IOWA AGEP Evaluation Study

爱荷华州AGEP计划是爱荷华州三个董事会机构的联盟：爱荷华州大学(UI)、爱荷华州立大学(ISU)和北爱荷华州大学(UNI)。爱荷华州AGEP联盟旨在进行制度改革，以持续增加向STEM教授方向迈进的代表不足的少数族裔(URM)的数量。自从为最初的AGEP赠款提供资金以来，每个机构都为其联盟的成功作出了重大贡献。一个关键的目标是通过在ISU和UNI数学和统计方面的战略合作伙伴关系来传播在UI？S数学系的成功。这一最初的成功获得了势头，这些概念被传播到所有三所院校的几个学科并被采用。具体的方案方法包括：1)共同培养以教师为主导的与本科院校和院校财团的关系；2)启动和/或扩大暑期研究项目的机会；3)通过有意义的和全面的专业发展项目，建立项目和培养个性化关注和指导的文化；4)建立和/或扩大对URM研究生的机构资助；以及5)发展大学硕士项目与ISU和伊利诺伊大学博士项目之间的伙伴关系，以促进机构之间的平稳过渡。结果是URM STEM研究生的数量有所增加，他们的学生进入STEM博士后职位的一些证据已经或将导致教师职位。这些做法的制度化已经被他们持续的AGEP努力所证明。他们的机构正在采取的集体方法使爱荷华州AGEP联盟成为一个适当的联盟，不仅在招聘、录取和毕业高质量博士生方面调查最佳实践，而且在开发博士后项目以促进教授职业发展方面也是如此。他们提议的评估研究将严格回顾他们过去的努力，为确定如何更有效地将博士后实习生提升到教授职位并培养更容易接受聘用URM教师候选人的教师环境奠定坚实的基础。这项资助旨在为整个计划的影响提供明确的证据，并针对具体的计划元素，以提高URM向教授的进步。项目？S的三个目标是：1)评估URM STEM研究生的职业道路，将AGEP与其他学生进行比较；2)确定最有影响力的AGEP实践；3)开发令人信服的证据，以确定博士毕业后进入教授职位的主要途径和障碍。对于目标1和目标2，他们将研究学术进步(学位课程的类型、获得学位的时间、完成百分比等)。他们将研究毕业生的就业决策。对于目标3，他们还将开始研究STEM系/学院通过与NSF资助的ISU Advance计划合作，在其摄政机构采取的招聘做法。他们将利用ISU的前期工作，该工作已经确定了教师寻找和招聘过程中的障碍。由于ISU Advance和爱荷华州AGEP计划有一些与重点部门的方法和一些与大学范围的方法，将评估跨项目的结果比较，以确定大学范围或重点部门的影响更大。内部优势：评估研究将产生支持扩大参与的方法、联盟的价值以及拥有重点部门或学科的方法的知识。将利用多种数据来源(地方调查、重点小组和国家调查，如COAChE)和新开发的工具，研究挖掘和合并这些数据来源的方法，以便为今后的研究确定基线数据和方法。对以部门为重点的活动与校园倡议的影响进行比较的数据分析，将为其他专注于制度变革的项目提供如何追求其变革的指导。BROADER影响：这项工作将在档案出版物中传播，为其他人提供爱荷华州AGEP联盟在招募和保留URM方面制定的有效做法的信息和证据。这项关于教师对博士后项目和教师招聘的态度的研究将为文献中需要干预的领域提供进一步的证据，以解决扩大教授参与的障碍。研究结果将直接用于设计博士后项目和教师招聘实践中的新干预措施，并为未来的研究提供基础。

The IOWA AGEP program is an alliance of the three Board of Regents institutions in the State of Iowa: The University of Iowa (UI), Iowa State University (ISU) and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). The IOWA AGEP alliance is aimed at making institutional changes for a sustained increase in the number of under-represented minorities (URMs) progressing toward the STEM professoriate. Each institution made substantial contributions to the success of their alliance since funding of the original AGEP grant. A key goal was to spread the success in UI?s Mathematics Department through a strategic partnership in Mathematics and Statistics at both ISU and UNI. That initial success gained momentum, and the concepts were disseminated to and adopted by several disciplines across all three institutions.Specific programmatic approaches included: 1) collectively fostered faculty driven relationships with undergraduate institutions and institutional consortiums; 2) initiation and/or expansion of summer research program opportunities; 3) building programs and fostering a culture of personalized attention and mentorship with meaningful and comprehensive professional development programs; 4) establishment and/or expansion of institutional funding for URM graduate students; and 5) growth of a partnership between the masters programs at UNI with PhD programs at ISU and UI in order to facilitate smooth transition between the institutions. The results have been an increase in the number of URM STEM graduate students with some evidence for their students entering STEM postdoctoral positions that have or will lead to faculty positions.The institutionalization of these practices has been proven by their sustained AGEP efforts. The collective approaches being undertaken by their institutions make the IOWA AGEP alliance an appropriate consortium to investigate best practices in not only recruiting, matriculating and graduating high quality doctoral students, but also developing postdoctoral programs to foster career progression to the professoriate.Their proposed evaluation study will rigorously review their past efforts and lay a solid foundation for determining how they can more effectively advance postdoctoral trainees to the professoriate and cultivate a faculty environment that will more readily accept hiring URM faculty candidates. This grant is designed to provide clear evidence for the impact of the overall program, and specific program elements are targeted to improve the progression of URMs to the professoriate. The project?s three goals are to: 1) evaluate the career paths of URM STEM graduate students, comparing AGEP and other students; 2) identify the most impactful AGEP practices; and 3) develop compelling evidence to identify primary paths and barriers to entering the professoriate after PhD completion. For Goals 1 and 2, they will study academic progression (types of degree programs, times to degree, percent completion, etc.) of their students, and they will study the postgraduate employment decisions of their graduates. For Goal 3, they will also begin to study the hiring practices that STEM departments/colleges are taking at their Regents institutions through collaboration with the NSF-funded ISU ADVANCE program. They will leverage the ISU ADVANCE work that has identified barriers to the faculty search and hiring process. With the ISU ADVANCE and IOWA AGEP programming having some approaches with focal departments and some with university-wide approaches, comparison of outcomes across programs will be evaluated to determine if university wide or focal departments has a greater impact.INTELLECTUAL MERIT: The evaluation studies will generate knowledge supporting the approaches to broadening participation, the value of an alliance, and the approach of having focal departments or disciplines. Using multiple data sources (local surveys, focus groups, and national surveys such as COACHE) and newly developed instruments, methods to mine and combine these data sources will be investigated to establish baseline data and approaches for future studies. Analysis of data comparing the impact of department-focused activities vs. campus-wide initiatives will provide other programs focused on institutional change with guidance on how to pursue their changes.BROADER IMPACTS: The work will be disseminated in archival publications to provide others with information and evidence of effective practices developed in the IOWA AGEP alliance for the recruitment and retention of URMs. The study concerning faculty attitudes toward postdoctoral programs and faculty hiring will add further evidence to the literature on the areas where interventions are needed to address barriers in broadening participation in the professoriate. The results will be used directly to design new interventions in postdoctoral programs and faculty hiring practices and provide a basis for future studies.