BEST (Building Engineering and Science Talent) launched in September 2001 as a public-private partnership to follow through on the September 2000 recommendations of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development.

The Commission published a report which served as a national call to action to redress the demographic imbalance of the U.S. technical workforce. Currently, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and persons with disabilities comprise 2/3 of the overall workforce but hold only about 1/4 of the technical jobs that drive innovation. This imbalance threatens the economic future of all Americans.

The issue is detailed further in “The Quiet Crisis: Falling Short in Producing American Scientific and Technical Talent,” a report by Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and chair of BEST’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Higher Education.

View or download the complete report in Adobe PDF format:

“The Quiet Crisis: Falling Short in Producing American Scientific and Technical Talent”

BEST sought to convene the nation’s respected practitioners, researchers and policymakers and identify “what’s working” across the country to develop the technical talent of under-represented groups in pre-K through 12, higher education, and the workplace. No comprehensive assessment on this scale had ever been attempted.

Three blue ribbon panels published their reports in 2004. View or download the complete reports at the BEST Web site.