Mapping Existing Investments Could Spur Action Among Local STEM Companies

A central question in Senator Chaudhuri's initial outreach and discussion strongly resonated with our AIR team: How can a STEM indicators dashboard spur action among local STEM businesses, rather than simply serve as a visualization exercise? This question motivated us to map federal investments in NC community colleges for the example prototype above, while recognizing that many other STEM indicators could also inform business action.

Federal Investments Are a Catalyst for Local Workforce Growth

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has been a leading federal funder for investing in STEM workforce training at community colleges via its Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. Forsyth Tech in Winston-Salem, NC, has been a state and national leader in using NSF ATE investments to drive local economic growth and build partnerships with STEM businesses, such as through its National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce.

During a Capitol Hill briefing on Feb. 12, 2025, Forsyth Tech president Dr. Janet Spriggs shared how the college leveraged NSF funding to acquire and train students in using cutting-edge equipment such as "bioprinters" that can print synthetic tissues used in organ transplants. The college's overall goal is to create pathways out of poverty by preparing students for the workforce needs of current and emerging tech industries.

Dr. Spriggs described a long list of partners including the workforce development boards from 16 different NC counties, businesses such as Johnson & Johnson and ProKidney, and universities such as North Carolina A&T and Wake Forest University. Beyond NSF ATE programs, Forsyth Tech is also the workforce training lead for the NSF Regenerative Medicine Engine, an investment worth up to $160M over 10 years focused on accelerating the development and commercialization of regenerative medicine technologies, including cell and tissue therapies.

Listen to Dr. Janet Spriggs, Forsyth Tech president, describe at a Capitol Hill briefing on Feb. 12, 2025 how the college strategically partners with local STEM industries and the state government to build workforce pipelines.

Inspiring Business Leaders to Address Local Opportunity Gaps

Despite the phenomenal success of some NC community colleges, access to high-quality experiential learning opportunities is uneven across the state. For instance, NSF ATE investments are concentrated in the Research Triangle and Piedmont Triad regions, with comparatively limited funding in rural western and southeastern NC.

These opportuntiy gaps affect businesses' bottom line to attract, develop, and retain well-trained workers. Mapping areas of existing investment--and underinvestment--could inspire employers to take action. The map above includes the contact information for NSF ATE programs to spur concrete actions such as:

• Recruiting from a specific community college (e.g., via a job fair)
• Partnering with an existing program to expand work-based learning opportunities
• Co-designing a new program at a local college modeled on success elsewhere in the state

For instance, Raleigh-based employees at Infosys could help develop cybersecurity talent in nearby rural communities by partnering with Nash Community College's cyber safety program or Piedmont Community College's AI cybersecurity workforce initiative. Conversely, Moog employees in Appalachia could partner with Tri-County Community College to adapt components of Wake Tech's NSF-funded automation curriculum to meet rural manufacturers' needs for skilled technicians. The map above could help catalyze those workforce-college connections, if they do not already exist.

The map above could be extended to incorporate other key STEM indicators of interest to NC business leaders in emerging technologies, such as annual counts of postsecondary certificates and degrees awarded by 2-year or 4-year institutions in high-demand STEM fields (e.g., biotechnology, data science), using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Completions Survey.

At the K-12 level, the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) provides publicly available data on access to STEM courses:

• Course offerings and enrollment in high school data science and AP computer science
• Course offerings and enrollment in high school biology, calculus, chemistry, and physics
• Course offerings and enrollment in grade 8 Algebra I

We suspect that NC business leaders will find these K-12 access indicators (e.g., course offerings) more actionable than K-12 achievement indicators (e.g., test scores). For instance, despite having limited influence over how K-12 mathematics is taught, a local IT employer could directly support industry-aligned data science learning opportunities, either in high schools or through dual enrollment programs at local community colleges. The CRDC also reports STEM course enrollment at the individual school level, while disaggregating by student race/ethnicity, sex, English learner status, and disability, allowing for an in-depth study of how opportunity gaps vary across the state's diverse geographic regions. Mapping these K-12 indicators alongside postsecondary credential completions and existing federal investments could help businesses identify specific schools and communities where new partnerships could expand STEM learning opportunities and strengthen local workforce pipelines.

Resource disparities in school internet connectivity and access to digital devices may also interest employers, particularly IT companies, given the challenges that limited access to technology can pose for STEM learning in rural regions such as Appalachia. The CRDC reports school-level data for indicators such as fiber-optic connections, Wi-Fi access in every classroom, and school-issued devices for students to take home or use in the classroom.

The August 2026 memo prepared by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) provides a wealth of other potential indicators and data sources to consider. In deciding what to feature, some critical questions include the following:

• Which STEM indicators would NC employers find the most compelling?
• Which indicators would help employers identify concrete opportunities for investment or partnership?
• Would having too many indicators be overwhelming and limit the potential for taking focused action?
• Are the data available with sufficient quality and granularity (e.g., state-level vs. school-level)?

For instance, the pipeline of K-12 STEM educators is a critical issue, especially in rural areas, but existing public data may not provide enough information about the specific staffing challenges that local STEM employers could help address. Before rushing to include current data, having conversations with business leaders might be worthwhile to first ask questions such as: "What information about local K-12 STEM teacher shortages would motivate your company to invest in a school partnership--and what kinds of support could you realistically provide?"

Shortlist of Recommended STEM Indicators

We recommend the following as a shortlist of priority indicators with granular, publicly available data:

• Federal investments in STEM workforce development, especially for training in emerging technologies at community colleges (source: NSF Award Search Data)
• Certificate and degree completions in high-demand STEM fields (source: IPEDS Completions Survey)
• Access to and enrollment in high school STEM courses separately by subject area (source: CRDC)
• Resource disparities in internet connectivity (source: CRDC)

Other potential indicators for a Phase 2 expansion include:

• District-level STEM & CTE teacher vacancies in grades 9-12 (source: NCDPI State of Teaching Profession)
• School-level CTE concentrators in STEM-related career pathways (source: NCDPI School Report Cards)
• Dual enrollment in STEM subjects (source: NC Community College System Dashboards)
• STEM earnings, employment outcomes, and workforce demands (see ECS memo)
• Restricted-use data from NC Department of Public Instruction

Two indicators for earlier grade levels include (but may be of less immediate interest to STEM employers):

• School-level access to and enrollment in grade 8 Algebra I (source: CRDC)
• School-level math proficiency in grade 3 (source: State Testing Results)

These recommendations reflect our initial thinking, but we strongly welcome ideas of other potential priority indicators or reranking of the priority levels.