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• There is strong evidence that STARBASE serves a relatively disadvantaged population, with the exception of Native American/Alaskan Native students, who are less likely to be present in the districts served. Considering the locations of these populations during any future expansion of STARBASE could result in the program reaching a wider range of disadvantaged youth.
• To date, STARBASE programs' outreach efforts are largely local and consist primarily of specific relationships between individual STARBASE programs and relevant local organizations. These efforts have the potential to improve community relations and public perceptions of the military. Programs currently appear not to make much use of social media.
• Social media campaigns sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) are likely to reach an audience that is already comfortable with the department and military service. While social media is not currently a major source of influencer impressions of the military, existing data suggest that social media is viewed as a relatively trustworthy source of information, and one that is likely to become increasingly relevant in the future.
• STARBASE may be especially well situated to create positive outreach. Overall, DoD youth programs are located in areas with relatively high levels of trust in the military, but in the cases of STARBASE and National Guard Youth ChalleNGe, the difference in trust between areas with and without such programs is very small, suggesting that some of the programs are located in areas with lower levels of trust in the military.

The Department of Defense's STARBASE program offers an innovative curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for students in underserved areas of the United States. On the individual level, the program serves to improve STEM knowledge, particularly in the disadvantaged student population. At the community level, STARBASE's goal is to serve as an outreach program, improving community relations and building mutual loyalty and feelings of goodwill between communities and the Department of Defense. To accomplish these objectives, the STARBASE program serves fifth graders from disadvantaged schools; classrooms of students (and their teachers) participate in a week of hands-on activities as part of STARBASE's STEM-focused curriculum.

Previous research suggests that STARBASE is quite effective on a variety of short- and long-term outcome measures, including student test scores and student reports of confidence or efficacy on STEM subjects, as well as longer-term outcomes, such as encouraging interest in technology, lowering school absences, and improving scores on standardized tests. To date, however, less is known about how effective the program is at targeting disadvantaged students, and very little is known about whether STARBASE achieves its goals as a community outreach program. Indeed, there is no consensus on how to measure outreach efforts and outcomes from STARBASE or other similar programs. Because of these deficits, and because outreach is central to the program's mission, this study focuses on the students served and the program's outreach efforts.

• Chapter One

  STARBASE: Background, Prior Research

• Chapter Two

  Conceptual Framework, Data Sources, and Measures

• Chapter Three

  STARBASE Community Characteristics

• Chapter Four

  Direct and Indirect Methods of STARBASE Outreach and Influence

• Chapter Five

  Possible Long-Term Outcomes

• Chapter Six

  The Potential to Expand Outreach to Influencers Through Social Media

• Chapter Seven

  Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Data and Methods

• Appendix B

  Descriptive Statistics and Regression Results, Military Applicants and Accessions

• Appendix C

  Supplemental Influencer Media Impressions and Online Engagement