The goal of this project is to improve the quality of undergraduate education in mathematics and the sciences by providing restructured doctoral education for advanced graduate students planning of faculty careers. It builds on the "Preparing Future Faculty" PFF program that the Council of Graduate Schools CGS and the Association of American Colleges & Universities AAC&U have been piloting since 1993. The objective is to create model graduate programs in 5 disciplines with the aid and support of aligned scientific societies: chemistry and The American Chemical Society ACS computer science and the Association of Computing Machinery ACM , Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education SIGSE Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society AMS and the Mathematical Association of America MAA Microbiology and the American Society for Microbiology ASM physics and the American Association of Physics Teachers AAPT Each society will be awarded an equal sum of funds to carry out the objectives of this project. In the first year, each society will plan promote and implement the project among its membership, and will select at least 4 academic departments as pilots. In year 2, each society will distribute modest grants to each of the pilot departments to implement their new programs. This will be repeated in the third year. These grants will be cost shared by the department or the university. Societies will use NSF funds to support communication among leadership team members, highlighting PFF progress, publishing materials, operating electronic networks, traveling to working conferences, and for providing materials and supplies. (These NSF funds are intended to supplement the society's internal resources.) Each professional society will: appoint a leadership team for oversight, advice, and assessment with appropriate experience with earlier PFF efforts select at least 4 pilot departments for awards based on a set of strong criteria offer technical assistance to keep participating departments on task develop a set of dissemination activities aligned with the society's ongoing operations report back to CGS and AAC&U participate in assessment Each participating department will: create a cluster of partner departments in a broad range of institution types, and appoint a cluster steering committee to plan and oversee the collaboration provide students intensive & hands-on experiences to learn about faculty life in this broad range of institutions prepare guidelines for selection and training of mentors collaborate with current PFF departments in the same discipline expose students to new and emerging pedagogies and course enhancements
