Advanced Technological Education Program Evaluation Project Implementation: Challenges and Resolutions

This brief examines the major challenges and resolutions associated with ATE project implementation, as reported by project and center principal investigators (PIs). Ten challenges were identified. Of these, “difficulty recruiting students,” “changes in industry served,” and “lack of institutional administrative support/interest,” were identified as the most important. Examining projects and centers as two separate entities, “difficulty recruiting students” retained its number one ranking, although differences emerge d in rankings between projects and centers in the remaining issues. There were
also distinctions between ratings of challenges identified by PIs of 2- and 4-year institutions, with 2-year institutions ranking “difficulty recruiting students” as most important and 4-year institutions ranking “project/center staff/personnel turnover” as their greatest challenge. Overall, these findings suggest that a large majority of possible challenges to ATE project implementation were either not identified by PIs as important or had been at least partially resolved. Although the challenges discussed in this brief are important at the level of individual ATE projects and centers, none are substantial enough to raise concern on a programmatic level.

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