The Research Catalogue
New Findings and Insights on Institutional Practices and Academic Success

This is a digest of sources on issues addressed by the AAAS Capacity Center. It is updated periodically, sometimes with commentary. Web links, some accessible only to subscribers, are provided wherever possible, though we cannot assure their viability.

Characteristics of Recent Science and Engineering Graduates: 2006, National Science Foundation, John Tsapogas, September 2006, http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf06329

This report presents data on the characteristics on the 2000-2001 men and women who received a bachelor's or master's degree in a science, engineering, or health field from U.S. academic institutions. Women outnumbered men (56% to 44%) among recipients of bachelor's degrees in science, while men outnumbered women (79% to 21%) in engineering fields. However, in both science and engineering, men out-earned women. While white students earned 67% of the bachelor's degrees awarded, their rate of unemployment two years later was lower than that of other racial groups.

The College Ladder: Linking Secondary and Postsecondary Education for Success for All Students, Jennifer Brown Lerner and Betsy Brand, American Youth Policy Forum, September 2006, http://www.aypf.org/publications/

This compendium is designed to help national, state, and local policy makers and practitioners better understand successful or effective interventions to implement policies that will support student preparation for and access to postsecondary education. The report profiles 22 schools, programs (such as dual enrollment and Tech Prep), and policies that allow high school students to take college classes with the potential to earn college credit and ease the transition to postsecondary education. Best practices in programs that target first-generation, low-income, and low-performing students, students with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities to give them a better chance of success in postsecondary education are also documented.

The Career Pathways How-To Guide, Davis Jenkins and Christopher Spence, Workforce Strategy Center, October 2006, http://www.workforcestrategy.org/publications/WSC_howto_10.16.06.pdf

Second in a series called “Pathways to Competitiveness,“ this report lays out a five-step process for building career pathways: (1) gap analysis, (2) career pathways planning, (3) implementation, (4) continuous improvement, and (5) expansion. The last two sections consider the roles that state leaders and agencies can play in helping to cultivate pathways partnerships statewide and looks at lessons learned from their experiences.

Measuring the Moment: Innovation, National Security and Economic Competitiveness, Benchmarks of Our Innovation Future, The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation, November 2006, http://www.futureofinnovation.org/reports

This report updates its February 2005 counterpart “The Knowledge Economy“ and provides the latest available information on cited benchmarks, as well as establishing new ones. New figures confirm problematic long-term trends in federal support for basic research, PhDs and students' interest in pursuing science and engineering studies, and the trade balance in high-tech products. The benchmarks reveal “how inadequate investment has helped to set in motion an erosion of American leadership in science, in turn jeopardizing the foundation upon which our future economic and national security will be built.“

Expanding Access and Opportunity, The Impact of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, Institute for Higher Education Policy, June 2006, http://www.ihep.org/Pubs/PDF/GMS_report-web_71406.pdf

The Institute for Higher Education Policy's report reviews preliminary findings of research on the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which has awarded scholarships to more than 10,000 extraordinarily talented low-income students of color since 1999. The program has reduced work and debt burdens, given Scholars more options in terms of choosing a college, and created opportunities for student engagement and leadership on college campuses and in their communities. It also enhances college persistence and completion, and increases their likelihood of enrollment in graduate school.