9612216 McBay The proposed project builds upon the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network's Technical Assistance Project (TAP) that was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). TAP's long-term goal is to significantly increase the participation in mathematics, science, and engineering (MSE) fields of groups historically underrepresented as students and teachers in higher level pre-college mathematics and science courses as well as in MSE fields at the college and graduate levels. Non-Asian minorities constitute only about five percent of the pool of highly skilled technical workers the country needs but represent a sizable (more than 20 percent) and growing percentage of the U.S. population. To focus efforts on this problem, both the NSF and QEM have established numerical goals for the year 2000 for minority MSE baccalaureate and doctoral degree recipients. The proposed project seeks to strengthen the capacity of minority and nonminority institutions within a selected state to produce well-prepared minority graduates who enter MSE teaching and research careers in numbers commensurate with the percentage of minority students in higher education enrolled in that state. A major outcome will be a state action plan, developed under the leadership of a state steering committee established during the prior award, that will enable the state to make its proportionate contribution to the minority MSE degree numerical goals. The plan will emphasize articulation agreements between two- and four-year institutions, the use of technology, and strengthening teacher education programs. Various forms of technical assistance will be provided to the participating institutions that will be designed to increase institutional capacity and infrastructure as well as to facilitate coordination and collaboration, and information sharing. ***
