RAPID: Assessment of Need for a National Center of AGEP Transformation Alliance Outcomes and Deliverables

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

The project team is examining the needs of the NSF Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate’s (AGEP) Transformation Alliances for a national resource center that would include awardee data, tools, materials, and products. As institutions of higher education (IHEs) across our nation aim to reproduce the strategies and interventions that were developed, implemented, and studied by more than two dozen AGEP Transformation Alliances and over 100 awarded IHEs, it is necessary to make these resources available for broad dissemination. Determining the needs for a national resource center of publicly available AGEP Transformation Alliance materials, offers to stimulate future community initiatives to create an information hub that will advance knowledge about broadening the participation of STEM graduate students, postdoctoral research scholars, and faculty who are members of racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM. The research team is conducting a series of surveys and interviews with the AGEP Transformation Alliance teams to assess the information materials from awards that were issued in response to the NSF AGEP Program Solicitations NSF 14-505 and NSF 16-552. It is urgent to conduct this assessment as some of the awards have already ended and others will soon expire. The investigators are examining the scope of materials, issues of licensing and privacy, use agreements, and the preservation needs for the material transfers. In addition to the initial surveys, interviews, and assessments, the project team will also gather input from a broader community of stakeholders, including but not limited to current and former awardees in the NSF INCLUDES and the NSF ADVANCE networks. Results from the project work will be shared with AGEP Transformation Alliances, other NSF AGEP awardees, and a broad group of interested people and organizations. The award is funded by NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, which supports STEM education research to increase the number of faculty who are members of racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.