Study on Laboratory Equipment Donations for Schools

根据《美国竞争法》第7027条的规定，国家科学基金会必须对捐赠给中小学的实验室设备进行研究，这项研究将对选定的高等教育机构(IHES)和私营部门的实体进行调查，以获得他们捐赠剩余科学仪器供K-12课堂使用的数据。这项研究的目的是确定：(1)捐赠的频率、数量和类型；(2)机构和实体使用什么标准或指导方针来确定可以捐赠什么类型的设备，设备应该处于什么状态，以及哪些学校收到了设备；(3)捐赠机构是否为接受捐赠的学校提供任何支持或后续行动；以及(4)如何鼓励适当的捐赠。调查将采用从2008-09年度NSF获奖者的三个名单中抽取的有目的的样本：1)总体上获得NSF最高资助的100个奖项；2)100名最受资助的教育和人力资源局(EHR)获奖者；以及3)35个EHR项目(按计划分层)中最多100名最受资助的获奖者。将从大约300名获奖者中抽取样本，以确保其中包括75%的IHES和25%的私人实体。基本分析将包括对国会要求的每一类信息的描述性统计，按卡内基对IHES的分类，私营实体的类型和规模，NSF组织的资金奖励，以及教育水平。

In response to the provisions of Section 7027 of the America COMPETES Act, which requires the NSF to conduct a study of laboratory equipment donations to elementary and secondary schools, this study will survey selected institutions of higher education (IHEs) and entities in the private sector to obtain data on their donations of surplus scientific instruments for K-12 classroom use. The objectives of the study are to determine:(1) How often, how much, and what type of equipment is donated;(2) What criteria or guidelines the institutions and entities are using to determine what types of equipment can be donated, what condition the equipment should be in, and which schools receive the equipment;(3) Whether the donating institutions provide any support to, or follow-up with, the recipient schools; and(4) How appropriate donations can be encouraged.The survey will employ a purposive sample drawn from three lists of NSF awardees in 2008-09: 1) the 100 top-funded NSF awardees overall; 2) the 100 top-funded Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) awardees; and 3) up to 100 top-funded awardees from 35 EHR programs (stratified by program). A sample of approximately 300 awardees will be drawn to ensure that it includes 75% IHEs and 25% private entities. Basic analyses will include descriptive statistics on each category of information requested by Congress broken out by Carnegie classification of IHEs, type and size of private entities, NSF organization funding awards, and levels of schooling.