Benchmarking South Africa for Labor-Intensive Development: For the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, SRI benchmarked South Africa's strengths and weaknesses in developing labor-intensive industries. The study team undertook both quantitative benchmarking and international case studies analysis. SRI identified preliminary action plans in six different industries which we believe offered the best prospects for rapidly increasing employment in South Africa.
Dallas Metroplex Higher Education Evaluation and Benchmark Study. For the Dallas Citizen’s Council, SRI conducted an evaluation of higher education in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. The study was designed to inform the Council’s strategy to create a Tier 1 university in the region, and to guide future state spending requests. The study identified the key strengths and weaknesses of four public universities in North Texas, and identified models and options for possible structural changes in the region’s higher education system. A focus was placed on developing world-class research capabilities relevant to the region’s commercial base.
Egypt Workforce Cluster Development Strategy. A workforce development team from SRI International and PricewaterhouseCoopers assessed the workforce competitiveness challenges in three industry clusters in Egypt: including information technology; agribusiness; and tourism. The workforce development team assessed workforce “demand” conditions such as current skill levels and skills gaps. The team also assessed current educational “supply” strengths and weaknesses. Based on the assessment, SRI developed stakeholder-driven action plans to enhance competitiveness in three industry clusters, and to bridge the gap between what educational/ training providers are supplying, and what industry is demanding in terms of skilled human capital.
Evaluation of the Partnership Program of Title II of the Higher Education Act. The U.S. Department of Education is sponsoring three different grant programs designed to encourage colleges of education and colleges of arts and sciences to improve the recruitment, training, retention, and professional development of the American teaching force. The three programs encourage reforms in teacher accountability, efforts to improve pre-service teacher training in content, pedagogy, and uses of technology, and productive partnerships between school districts, colleges of education, and colleges of arts and sciences. In our evaluation of the three programs, the SRI team has reviewed grantees’ annual progress reports, surveyed grant leaders, school district administrators, administrators of individual schools, and deans and faculty at colleges of education and arts and sciences to gather data on the best improvements in teacher education sponsored by the grants. SRI has also conducted site visits to campuses, school district offices, and individual schools to witness reforms in the training of pre-service and in-service teachers and to thus inventory the most successful practices. The evaluations of the State and Recruitment grant programs are completed. The evaluation of the Partnership grants program is a five-year project and is nearing the end of the third year. (Department of Education)
Forecasting Malaysia’s Science and Technology Human Resources and Research and Development Investment Needs Leading to the Year 2020: Funded by the United Nations Development Program and conducted for the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology, and the Environment, this two-year study involved an assessment of Malaysia’s current level of human resources in science and technology, as well as ongoing investment in R&D, using a variety of techniques. An econometric model was developed to determine the country’s needs in order to achieve its ambitious investment goals. In addition to documenting a substantial and ongoing shortage of S&T human resources, the study made a number of recommendations to improve the country’s S&T infrastructure and resources.
Identifying Top Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science Programs: For a major computer company, SRI developed a system for evaluating the quality of undergraduate programs in five fields of engineering and computer science. The algorithm SRI developed included various quality indicators (e.g., number of faculty publications, rated effectiveness of graduate programs) and enrollment data that took into account not only numbers of graduating seniors but also numbers of minority and female students in the graduating class. Once the system was developed, data was used from the National Research Council, the National Center for Education Statistics (the Integrated Postsecondary Education System database), and the American Association of Engineering Societies (the Engineering and Technology Enrollment database) to rank more than 400 U.S. colleges and universities that have programs in the fields relevant to the client’s interests.
Literature Review of Documents on National Workforce Policies: The governing body of NSF, the National Science Board, has asked SRI to assist a Task Force established to assess long term national workforce trends and needs in science and engineering and their relationship to existing Federal Policies.
Michigan Technical Workforce Development Incentives. In this study funded by Michigan Economic Development Corporation, SRI reviewed the state’s post-secondary financial incentives, policies and programs that support technical careers. The study also reviewed the federal resources that were being leveraged by the state, its students, and other potential technical workers. A set of national best practices in the design of vocational education incentives was compiled. The results of the study were used to assist the state align all available financial resources to ensure that they make technical careers more attractive, desirable and achievable for young people entering the workforce.
Planning for Science &Engineering Workforce Data 2000: By statute, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has the mission not only of supporting high-quality science and engineering (S&E) research but also of tracking the status and health of the nation’s S&E enterprise by collecting and analyzing statistics related to them. Crucial to this mission is NSF’s SESTAT (Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System), consisting of three integrated surveys designed to track the nation’s S&E workforce at various degree levels (bachelor’s to doctorate) and within all employment sectors—academe, industry, self-employment, government, nonprofit, and others. SRI undertook a multi-year, multi-phase project to help assess how NSF can improve and enhance its S&E workforce data system for the next decade.
R&D Divisions