to the staff of these organizations who worked tirelessly to plan the workshops. The committee is also indebted to the many participants who attended each workshop—this report is a reflection of their inputs and efforts. We also acknowledge and appreciate the generous support of Lockheed Martin Corporation, which provided a grant to help underwrite the Montgomery, Alabama, workshop.
The committee thankfully acknowledges the contributions of Karin Matchett and Maria Lund Dahlberg.
The committee gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of this study by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF REVIEWERS
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 objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. 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: Martin Abraham, Youngstown State University; Oscar Barton, George Mason University; George Boggs, Palomar College; L. Berkley Davis, GE Power and Water; Joseph Francisco, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Valerie Greenhill, EdLeader 21; Edward Hill, Ohio State University; Matthew Hora, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Collins Jones, Montgomery College; Peter Larson, Boeing Defense, Space, & Security; David Longanecker, Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education; Ronald Painter, National Association of Workforce Boards; David Rattray, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; Daniel Restuccia, Burning Glass Technologies; and R. Michael Tanner, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Cora Marrett, University of Wisconsin and Helen Quinn, Stanford University. Appointed by the Academies, they were 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 authoring committee and the institution.
| Richard Celeste, Cochair | Teresa Sullivan, Cochair |
Committee on Improving Higher Education’s Responsiveness to
STEM Workforce Needs: Identifying Analytical Tools and Regional Best Practices
Contents
2 PROJECT CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
3 BACKGROUND ON THE SELECTED REGIONS
4 LESSONS LEARNED AND ANALYSIS
5 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
APPENDIXES
A BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION OF COMMITTEE AND STAFF
C REGIONAL WORKSHOP AGENDAS AND PARTICIPANT LISTS
BOXES, FIGURES, AND TABLES
BOXES
1-2 Planning Process for Regional Workshops
2-1 Comparisons of Core-STEM and STEM-Related Occupations as Classified by Two Federal Agencies
4-1 Selected Technical Skills in Demand by Regional Employers
4-2 Describing and Classifying Employability Skill
4-3 Labor Market Dynamics and Market Distortions
4-4 Corporate Approaches to Workforce Development
4-6 Industry Consortia Approaches to Workforce Development: Arizona’s Get into Energy Program
4-8 Economic Development Strategies at Arizona State University
4-10 Doosan Bobcat’s Acceleration Center
4-11 Applied Learning Opportunities and Support Services for STEM Students
5-1 Specific Steps for Each Key Actor in Regional STEM Workforce Development Ecosystems
FIGURES
3-1 Overview of the need for STEM skills in the Phoenix region
3-2 Overview of the need for STEM skills in the Cleveland region
3-3 Overview of the need for STEM skills in the Montgomery region
3-4 Overview of the STEM workforce landscape in Los Angeles
3-5 Overview of the need for STEM skills in the Fargo region
TABLES
3-1 Demographic Data for the Five Regions Visited
3-2a Phoenix Region: Occupations with a Competitive Advantage in 2013
3-2b Phoenix Region: Top Employers as Identified by RTLMI Analyses
3-2c Phoenix Region: Workshop Participants, January 22–23, 2015
3-3a Cleveland Region: Occupations with a Competitive Advantage in 2013
3-3b Cleveland Region: Top Employers as Identified by RTLMI Analyses
3-3c Cleveland Region: Workshop Participants, April 1, 2015
3-4a Montgomery Region: Occupations with a Competitive Advantage in 2013
3-4b Montgomery Region: Top Employers as Identified by RTLMI Analyses
3-4c Montgomery Region: Workshop Participants, May 11, 2015
3-5 Los Angeles Region Workshop Participants, May 27, 2015
3-6a Fargo Region: Occupations with a Competitive Advantage in 2013
3-6b Fargo Region: Top Employers as Identified by RTLMI Analyses
