See Learning in a Whole New Light Please provide talking points and notes as you deem appropriate. Diane D. DeTroye Acting Manager, Space Grant & EPSCOR Higher Education Division October 2003

Agenda Office of Education Organization Chart Update on Pathfinder Initiatives Office of Education Program Review (April 2003) Space Grant and EPSCoR results and implications Dr. Loston’s visits to the field

Enterprise Organization Annette Moore Executive Officer Kimberly Allen Secretary Office of Education: Code N TBN Dr. Adena Williams Loston Education Advisory Council Associate Administrator Angela Phillips Diaz Deputy Associate Administrator Frank C. Owens Senior Policy Advisor Liaisons Astronaut Public Affairs Legislative Affairs Diane Bray (Acting) Equal Opportunity Dr. Clifford Houston AAA for Human Resources Organizational Effectiveness Legal Affairs Deputy Associate Administrator & Accountability Center Education DAA for Education Programs Directors Dr. Shelley Canright Debbie Brown Biggs (Acting) Technology & Products Office Flight Projects Office TBN James Stofan TBN Dr. Carl Person Elem. & Secondary Informal Higher Minority Education Division Education Division Education Division University Programs Dr. Ming Ying Wei Dr. Jeffrey Rosendhal Bonnie McClain William Anderson Melvin DeGree Biological &Physical Aerospace Technology Earth Science Education Space Science Education Research Education Education Space Flight Education

Pathfinder Initiative: Educator Astronaut (Pipeline) Recruitment Results Over 8881 nominations, produced over 4801 nominees Recruitment efforts resulted in over 1685 resume submissions Earth Crew: Over 1,600 Teams include over 28,000 members Over 1,121 Earth Crew mission submissions What’s Next? Continue with Educator Astronaut selection process Shift program focus from recruitment to engaging the next generation of explorers via the Earth Crew

Pathfinder Initiative: NASA Explorer Schools (Pipeline) Provide opportunities to students to explore STEM and geography Provide sustained professional development and access to NASA tools and application Build strong family involvement components

Pathfinder Initiative: NASA Explorer Schools (Pipeline) Program Elements Customized professional development over 3 years incorporates NASA education programs 50 teams selected, representing primarily underserved populations Each NES team will develop an action plan targeting high need STEM areas. $10K per school for implementation. Summer ’03 workshops at each of the 10 NASA Centers for the NES teams. On-line presence of student investigative opportunities, mathematics problem solving and engineering design challenges. Announcement of opportunity for 50 new Explorer Schools was released 9/15/03

Pathfinder Initiatives Under Development NASA Explorer Institutes: Pipeline Informal Education Division Director will lead the development of this effort NASA Science and Technology Scholarship Program: Workforce development Awaiting final legislative language

EVALUATION OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS April 2003

OMB Budget Language “Develop a means for measuring the impact of the Education initiative on the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) student pipeline and a benchmark for measuring success.” “Undertake a comprehensive review and restructuring of its Education Base and Minority University Research and Education Programs.”

NASA’s Approach Strategic Realignment Develop Goals 6 & 7 in NASA’s Strategic Plan Goal 6: Inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in STEM Goal 7: Engage the public in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery Address target areas of the NASA Pipeline Align programs to Education Enterprise Initiatives Portfolio Management Implementation Evaluation Reviews Performance Metrics Analysis and Redistribution

Exemplary Program Criteria Customer-Focused: Responsiveness to a need identified by the education community, customers or customer group (4 subcriteria) Content: Use of NASA content, people or facilities to involve students and/or the public in NASA science, engineering, or technology (4 subcriteria) Pipeline: Contribution to attracting diverse students to NASA careers in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (3 subcriteria) Diversity: Outreach to identified targeted groups (5 subcriteria) Evaluation: Development of goals expressed in an objective, quantifiable, and measurable form (5 subcriteria) Partnerships and Sustainability: Use of programs/ products by local, regional, or national partners (7 subcriteria)

Overall Evaluation Review Conclusions Elements of the education portfolio are performing well and align with the NASA strategic plan Most NASA education programs strongly align with and support at least five of the six exemplary program criteria Higher Education programs rated highly for Pipeline support (82%) and for Partnerships and Sustainability (80%) At the Elementary and Secondary Education level, the highest rated categories were Content (86%) and Customer-focused (84%) Informal Education programs have a very strong content base (98%) and also reflect strong partnerships (85 %) Identified a gap in current NASA educational pipeline (first and second year undergraduate level)

Higher Education Program Scores April 2003 Review

SG & EPSCOR Review Conclusions Space Grant was the highest rated non-minority targeted program Space Grant and EPSCoR did well in Customer-focused and Content; Space Grant in Partnerships/Sustainability, as well There is room for improvement, especially in the area of diversity and pipeline for both programs We are awaiting guidance about the development of an Improvement Plan and the evolution of the Exemplary Program Criteria

Redirecting NASA’s Education Portfolio FY 04-07 FY03 FY08 Total Budget: $142.8M; estimate $26.6 million not fully aligned with education objectives Programs fully aligned with objectives; performance integrated with budget. Annual Evaluations and Adjustments

Education Portfolio Next Steps (FY 04-08) Continue Evaluation Process Gap Analysis of Pipeline Programs Identify opportunities for collaboration Program Evaluation and Research Longitudinal Database Continue Portfolio Alignment and Assessment Phase out programs that are not within target area Phase out low-scoring and duplicative programs Phase out programs that are non-sustainable Enhance, expand and replicate Exemplary Programs Reallocate funding to target areas of pipeline

See Learning in a Whole New Light

Future of the NASA EPSCoR Program Introduce self – Acting Director Like the EPSCoR program in each of your jurisdictions, the EPSCoR or IDeA program in each federal agency is unique. We’re each unique in scope – research disciplines supported, support for education and outreach Unique in format – single competitions, multiple competitions, co-funding And, from your interest, unique in program size – dollars, dollars, dollars The NASA EPSCoR program includes 20 states/jurisdictions who, over the past three year average have received 13% of the NASA R&D dollars. I’ll spend the next few minutes giving you a sense of the NASA EPSCoR program – a program modest in size when compared to the programs of some of my federal colleagues.

NASA EPSCoR Goal: Provide seed funding that will enable states to develop an academic research enterprise directed toward long-term, self-sustaining, nationally competitive capabilities in aerospace research The Goal of NASA EPSCoR is very similar to the goal of EPSCoR in NSF and many of my sister agencies. The focus of our EPSCoR program remains on research. Like the others, we want to develop partnerships that bring together federal, state, and academic entities into win-win collaborations that advance the federal research and development agenda while developing the research infrastructure and economic growth of the states or other jurisdictions.

NASA EPSCoR Objectives Develop research infrastructure in areas of strategic importance to the NASA mission and goals. Improve the capabilities of the NASA EPSCoR states to gain support from sources outside the NASA EPSCoR program. Contribute to the overall research infrastructure, science and technology capabilities, higher education, and economic development of the state. Work in close coordination with the NASA Space Grant program to improve the environment for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the state. 1st Objective – as I mentioned earlier, our program focuses on supporting research areas of importance to the NASA mission 2nd Objective – we want to see our EPSCoR states become more competitive 3rd Objective – as has been mentioned by several other presenters, we see our program as the intersection of the state R&D agenda, the mission of the agency, and the expertise of the academic institutions 4th Objective – this is what makes the NASA EPSCoR program unique: with the ties to the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, we are able to leverage our modest EPSCoR dollars to achieve the active synergy mentioned yesterday by Dr. Colwell. The coordination between Space Grant and NASA EPSCoR begins to realize her vision of expanding outreach and inclusion and is a successful example of workforce development and the filling the education pipeline. This conference has been enlightening for me as I had felt that our ties to education and outreach were an anomaly but after reading the state info and listening to Dr. Colwell’s vision, I’ve discovered that this linkage of education and research aligns well with the NSF ideal.

Near-term Priorities and Actions Fully engage the Technical Mentors in involving EPSCoR researchers in current and anticipated opportunities Closer alignment/collaborations with: Minority university research and education programs Science and Technology Enterprises Better visibility of the specific NASA research priorities through the update of the NASA Research Compendium Continually reflects the most current research needs Reflects the specific topics and identifies technical contacts We are cognizant of the need to design our program to meet the Objectives of the Education Enterprise and the specific Objectives of the EPSCoR program. We will do this in several ways: We’ll continue to strengthen the role of the Technical Mentors to involve our researchers in opportunities that help them build upon the capacity developed in their EPSCoR awards The new Enterprise has brought us closer to the minority research community (who have many of the same challenges as the EPSCoR states) and closer to the 5 Science and Technology Enterprises – to reflect on what Dr. Colwell said, we’re building that active synergy between principles and practices for the benefit of EPSCoR Update the Research Compendium to more accurately define the specific research needs of NASA

3rd Year Review From original award: Research success of individual investigators (inc. presentations, publications, new contracts/grants resulting from EPSCoR award, patents, etc.) Evidence of systemic change (impact on state or institutional R&D structure and emphases) Examples of successful transfer of technology to the private sector (SBIR, STTR, etc.) Significance and success of research projects, including contributions to NASA mission (original and revised goals and milestones metrics and outcomes)

3rd Year Review Extent to which significant, sustained collaborations among institutions and with NASA have been developed (NASA Centers, Enterprises, and minority universities) Additional “requests”: 6. Personnel information – numbers, gender distribution, and ethnic distribution of faculty, post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students 7. Renewal proposal* for additional two years if applicable** including two-year program plan and budget * Do not request a “no-cost” extension from GSFC ** Change to new project will require an original proposal subject to a re-competition review

Termination of Research *If program circumstances cause the early termination of a research activity due to changes in either State, Center, and/or Enterprise research priorities, completion of the research task, lack of progress, departure of key personnel, loss of State and/or university support, or for other reasons, the State NASA EPSCoR Program Director is required to submit written notification to the NASA EPSCoR Program main office at NASA Headquarters detailing the circumstances. The State will be given the opportunity to propose to redirect the research monies.

3rd Year Review Timing of submission – 90 days prior to expiration date of current cooperative agreement Process – reviewed by Enterprise/Center technical staff

One Final Note Finding and recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board have provided NASA with a roadmap for our Return to Flight The impact that our Return to Flight plan will have on programs across the rest of the agency is still to be determined