2024 ATE Survey Report

The 2024 ATE Survey results are out, and they’re filled with actionable insights to help you and your partners support ATE projects! You can view the highlights document for a quick overview, or the full report for a deeper dive. The survey data, conducted by EvaluATE, can also be viewed on the EvaluATE website where is can be filtered in a variety of ways such as work-based learning, project activities, and principal investigator demographics. I was curious about that last filter and so I went in and looked at age, gender identity, and racial and ethnic identity. The racial and ethnic information was not surprising--PIs are overwhelmingly white (84% of 125 PIs when viewing the a combination of agricultural, environmental, bio, chemical, general or intedisciplinary, cross-cutting, micro, nano, and 'other' technologies). However, it was interesting to see that the gender identity is almost evenly split at 53% male, 46% female, with 1% not listed.  I think the age data tell us we need more of the younger innovators to join the ranks of PIs, as only 19% of the PIs are between 35-44 (none younger) with 47%  age 55 and over. If I took off my filters and looked at all 312 PIs from all the ATE disciplines, the age percentages were not much different, so ATE as a whole might examine ways to include younger faculty. I tried to find out if the age data reflected the age of faculty in general at community colleges, but I could not find the answer. Lots of data about the students, but not about the faculty.  Perhaps something to think about as we continue to build our ATE community!
 

The report is just so full of information, its going to take a while to really get the full use out of it. Page 2 has helpful suggestions depending on what your role is within the ATE ecosystem--grant seeker, evaluator, staff etc.  

Here’s other ways the survey can help you and your partners, beyond speculating on the PI demographics!

• Enhance Curricula and Materials: Discover new ideas, like hosting student competitions or providing transition support activities, and see how ATE has supported these activities.
• Strengthen Employer Collaboration: Learn how ATE projects engage employers and embed them in activities.
• Explore Licenses and Certifications: Get a clear picture of certifications relevant to your STEM field and how they’re benefiting students on their career paths.

Key Findings to Share:

• 71% of ATE projects collaborated with business and industry groups.
• 59% received both oral and written feedback from evaluators.
• ATE projects hosted 650 professional development activities, reaching 8,850 educators and staff.

Suggested citation: McClure, L., Sturgis, E., Marshall, V. A., Becho, L. W., Wingate, L. A., & Gullickson, A. ATE Survey: 2024 report. Kalamazoo, MI: The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University. Retrieved from https://atesurvey.evalu-ate.org/survey-resources/