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STEM Workforce Assessment & Evaluation

As a growing number of our nation’s current scientific minds edge closer to retirement, workforce studies, and labor trends show a critical need to replace workers with those who are able to compete in the global science, technical, and research fields. To address these needs, ORAU partners with government agencies and private industry to connect the best and most diverse students, recent graduates, and professionals with world-class fellowships, internships, and jobs in research institutions, federal government offices, and private sector R&D departments.

Research partnerships exist in the areas of STEM workforce assessment and evaluation. Our experts conduct comprehensive formative, summative, and annual evaluations for STEM-related programs. ORAU’s evaluators and education specialists also perform long-term, follow-up impact evaluations of STEM workforce development programs.

Research focus areas

  • Estimating future hiring needs and adequacy of supply of new graduates in STEM occupations
  • Applied research on specialized STEM labor markets
  • Measuring national and regional impacts of workforce development programs by establishing comparison groups from large national surveys of the U.S. STEM workforce
  • Program/project survey instrument development and validation
  • Undergraduate research experiences
  • Economic impact of science enterprise
  • Human capital and workforce modeling
  • Research on the use of classroom technologies and technology training for teachers

Impact Areas

Contributing to STEM education evaluation nationally

ORAU collaborated with a coalition of partners (including the American Evaluation Association's STEM Topical Interest Group and the Google- and NCWIT-originated CS Impact Network) to:

  • Enhance capacity in evaluation of STEM education and workforce development initiatives
  • Collect useful resources for STEM evaluation
  • Build a prototype repository for resources including surveys, protocols, and handbooks

Read more about this effort

Illustration of how the centralized STEM hub works

Contact us

If you have questions about ORAU's research partnerships, contact us at (865) 576-1717 or .