Recommendation: The leadership of the Committee on STEM Education should review performance assessments of federal STEM education programs and then take appropriate steps to enhance effectiveness of the portfolio, such as by sharing promising practices that agencies could use in designing or revising their programs. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education
Status: Open

Comments: The Committee agreed with this action, as recommended by GAO in its March 2018 report, and took some steps toward implementing it. In December 2018, the Committee issued a new 5-year STEM education strategic plan. The Committee's plan states that to enhance the effectiveness of the STEM education portfolio, federal agencies that comprise the Committee are to perform a systematic review of evidence from current programs (e.g., performance assessments). Committee agencies are to also identify promising, evidence-based STEM education programs, practices, and policies in order to learn from and implement them more broadly. The strategic plan commits federal agencies to develop an implementation plan. According to agency officials, the implementation plan will be finalized in the Fall of 2019. GAO will review future efforts of the Committee to determine if they address the recommendation and could lead to improved management of the federal STEM education portfolio.

Recommendation: The leadership of the Committee on STEM Education should improve public awareness of information on programs' performance assessments by documenting program-level information on performance assessments in its federal STEM education inventory. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education
Status: Open

Comments: The Committee agreed with this action, as recommended by GAO in its March 2018 report, and took some steps toward implementing it. In December 2018, the Committee issued a new 5-year STEM education strategic plan. One of the plan's objectives focuses on making program performance and outcomes publically available. To achieve this objective, federal agencies that comprise the Committee are to document and share programs' performance assessment information for both internal strategic planning purposes and to inform public audiences. According to the strategic plan, Committee agencies are to provide content for the inventory of STEM education programs by the end of 2019. GAO will review the results of the Committee's future efforts, including its inventory of programs, to determine if they adequately address the recommendation. The plan acknowledges GAO's finding on the importance of collecting, organizing, and reporting federal performance data to increase public awareness of the impact of federal STEM education programs.

Recommendation: The leadership of the Committee on STEM Education should report required information on the participation rates of women, underrepresented minorities, and persons from rural areas in federal STEM education programs that collect this information. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education
Status: Open

Comments: The Committee agreed with this action, as recommended by GAO in its March 2018 report, and took some steps toward implementing it. In December 2018, the Committee issued a new 5-year STEM education strategic plan. According to the strategic plan, the Committee will develop a common reporting framework that federal agencies with STEM education programs can use to provide the rates of program participation by women, underrepresented minorities, and persons in rural areas. Agencies will begin reporting this information by the end of 2019. According to an official from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the agency anticipates reporting programs' participation rates in its 2020 annual report to Congress. The plan also states that agencies that conduct valid and reliable tracking of such data are to share their promising practices across agencies so that those strategies can be replicated where and when appropriate. GAO will follow the Committee's progress developing and implementing the reporting framework to determine if it addresses GAO's recommendation. As noted in the strategic plan, tracking and reporting on the participation of underrepresented groups in federal STEM education programs provides agencies with information to gauge their effectiveness at fostering diversity and inclusion.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy should report the outcomes of programs' performance assessments completed in the previous year in its annual report. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Science and Technology Policy
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Science and Technology Policy agreed with this action, as recommended by GAO in its March 2018 report, and took some steps toward implementing it. In December 2018, the Committee issued a new 5-year STEM education strategic plan. The strategic plan states that the Office of Science and Technology Policy will include in its annual reports descriptions of the outcomes of any program assessments conducted on federal STEM education programs in the previous year. According to an Office of Science and Technology Policy official, this information will be included in annual reports starting in 2020. GAO will review these annual reports to determine if they address the recommendation. As noted in the strategic plan, collecting and reporting federal performance data supports efficient and effective use of public funding, increases public awareness of federal program outcomes, and promotes the use of high-quality performance assessment and evaluation methods.