Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education (2018) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-36
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. Because undergraduate STEM education plays a central role in developing the STEM workforce, and also contributes to a strong general education for all students, improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education is a national imperative.
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m Other initiatives include the undergraduate STEM initiative of the Association of American Universities;1 a workshop and sourcebook on under graduate STEM reform of the Coalition for Reform in Undergraduate STEM Education;2 and the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, or PULSE.3 At present, policy makers and the public do not know whether these various federal, state, and local initiatives are accomplishing their stated goals and achieving nationwide improvement in undergraduate STEM education. This is partly due to a lack of high-quality national data on undergraduate STEM teaching and learning.
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In response, the National Science Foundation (NSF) charged the National Academies to conduct a consensus study to identify objectives for improving undergraduate STEM education and to outline a framework and set of indicators to document the status and quality of undergraduate STEM education at the national level over multiple years: see Box 1-1 for the full study charge.
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At the National Science Foundation's request, the study will focus in particular on the first 2 years of undergraduate education. In Phase I, the committee will • dentify objectives for improving undergraduate STEM education at both i 2-year and 4-year institutions building from the objectives for higher education outlined in the federal strategic plan to coordinate federal investments in STEM education and emphasizing the first 2 years of undergraduate education; • eview existing systems for monitoring undergraduate STEM education; r and • evelop a conceptual framework for the indicator system.
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For some students, STEM literacy might require exposure to adult basic education, adult literacy, or vocational programs offered in the community. However, measures of such programs would fall outside of the committee's charge to develop indicators of the status and quality of undergraduate STEM education.
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A Focus on the National Level Given its charge, the committee's work focused on national-level indicators. As noted above, many initiatives are currently under way to monitor and improve undergraduate STEM education.
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Although the committee views the currently available baseline data as a valuable snapshot of quality improvement in some life sciences departments, these data are not nationally representative, do not include other disciplines, and do not constitute national indicators of improvement in undergraduate STEM. The national-level data needed for the committee's proposed indicators differ from the PULSE rubrics or other fine-grained data designed to guide local improvement efforts.
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Goals and Objectives The committee defines a goal as an intended outcome representing improvement in undergraduate STEM education. It is stated in general terms and covers a long time frame.
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work together to produce an effect on the desired student outcomes. The committee emphasizes that its proposed indicators should be viewed in concert with one another to provide insight into the overall quality of undergraduate STEM education (see National Research Council, 2014)
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Evidence-Based STEM Educational Practices and Programs In the committee's view, improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education will require wider use of "evidence-based STEM educational practices and programs." A growing body of research (see National Research Council, 2012, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016a) has begun to identify effective teaching practices and co-curricular programs that support students' mastery of STEM concepts and skills and their retention in STEM programs.
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. In this case, the valued outcomes of undergraduate STEM include mastery of STEM concepts and skills and attainment of STEM credentials.
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Thus, one should not attribute the observed differences in job placement rates simply to differences in the overall national quality of the undergraduate education programs in each discipline. Even when STEM majors enter occupations outside the STEM workforce, the knowledge and skills they developed in their undergraduate STEM programs contribute to the national economy (see "Vision," above)
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There is little agreement across these various approaches. Given this lack of consensus, the committee followed the National Science Foundation's approach, the first one above, defining the STEM workforce to include science and engineering occupations
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view that the supply of and demand for STEM professionals overall is roughly in balance, with neither an oversupply nor a shortage. (currently about 5.7 million people)
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2Long-term certificates are generally defined as those earned in educational programs lasting at least 1 year. Learning Outcomes In Chapter 2, the committee identifies increasing students' mastery of STEM concepts and skills as one of three overarching goals for improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education.
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Because of these complications and practical difficulties, the committee does not propose any indicators that would directly measure student learning. However, the committee does target increased acquisition of STEM concepts and skills as an overarching goal for improving undergraduate STEM education (see Chapters 2 and 3)
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. Thus, although the frequency of technology-based course instruction is becoming comparable to face-to-face instruction in some undergraduate STEM fields, the extent to which it will be ad opted across all disciplines is unknown.
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. Goals of the Indicator System In light of the pressures for accountability and the complexity of measuring quality described above, the committee stresses that the primary goal of the indicator system is to allow federal agencies to monitor the status and quality of undergraduate STEM education over time (based on data aggregated from individual institutions)
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Rather, the committee expects that the indicator system will be used by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies to monitor nationwide progress toward improving the quality of STEM undergraduate education. The committee also anticipates that the interagency committee on STEM education will use the indicator system as it works to advance the objectives for undergraduate STEM education identified in the federal STEM education 5-year strategic plan of the National Science and Technology Council.
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The report is organized around the major tasks outlined in the committee's charge. Chapter 2 presents the conceptual framework for the indicator system; Chapters 3, 4, and 5 discuss the committee's three goals for improvement in undergraduate STEM, along with objectives and indicators to measure progress toward those goals.
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. Web Tables: Enrollment in Distance Education Courses by State: Fall 2012.
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. Revisiting the STEM Workforce: A Companion to Sci ence and Engineering Indicators 2014.
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. Stats in Brief: Learning at a Distance: Undergraduate Enrollment in Distance Education Courses and Degree Programs.
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