Model Institutions of Excellence Dissemination Activities

Institute For Higher Education Policy, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) program was conceived in 1992 at the instigation of NSF Director Walter Massey. At the time, several federal agencies expressed interest in being partners, but only NASA eventually chose to participate in MIE. An across-directorate task force designed the program. The solicitation described the goals of MIE as follows: Provide an opportunity to define methods for improving minority institutions in SEM education and undergraduate research; Target a small number of minority institutions poised to make a substantial contribution to the goal of increasing the number of minorities who earn SEM baccalaureate degrees and then enroll in graduate SEM programs or enter SEM careers; produce minority institutions that will serve as models for the successful recruitment, education and production of quality-trained SEM baccalaureate degree recipients; and, Allow the Foundation to more effectively exercise its statutory authority "to undertake or support a comprehensive science and engineering program to increase the participation of minorities in science and engineering " The program was organized into three phases: Phase I: Develop the Models (5 years); Phase II: Implement the Models (3 years); Phase III: Institutionalization and Dissemination of Models (3 years). The Dissemination phase began during FY04; each NSF funded site has received its remaining and final three-year dissemination phase grant commitments, and some have begun to disseminate data and best practices. However, this overall process was seen to be uneven at best, and elemental and disjointed at worst. New (February 2004) Program Director David Temple determined that a comprehensive and jointly coordinated MIE dissemination effort was needed, one that would affirm and reveal the worth and value of the findings and products of this decade-long demonstration initiative, as well as its challenges, and inferences for the future. The Alliance for Equity in Higher Education (AEHE or the Alliance)-a District of Columbia based coalition comprised of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)-has submitted an unsolicited proposal to the National Science Foundation (in concurrence and coordination with, and on behalf of, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for the dissemination of models under the Model Institutions of Excellence (MIE) program. The proposal has been submitted by AEHE's parent organization, the Institute for Higher Education Policy.