Evaluating Educational Programs for the Future STEM Workforce: STELAR Center Resources

Hello EvaluATE community! My name is Sarah MacGillivray, and I am a member of the STEM Learning and Research (STELAR) Center team, which supports the National Science Foundation Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (NSF ITEST) program. Through ITEST, NSF funds the research and development of innovative models of engaging K-12 students in authentic STEM experiences. The goals of the program include building students’ interest and capacity to participate in STEM educational opportunities and developing the skills they will need for careers in STEM. While we target slightly different audiences than the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, our programs share the common goal of educating the future STEM workforce, and to support this goal, I invite you to access the many evaluation resources available on our website.

The STELAR website houses an extensive set of resources collected from and used by the ITEST community. These resources include a database of nearly 150 research and evaluation instruments. Each entry features a description of the tool, a list of relevant disciplines and topics, target participants, and a link to ITEST projects that have used the instrument in their work. Whenever possible, PDFs and/or URLs to the original resource are included, though some tools require a fee or membership to the third-party site for access. The instruments can be accessed at http://stelar.edc.org/resources/instruments, and the database can be searched or filtered by keywords common to ATE and ITEST projects, e.g., “participant recruitment and retention,” “partnerships and collaboration,” “STEM career opportunities and workforce development,” “STEM content and standards,” and “teacher professional development and pedagogy,” among others.

In addition to our extensive instrument library, our website also features more than 400 publications, curricular materials, and videos. Each library can be browsed individually, or if you would like to view everything that we have on a topic, you can search all resources on the main resources page: http://stelar.edc.org/resources. We are continually adding to our resources and have recently improved our collection methods to allow projects to upload to the website directly. We expect this will result in even more frequent additions, and we encourage you to visit often or join our mailing list for updates.

STELAR also hosts a free, self-paced online course in which novice NSF proposal writers develop a full NSF proposal. While focused on ITEST, the course can be generalized to any NSF proposal. Two sessions focus on research and evaluation, breaking down the process for developing impactful evaluations. Participants learn what key elements to include in research designs, how to develop logic models, what is involved in deciding the evaluation’s design, and how to align the research design and evaluation sections. The content draws from expertise within the STELAR team and elements from NSF’s Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development. Since the course is self-paced, you can learn more about the course and register to participate at any time: https://mailchi.mp/edc.org/invitation-itest-proposal-course-2

We hope that these resources are useful in your work and invite you to share suggestions and feedback with us at stelar@edc.org. As a member of the NSF Resource Centers network, we welcome opportunities to explore cross-program collaboration, working together to connect and promote our shared goals.