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Findings and Recommendations from an NAE Study

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Findings and Recommendations from an NAE Study Paper ID #20271 Engineering Technology Education in the United States: Findings and Rec- ommendations from an NAE Study Mr. Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Greg Pearson is a Scholar with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in Washington, D.C. Greg currently serves as the responsible staff officer for the NSF-funded project ”The Status, Role, and Needs of Engineering Technology Education in the United States.” He is also study director for the Chevron-funded project, Guiding Implementation of K-12 Engineering in the United States. He was the study director for the NAE and National Research Council project that resulted in the 2014 report, STEM Integration in K-12 Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research. He was the study director for the project that resulted in publication of Standards for K-12 Engineering Education? (2010) and Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects (2009), an analysis of efforts to teach engineering to U.S. school children. He oversaw the NSF-funded project that resulted in the 2013 publication of Messaging for Engineering: From Research to Action and the 2008 publication of Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering and was co-editor of the reports Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy (2006) and Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology (2002). In the late 1990s, Greg oversaw NAE and National Research Council reviews of technology education content standards developed by the International Technology Education Association. Dr. Daniel Peter Kuehn, The Urban Institute Daniel Kuehn is a Research Associate I in the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center and a doctoral student in American University’s Department of Economics. He has eight years of experience conducting and managing research on the economics of education and training, the science and engineer- ing workforce, human capital, and impact analyses of labor market programs. He has published numerous peer reviewed articles, book chapters, reports, and policy briefs, and presented his research to academic and stakeholder audiences. Daniel has worked on research projects for the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Trea- sury Department, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, and several private foundations. Dr. Walter W. Buchanan P.E., Texas A&M University Walt Buchanan is a professor at Texas A&M University. He is a Fellow and served on the Board of Directors of both ASEE and NSPE, is a Past President of ASEE, and is a registered P.E. in six states. He is a past member of the Executive Committee of TAC of ABET, is on the editorial board of the Journal of Engineering Technology, has authored or co-authored over 200 journal articles and referred conference proceedings, and has been a principal investigator for NSF. Dr. Jeffrey L. Ray, Western Carolina University Jeffrey L. Ray, F.ASEE has been Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University since 2014. Prior to this appointment he was Dean of the School of Engineering Technology and Management at Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU, now Kennesaw State University) in Marietta, Georgia beginning in 2007. Prior to joining SPSU, he was the Director of the School of Engi- neering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Grand Valley State University for ten years, in addi- tion to leading the multidisciplinary industry-sponsored capstone design courses. Before joining Grand Valley State University he was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Youngstown State University. His degrees include both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt he worked for the Vanderbilt University Department of Orthopaedics performing skeletal biodynamics research. Before beginning engineering school he completed an apprenticeship and was awarded the title of Journeyman Industrial Electrician. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Paper ID #20271 Ray has been an active member at both national and sectional levels. He previously served as Chair of the Engineering Technology Council and Vice-President, Institutional Councils on ASEE’s Board of Directors. Other service includes Chairing the Frederick J Berger awards committee; Chair of the ASEE Bylaws and Constitution committee; Chair of the Risk Management committee; member of the Strategic Doing Governance committee; and the National Teaching awards committee. Additionally, Ray has been a reviewer, moderator, and author in multiple ASEE divisions at both national and sectional levels since joining the society. His awards include two Best Session awards at the Confer- ence on Industry Education Collaboration in 2008 and 2013, respectively. In 2009, he served as the Chair of the Southeastern Section annual conference. Dr. Melvin L. Roberts P.E., Camden County College Melvin L. Roberts is a full Professor of Engineering and the Interim Dean of the Division of Business, Computer and Technical Studies at Camden County College (CCC) in Blackwood, New Jersey. He for- merly held the Deans position from 2007 through 2014 after which he returned to the faculty ranks un- til August 2016. He has also held the post of Dean of Occupational Skills & Customized Training at the college. Dr. Roberts began teaching at CCC in 1990 and has held positions including professor and Chair of the college’s Computer-Integrated Manufacturing and the Computer Aided Drafting departments. Melvin’s specialties are PLC Programming and Industrial Automation. He also teaches courses in Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, and Physics. From 2007 through 2014, Dr. Roberts held the position of Program Chair of the ASEE Two-Year College (TYC) Division and he was the Chair of the TYCD Division since 2009. Dr. Roberts holds the B.S. in Mechanical Engineering cum laude from Howard University, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Doctorate in Educational from Wilmington University, Delaware. His dissertation used discriminant analysis meth- ods to explore the factors which affect the persistence of Engineering Technology students attending a two-year college. Melvin is also a Registered Professional Engineer. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Engineering Technology Education in the United States: Findings and Recommendations from an NAE Study Policymakers, employers, researchers, and educators have focused considerable attention during the past decade on the adequacy of the US engineering education system to meet the demands of an increasingly “flat” world in which competencies that go beyond pure technical skills, including creativity, leadership, flexibility, and communication, are becoming more and more essential (NAE, 2004 and 2005). Traditional engineering education is being challenged to respond to emerging fields that blur disciplinary boundaries, among them nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and biomimetics. And, although enrollments in US engineering colleges reached an all-time high in 2012, with minor declines since then (NSF, 2016a), some still are concerned that the production of engineering graduates in this country lags behind that of some notable competitor nations, such as China, a shortfall not only in absolute numbers but also in the overall percentage of college graduates who have an engineering degree.1 Largely absent from most discussions of the future of the United States’ technical workforce, however, is the role that engineering technology (ET) education plays or should play in supporting the nation’s technical infrastructure and capacity for innovation. This omission is worrisome because the number of people with this type of education, while smaller than for engineering, is nevertheless substantial. Relatively little is known, for example, about the extent to which the supply of those with 2- and 4-year ET degrees does—or does not—meet the needs of employers; what type of work those with such degrees perform; and the nature and significance of the differences between the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of those with ET degrees and those with engineering degrees. To shed light on these and related issues, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), with funding from the National Science Foundation, assembled a 14-member study committee. The committee, which met four times over a two-year period, was charged with examining the status, role, and needs of ET education in the United States. This paper is adapted from the committee’s final report (NAE, 2017). Data Gathering Data gathering by the committee consisted of (1) collection and analysis of the relevant published literature; (2) review of relevant federal education and employment datasets; (3) a survey of engineering technology education programs and a survey of a sample of companies that hire graduates from these programs; and (4) a stakeholder workshop in late 2014. 1 In 2012, the latest year for which data are available, 4.6 percent of all “first university degrees” earned in the United States were in engineering. In European Union nations, the figure ranged between 3.6 percent in Denmark to 14.8 in Finland, in India it was 10 percent, and in China it was 31.7
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