Study Overview. AIR will conduct a two-year, two phased evaluation of the National Science Foundation?s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) grant program. Phase One consists of a rigorous quantitative evaluation, using extant data conscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Ph.D. enrollment and completion trends across the nation. The data sources will be the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS), and the National Student Clearinghouse?s StudentTracker Database. During Phase One, national trends discovered in analyzing these data will be compared to trends AGEP institutions. During Phase Two AIR will explain trends at AGEP-supported institutions identified in Phase One and will detail the role that AGEP has played in creating a diverse community of graduate students in pursuit of the Ph.D. in STEM disciplines. Phase Two will draw data from site visits and from surveys that will be administered to various stakeholder groups, i.e. faculty supervising AGEP supported STEM dissertations, and current and former AGEP supported students. The study will determine the value-added by AGEP and the role the program plays in creating a diverse graduate population and, subsequently, a racially and ethnically diverse STEM professoriate. The study will draw on the substantial intellectual and technological resources of AIR, one of the world?s pre-eminent educational research firms.
Intellectual Merit. The proposed study is the first national evaluation of NSF?s AGEP. AGEP is one of the most innovative national approaches to recruiting and retaining minority students in STEM doctoral programs and ensuring the completion of their degrees. As such, this study will advance knowledge and understanding about how this program affects the diversity of STEM graduate students and the diversification of the STEM professoriate. It will broaden the field?s understanding of important recruitment, teaching and student support strategies for getting underrepresented minority students into faculty positions within STEM disciplines. The study will provide new data on the efficacy of these strategies at AGEP universities and determine how the outcomes of these strategies compare with outcomes at other institutions. Ultimately, this knowledge can change the training of future generations of scholars. The diverse AIR team of researchers taking on this task is recognized for its dedication, commitment and quality of work on the issues impacting educational achievement of minority students. The proposed mixed method design is appropriate for understanding AGEP, for unmasking the discreet nuances that differentiate the AGEP models on different campuses, and for identifying the common components that lead to the Alliances? success. The conceptual organization of the study adheres to high standards of rigor and research and can be accomplished with the resources proposed and the research infrastructure of the American Institutes for Research.
Broader Impacts. As the global economy depends increasingly on the kinds of innovations and ideas made possible by a highly educated workforce, the United States will need to increase the number of American citizens who pursue advanced degrees in STEM disciplines. Shifts in our demographic makeup, in turn, make on-going concerns about educational equity for all sectors of the community increasingly important, and getting underrepresented minorities to pursue advanced degrees in STEM disciplines becomes an ever more important concern. AGEP is explicitly designed to increase minority representation in STEM doctoral production and in the STEM professoriate, but the field needs to know more about how program components work. Lessons learned about program efficacy through this evaluation will be disseminated to the AGEP alliances and to the broader higher education community. In the dissemination and replication, the study will help broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM education and the professoriate.
The American Institutes for Research (AIR) analyzed NFS’ Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) grant program beginning in 2008. This work examined doctoral enrollment and degree trends in science (natural and physical sciences), technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In 2010, the study was modified and extended to analyze these trends in the social, behavioral and economic sciences (SBE), also across the nation. The data sources included the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR), the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS), and the National Student Clearinghouse’s Student Tracker Database. The AGEP program aims to develop the human capital, administrative and academic infrastructure to support the successful doctoral education and placement of nderrepresented minorities (URMs, i.e., African Americans, American Indian and Alaska Natives, Hispanic Americans, and Native Pacific Islanders and students with disabilities) in faculty positions at American colleges and universities. AGEP is among those few innovative national approaches to recruiting and graduating students from diverse populations in STEM doctoral programs. This study advances what we know about how to enhance and broaden the diversity of STEM graduate and the professoriate. This knowledge informs the training of future generations of scholars. A brief summary of the AGEP STEM analysis is presented first followed by a brief summary of the SBE analysis and a concluding statement. URM students face common obstacles in completing PhD programs including academic, social, and cultural barriers; expense of education; admissions policies and practices; prior educational experience and quality; lack of social and academic integration; and lack of faculty–student mentorships. AGEP offered opportunities to combat these obstacles by facilitating faculty and peer mentoring, a network of targeted supports, and creating a sense of community among URMs in STEM. AGEP students who participated in the evaluation highlighted academic, social, and financial support mechanisms sponsored by AGEP as having influenced their decisions to remain in their graduate programs and promoted their success in graduate school. AGEP is meeting its primary goal - positively affecting the PhD completion of URM STEM graduate students. Nationally, the number of URMs completing PhDs in STEM doubled from 1990 to 2007, with increases greater in AGEP institutions than in non-AGEP institutions, especially on a per-institution basis. Most notable, increases in completion were in the biological/biomedical sciences and engineering disciplines. AGEP institutions consistently produced more URM PhDs, especially African American and Hispanic than did non-AGEP institutions. The percentage of female PhD completers in STEM was about the same at AGEP and non-AGEP institutions. However, the share of the total percentage of females completing PhDs in STEM steadily rose from about 25% to just less than 50% over the period between 1990 and 2007 and within the URM population, a slightly greater number of females completed PhDs in STEM than in the overall population. Starting in 2005–06, the SBE-AGEP program sought to increase SBE URM PhD output. At this point, one would not expect to see significant changes in students’ time to completion or in the numbers of students at AGEP-SBE schools who are graduating with PhDs. This study establishes a baseline analysis of URM enrollment, completion, time to completion, and first-position trends in SBE PhD programs. Generally, there is an upward trend in URM enrollment in and completion of SBE PhDs during the 17–year study period both nationally and at AGEP institutions. URM enrollment in SBE fields increased from 1992 to 2008, but that increase was smaller at AGEP institutions than nationally. Data from a pilot study of AGEP-SBEs revealed that these institutions appeared to be emphasizing retention and career development over recruitment (Rodriguez, Berger, & Francois, 2012). Average percentages of African Americans and Hispanics completing SBE PhDs increased nationally from 1993–2009. Notably, females enrolled in and completed SBE doctoral programs at higher rates than males as well as completed their degrees slightly faster than males both nationally and at AGEP institutions. Among African Americans and Hispanics, there was a greater increase in the percentage taking postdocs and faculty positions from AGEP institutions than nationally. In sum, "Global economic competition and the spreading conviction that highly educated workforces are the key to successfully building growth economies have increased interest … in the supply of foreign and domestic doctorate recipients" (National Science Board, 2006, p.2-22), especially in all fields associated with STEM. Accelerating degrees in these fields will help spark scientific and technological innovation that will improve lives in the United States and abroad (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, & Institute of Medicine, 2007). As the global economy depends increasingly on the kinds of innovations and ideas made possible by a highly educated workforce, the United States benefits by increasing the number of all American citizens who pursue advanced degrees in STEM disciplines – a goal the NSF AGEP program is addressing.
