Workforce Education Models for K-12 STEM Education Programs: Reflections on, and Implications for, the NSF ITEST Program

Abstract

This article proposes a STEM workforce education logic model, tailored to the particular context of the National Science Foundation's Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. This model aims to help program designers and researchers address challenges particular to designing, implementing, and studying education innovations in the ITEST program, considering ongoing needs and challenges in STEM workforce education in the USA. It is grounded in conceptual frameworks developed previously by teams of ITEST constituents, for their part intended to frame STEM career education, consider how people select and prepare for STEM careers, and reinforce the important distinction between STEM content and STEM career learnings. The authors take a first step in what they hope will be an ongoing discussion and research agenda by test-fitting assumptions of the model to exploratory case studies of recent NSF ITEST projects. Brief implications for future research and other considerations are provided.Keywords NSF Á National Science Foundation Á STEM Á Workforce education Á Logic model Á ITEST Over the past decade or so, numerous reports have reflected concern among policymakers, practitioners, and researchers that the USA is falling short in producing a next generation of science, technology, engineering, and math Of particular national interest is the need for a homegrown STEM workforce development pipeline to fill strategic jobs in secure national laboratories, defense agencies, and other organizations that require US citizenship (Casey 2012). These demands are compounded by the fact that it takes more than a decade to produce a worker capable of filling a high-level scientific research and engineering position, and at least four technicians and technologists to support each working scientist. Moreover, apart from the demand for dedicated STEM professionals, it is increasingly apparent that STEM skills are vital to every sector of the modern economy. In responding to these requirements, our nation's policymakers have challenged US K-12 education systems to help young people develop the STEM capabilities necessary to fulfill these workforce needs in order to keep our future robust, our economy growing, and our nation safe. Theoretical FoundationsDuring the past 60 years, career development theorists have made substantial advances in terms of seminal research on career development, helping to shape current understandings of how people develop awareness of and interest in careers, as well as how they prepare for those careers. Developmental theorists generally concur that career development proceeds along a continuum of iterative experiences, in which individuals develop, assess, refine, and act on their career interests, knowledge, and Sci Educ Technol (2016) 25:847-858 DOI 10.1007 skills, and further, that occupational decision making is a process that addresses complex issues of social and psychological development (Crites 1969;Ginzberg 1972;Ginzberg et al. 1951; Havighurst 1953; H...

Equity-Oriented Conceptual Framework for K-12 STEM literacy

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