Our History and Mission
The goal of the National Science Foundation’s ATE (Advanced Technological Education) Program is to advance the knowledge base needed to make technician education programs more effective and forward-looking. NSF has made a substantial investment in technological education since the mid-1990s. Since 1994, funding has approached $300 million and included 33 centers and 200 projects across four funding tracks: Program Improvement Activities; Professional Development for Educators; Curriculum and Educations Materials Development; and Targeted Research.
As the ATE program has grown, so has its need for different forms of data on program impacts. The program’s targeted research track reflects a desire on the part of NSF to know much more about the results of this investment, the products and productivity of projects and centers, the issues they face, and proven strategies for accomplishing program objectives. These interests extend well beyond the numbers of students involved in the program or the types and numbers of materials developed.
The DECA project represents a collaborative response to this need, involving the efforts of more than 20 researchers from 7 institutions. The University of Colorado’s Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) provides coordination and oversight for project implementation. Most of the research—six of the nine studies—examines issues associated with two well-defined ATE activity categories: program improvement and curriculum and educational materials development. A third category defined as crosscutting research addresses questions that are explicit and implicit in the ATE program’s central goals. Each study ranges in length from one to two years.
It is anticipated that efforts associated with this project will serve as an important step toward advancing understanding of the impacts of the ATE program and issues surrounding technician education, especially in community colleges.
