The Appalachia Partnership Initiative's investments in K-12 education and catalyzing the community: reflections from 2014 through 2017

The growth in energy production in the tristate Appalachia region (southwestern Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and eastern Ohio) has spurred a demand for hiring workers proficient in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This has created a focus on the importance of having high-quality K–12 STEM education in the tristate region, as well as on policies and programs to enable the supply of labor in STEM occupations and career fields to keep pace with evolving demand. A challenge in the region is that the supply of workers with STEM skills has not kept pace with STEM workforce demand, which limits the region's capacity to benefit from national and global economic advances. Recognizing the workforce and education challenges facing the energy and advanced manufacturing industries in the region, the Appalachia Partnership Initiative (API) was launched in 2014 and is committed to investing $20 million to support K-12 STEM education and STEM workforce development programs to educate and train local adult workers. The RAND Corporation serves as the external research and analysis lead for the API, and, in this report, researchers assessed the API's progress from October 2014 to December 2017 in its investments in K–12 STEM education and initiatives related to catalyzing the community.

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