The Board on Science Education of the National Academy of Sciences convened a committee to build the conceptual framework for indicators that can be used to document the status and quality of undergraduate stem education.
The quality of undergraduate education in the STEM fields is receiving increasing attention. There are a growing number of initiatives aimed at enhancing the STEM experiences of undergraduate students, some on a national level, some among multi-institution collaborations and some on individual campuses. In addition, improving undergraduate STEM education is one of the priority areas called out in the Federal STEM Education 5 Year Plan.
Recognizing the need to document the current state of undergraduate STEM education at the national level and track improvements over time, an expert committee will develop a conceptual framework for an indicator system. These indicators will focus on the first two years of undergraduate education, document the status and quality of undergraduate STEM education at both community colleges and 4-year institutions, and be used to track improvements at the national level over multiple years.
An interim report and an opportunity to provide feedback is available from the National Academy website. In addition, there is a public meeting on 6 October at which public comment is welcome.
his meeting will provide an avenue for the public to comment on the preliminary draft report from the Committee on Developing Indicators for Undergraduate STEM Education. The committee was tasked by the National Science Foundation to outline a framework and a set of indicators that could be used to monitor the quality of undergraduate STEM over multiple years. The draft represents the first phase of the committee’s work and contains goals and objectives for improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education. The committee requests input on the draft to assist it in developing indicators in the second phase of the study.
This public comment session will feature speakers providing: insight from community college perspectives, STEM reform imitative reflections, institutional perspectives, implications for using data to improve teaching and learning, and challenges of measuring progress toward increased equity in STEM.
This public comment session will also provide time for comments from participants present and includes comments gathered from the online questionnaire.
If you are interested in attending the public forum, here’s a link to more information: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/BOSE/DBASSE_174122.