In 2005, we reported that 207 federal STEM education programs across 13 different agencies spent $2.8 billion in federal funds in fiscal year 2004. We noted that before increasing investment in STEM education, it is important to know the extent to which existing STEM education programs are appropriately targeted and whether or not they are making the best use of available federal resources. Additionally, information about the effectiveness of these programs could help guide policymakers and program managers. Since then, several other efforts have been conducted to identify federal STEM programs and provide recommendations to improve both coordination and program evaluation as well as reduce potential duplication. For example, in 2006, ACC, led by the Department of Education, created an inventory and assessed the effectiveness of federal STEM programs. ACC recommended further coordination among federal agencies administering STEM programs, states, and local school districts. In addition, ACC recommended that agencies adjust program designs and operations so that programs can be assessed and measurable results can be achieved and that funding for federal STEM education programs should not be increased unless a plan for rigorous, independent evaluation is in place. In 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers housed in OSTP, published a report in response to the President’s request to develop specific recommendations concerning the most important actions that the administration should take to ensure that the United States is a leader in STEM education in the coming decades.PCAST found that approaches to Kindergarten–12th grade (K-12) STEM education across agencies emerged largely without a coherent vision or careful oversight of goals and outcomes. PCAST also found that relatively little funding was targeted at efforts with the potential to transform STEM education, too little attention was paid to replication efforts to disseminate proven programs widely, and too little capacity at key agencies was devoted to strategy and coordination. Our past effort to inventory STEM education programs identified a multitude of agencies that administer such programs. The primary missions of these agencies vary, but most often, they are to promote and enhance an area that is related to a STEM field or enhance general education. See table 1 for relevant agencies and their missions. As part of this effort, we also identified the role that the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), a component of OSTP, plays in coordinating STEM education programs. NSTC was established in 1993 and is the principal means for the administration to coordinate science and technology with the federal government’s larger research and development effort. NSTC is made up of the Vice President, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and officials from other executive branch agencies with significant science and technology responsibilities. One objective of NSTC is to establish clear national goals for federal science and technology investments in areas ranging from information technologies and health research to improving transportation systems and strengthening fundamental research. NSTC is responsible for preparing research and development strategies that are coordinated across federal agencies in order to accomplish these multiple national goals. STEM education programs have been created in two ways—by Congress directly in legislation or through agencies’ broad statutory authority to carry out their missions. The Higher Education Opportunity Act, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 created programs at the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation (NSF)—two key agencies that administer many STEM education programs. In addition, since our 2005 review of STEM education programs, Congress has also passed legislation to examine the overall federal effort to improve STEM education. For example, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 established ACC. ACC, consisted of officials from the Department of Education and other federal agencies with responsibility for managing mathematics and science education programs and was mandated to (1) identify all federal programs with a mathematics or science education focus, (2) identify the target populations being served by such programs, (3) determine the effectiveness of such programs, (4) identify areas of overlap or duplication in such programs, and (5) recommend processes to integrate and coordinate such programs. While various pieces of legislation directly created some STEM education programs, agencies reported using their broad statutory authority to create many programs as well. For example, according to agency officials, NSF created 25 of its 37 programs and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created 40 of its 46 programs in this manner. More recently, the America COMPETES Act (COMPETES), enacted in 2007, authorized several programs to promote STEM education. December 2010, Congress reauthorized COMPETES. Pub. L. No. 110-69, 121 Stat. 572 (2007). COMPETES also focused on STEM research programs. reauthorization approved new funding for some STEM education programs and made substantive changes to others by reducing certain nonfederal matching requirements. Additionally, it repealed many of the programs that went unfunded following the original COMPETES passage. The COMPETES reauthorization also sought to address coordination and oversight issues, including those associated with the coordination and potential duplication of federal STEM education efforts. Specifically, Congress required the Director of OSTP to establish a committee under NSTC to inventory, review, and coordinate federal STEM education programs. Congress also directed this NSTC committee to specify and prioritize annual and long-term objectives for STEM education, and to ensure that federal efforts do not duplicate each other, among other things. NSTC is required to report to Congress annually. Beyond STEM-specific efforts, the federal government as a whole is seeking to identify programmatic areas that could be better tracked and coordinated. One such effort revolves around the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010. GPRA Modernization Act established a new framework aimed at taking a more crosscutting and integrated approach to focusing on results and improving government performance. It requires OMB, in coordination with agencies, to develop—at least every 4 years—long-term priority goals, including outcome-oriented goals covering a limited number of crosscutting policy areas. On an annual basis, OMB is to provide information on how these long-term crosscutting goals will be achieved. This approach could provide a basis for more fully integrating a wide array of federal activities as well as a cohesive perspective on the long- term goals of the federal government. Pub. L. No. 111-352, 124 Stat. 3866. In 2010, Congress directed GAO to conduct routine investigations to identify programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives with duplicative goals and activities within departments and governmentwide and report annually to Congress. In March 2011, GAO issued its first annual report In that report, we identified to Congress in response to this requirement.81 areas for consideration—34 areas of fragmentation, overlap, and potential duplication and 47 additional areas—where agencies or Congress may wish to consider taking action in an effort to reduce the cost of government operations or enhance revenue collections. Using the framework established in the March 2011 GAO report, we examine the extent to which federal STEM education programs are fragmented, overlapping, and duplicative. For the purposes of this report, the key terms are defined as follows: Fragmentation occurs when more than one federal agency (or more than one organization within an agency) is involved in the same broad area of national need. Overlap occurs when multiple programs offer similar services to similar target groups in similar STEM fields to achieve similar objectives. Duplication occurs when multiple programs offer the same services to the same target beneficiaries in the same STEM fields. Thirteen agencies administered 209 STEM education programs in fiscal year 2010. (See appendix I for our definition of a STEM education program.) Agencies reported that they developed the majority (130) of these programs through their general statutory authority and that Congress specifically directed agencies to create 59 of these programs.The number of programs each agency administered ranged from 3 to 46 with three agencies—HHS, the Department of Energy, and NSF— administering more than half of all programs—112 of 209. Figure 1 provides a summary of the number of programs by agency, and appendix II contains a list of the 209 STEM education programs and reported obligations for fiscal year 2010. Having multiple agencies, with varying expertise, involved in delivering STEM education can be advantageous. One such advantage is that agencies may be better able to tailor programs to suit their specific missions and needs. For example, Energy officials said that their efforts to support students in pursuing a STEM course of study are related to Energy’s mission and work in their labs and can be a way to attract new employees to their workforce. However, this could also make it challenging to develop a coherent federal approach to educating STEM students and creating a workforce with STEM skills. Having multiple agencies involved in the delivery of STEM education could also make it challenging to identify gaps and allocate resources across the federal government. Agencies obligated over $3 billion to STEM education programs in fiscal year 2010. Individual program obligations ranged from $15,000 to hundreds of millions of dollars. NSF and the Department of Education programs account for over half of this funding. Almost a third of the programs had obligations of $1 million or less, with 5 programs having obligations of more than $100 million each. See figure 2 for program obligation ranges. Agencies carried out other activities that did not fit our definition of a STEM education program because STEM education was their secondary or tertiary objective, rather than their primary objective. These efforts include broad-based programs with STEM components, programs that enhance the general public’s knowledge of STEM, and research programs that may hire students. Selected examples of agencies’ efforts as reported to us by agency officials include the following: Broad-Based Programs That Include STEM Components Several of the Department of Education’s programs have STEM components. For example, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended, includes funding for the assessment of math for primary and secondary students, putting a renewed focus on educational attainment in these areas.