Expanding the National Center for Welding Education

该项目支持Weld-Ed，焊接和材料连接行业与国家社区和技术学院和大学之间的国家合作伙伴关系，过渡到焊接技术人员教育的ATE资源中心。作为ATE资源中心，Weld-Ed继续支持焊接技术人员在工业中的作用和管道。Weld-Ed通过以下方式实现这一目标：为高中教师、社区学院和大学教职员工提供全面的焊接专业发展计划，继续在全国范围内推进焊接技术计划，为全国焊接计划提供技术援助咨询，并为高中和社区大学焊接技术课程制定认证计划，以支持改进的学习计划，重点是持续的过程改进。形成性和总结性综合评价计划包括两名项目评价员。他们将共同制定评估设计和细节，开发/调整所需的仪器，并管理数据安全和分析。内部评价员将负责数据收集、分析和编写形成性评价报告。外部评价员将负责总体评价。外部评估员将审查收集到的数据、文件和工作产品，并将使用一个协议来采访员工、客户、学生和合作伙伴。 形成性评价将侧重于实施和进展。执行情况评价将跟踪项目是否按计划进行。进度评估将确定项目的目标和目的在多大程度上得到实现。定性和定量数据将收集使用混合方法的方法（史蒂文斯，等。1992）（Frechtling and Sharp 1997）。外部评价员将确保客观性并管理总体总结性评价。总结性评估将解决以下问题："项目是否成功？项目是否达到了总体目标？什么成分最有效？结果值得这个项目的成本吗？以及“该项目是否可复制和推广？“该项目有四个主要目标。 目标1是为高中教师、社区学院和大学教职员工提供一个全面的焊接专业发展计划。成功将通过教师使用教学材料和参与人数，以及校园课程改进的实施程度来衡量。目标2是为高中和社区大学焊接技术课程开发认证程序。成功与否将由参与的学校数量和方案的制度化程度来衡量。目标3是在全国范围内推进焊接技术项目。成功将通过参与推广活动的学生人数以及焊接课程的注册和毕业学生人数来衡量。目标4是为全国焊接项目提供技术援助咨询。成功将通过咨询服务的数量，达到的项目数量，课程的变化和学生的影响来衡量。 该项目针对焊接行业，该行业正在经历个位数的就业增长和两位数的退休和焊工和焊接技术人员的流失。Weld-Ed与行业合作伙伴包括：美国焊接协会，洛克希德马丁公司，林肯电气，加上154个行业分支机构，高中，2年制和4年制机构。该项目编写和分发的教学材料和研究报告每年都能送达数千个教育机构和数万名学生。《焊接行业状况报告》是该项目的出版物，在全国范围内发行。为吸引代表性不足的人口作出了重大努力。

This project is supporting Weld-Ed, a national partnership between the welding and materials joining industry and the nation's community and technical colleges and universities, transitioning to an ATE Resource Center for welding technician education. As an ATE Resource Center, Weld-Ed is continuing to support the role and pipeline of welding technicians in industry. Weld-Ed is achieving this goal by: offering a comprehensive welding professional development program for high school teachers, community college and university faculty members, continuing to advance welding technology programs nationally, providing technical assistance consulting to welding programs nationally, and developing a certification program for high school and community college welding technology programs to support improved programs of study with a focus on continuous process improvement. The comprehensive formative and summative evaluation plan includes two project evaluators. Together, they will craft the evaluation design and specifics, develop/adapt the needed instrumentation, and manage data security and analyses. The internal evaluator will be responsible for data collection, analysis, and writing formative evaluation reports. The external evaluator will be responsible for the overall evaluation. The External Evaluator will review data collected, documents and work products, and will use a protocol to interview staff, customers, students, and partners. The Formative Evaluation will focus on implementation and progress. The implementation evaluation will track whether the project is being conducted as planned. Progress evaluation will determine to what extent the project's goals and objectives are being met. Qualitative and quantitative data will be collected using a mixed-methods approach (Stevens, et. al. 1992) (Frechtling and Sharp 1997). The external evaluator will ensure objectivity and manage the overall summative evaluation. The summative evaluation will address the following questions: 'Was the project successful?' 'Did the project meet the overall goal?' 'What components were most effective?' 'Were the results worth the project's cost?' and 'Is the project replicable and transportable?' The project has four primary objectives. Objective 1 is to offer a comprehensive welding professional development program for high school teachers, community college and university faculty members. Success will be measured by faculty use of instructional materials and number of individuals participating, and the degree of implementation of curricular improvements on the campuses. Objective 2 is to develop a certification program for high school and community college welding technology programs. Success will be measured by the number of schools participating and the institutionalization of programs. Objective 3 is to advance welding technology programs nationally. Success will be measured by the number of students involved in outreach activities, andthe number of students enrolled in and graduating from welding programs. Objective 4 is to provide technical assistance consulting to welding programs nationally. Success would be measured by the number of consulting engagements, numbers of programs reached, courses changed, and students impacted. This project addresses the welding industry, which is experiencing single digit job growth and double digit retirement and attrition of welders and welding technicians. Weld-Ed partners with industry including: American Welding Society, Lockheed Martin, Lincoln Electric, plus 154 industry affiliates, and high school, 2-year and 4-year institutions. The instructional materials and research reports being developed and distributed by the project reach thousands of educational institutions and tens of thousands of students annually. The State of Welding Industry Report is a publication of the project which is distributed nationally. There are significant efforts to attract underrepresented populations.