Award Abstract # 1138814
Completion and Attrition in AGEP and non-AGEP Institutions

NSF Org: EES
Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM
Recipient: COUNCIL OF GRADUATE SCHOOLS
Initial Amendment Date: September 26, 2011
Latest Amendment Date: August 15, 2016
Award Number: 1138814
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Mark Leddy
EES
 Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: September 15, 2011
End Date: December 31, 2017 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $1,499,497.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $1,991,719.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2011 = $1,499,497.00
FY 2015 = $237,652.00

FY 2016 = $254,570.00
History of Investigator:
  • Suzanne Ortega (Principal Investigator)
    sortega@cgs.nche.edu
  • Hironao Okahana (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Robert Sowell (Former Principal Investigator)
  • Jeffrey Allum (Former Principal Investigator)
  • Nathan Bell (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jeffrey Allum (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Debra Stewart (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Council of Graduate Schools
1 DUPONT CIR NW STE 230
WASHINGTON
DC  US  20036-1173
(202)223-3791
Sponsor Congressional District: 00
Primary Place of Performance: Council of Graduate Schools
One Dupont Circle NW Suite 230
Washington
DC  US  20036-1173
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
00
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): CU3UNKJBXGM3
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): AGEP
Primary Program Source: 04001112DB NSF Education & Human Resource
04001516DB NSF Education & Human Resource

04001617DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 8212, 9179, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 151500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

The underrepresentation of minority students in STEM fields is a national concern. Underrepresentation in doctoral enrollment is exacerbated by the fact that attrition rates from doctoral programs are high (40-50%), and minorities tend to complete at even lower rates than their counterparts. Such high rates of attrition impose significant economic, psychological, and social costs on individuals and society. Quite apart from these costs, we are faced with an aging STEM faculty and non-academic workforce that will need to be replaced. NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program aims to address this problem of underrepresentation in doctoral education and the academic workforce. Evaluations of the AGEP program have indicated that the numbers of underrepresented minority students enrolling in STEM doctoral programs have increased over time at institutions that received funding through the AGEP program, but the research conducted to date has not tied the activities and initiatives of AGEP institutions to student success, particularly completion rates. Since the activities and initiatives of the AGEP grantees vary considerably across institutions, it is not clear which of these interventions have the most potential to positively impact doctoral completion rates for underrepresented minority students.
The project outlined in this proposal aims to examine patterns of completion and attrition among underrepresented minorities in STEM doctoral programs across a diverse set of AGEP and non-AGEP institutions with a view to understanding the factors that promote successful completion and the policies and practices that hold promise in this regard. The project builds on work already underway at the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) on Ph.D. completion and attrition and master's completion and attrition and extends it to include a much more fine-grained investigation of underrepresented minorities? experiences in STEM doctoral programs. Twenty institutions will be selected through a competitive process to provide de-identified student-level completion and attrition data for all underrepresented minority students entering all STEM doctoral programs at the participating institutions from 1992-93 through 2011-12 utilizing the methodology developed for the Ph.D. Completion Project and refined in the project's successor, Completion and Attrition in STEM Master's Programs. Participating institutions will also be required to administer surveys to underrepresented minority students to gather information on factors related to completion and attrition; to provide detailed data on activities and initiatives funded through the AGEP program, the Ph.D. Completion Project, and other sources, that may have impacted completion and attrition; and to facilitate access to faculty, administrators, and students during site visits designed to collect in-depth information on program policies, practices, and climate, and the perceived impact of these factors on completion and attrition.
Intellectual merit
: The research findings from this project will provide a rich and compelling portrait of the experiences, academic progress, stumbling blocks, and perceptions of underrepresented minorities enrolled in STEM doctoral programs in a variety of AGEP and non-AGEP institutions across the nation. Findings will inform NSF and the larger higher education community on how best to support these graduate students in diverse contexts so they successfully complete their doctoral programs and are fully acculturated in the norms and cultures of their disciplines, capable of mentoring and teaching the next generation of researchers and scholars, as well as driving future discovery in their fields.
Broader impacts: CGS is uniquely positioned to undertake this effort in terms of its research capacity, current data collection efforts, and experience studying completion and attrition, as well as its ability to influence the larger world of graduate education. Collectively, CGS institutions annually award nearly 95% of all U.S. doctorates and more than three-quarters of all U.S. master's degrees. CGS disseminates its findings in a variety of ways, including published reports, newsletter articles, press releases, seminars, workshops, and annual conferences. As such, this project has the potential to have an extensive impact on improving participation, retention, and completion of underrepresented minorities in STEM doctoral programs in AGEP and non-AGEP institutions across the nation.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Okahana, H., Klein, C., Allum, J., & Sowell, R. "STEM Doctoral Completion of Under-Represented Minority Students: Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Participation in the Doctoral Workforce" Innovative Higher Education , 2018 10.1007/s10755-018-9425-3

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Advancements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are widely credited with solving problems and creating opportunities in the modern age. Individuals who hold doctoral degrees in these fields play particularly influential roles; however, today’s STEM doctoral workforce in the United States does not reflect the diversity of the nation as a whole. Fewer individuals of Black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic/Latino origins earn a doctorate, and it typically takes longer for them to complete their doctoral studies than students of other origins. As the United States is becoming a majority-minority nation, there is a compelling reason to better understand the challenges of students of color in STEM doctoral programs to facilitate better access and greater success.


The project is an effort to begin to fill this gap. The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) worked with 21 universities across the U.S. to assemble the largest dataset of its kind to estimate the percentage of underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral students in STEM fields who completed or withdrew from their program, and the time it took them to complete the doctoral degree. The project also sheds light on the range of supports available at institutions to support these students, using input from URM doctoral students enrolled in STEM programs, as well as university personnel.


The project found that 44% of URM students who enrolled in STEM doctoral programs earned their doctorates within seven years, and 54% earned their doctorates within ten years, with variations according to field of study, gender, race/ethnicity, and prior graduate degrees.


Many universities participating in this project have a range of long-standing policies, practices, and interventions intended to support URM STEM doctoral students, including national initiatives such as the National Science Foundation’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate. These interventions tend to specifically address aspects in recruitment, selection, and admission of URM students in STEM doctoral program and their acclimation to the doctoral culture. However, we also observed from the focus group sessions that many interventions for URM STEM doctoral students, beyond providing additional funding support, are informal. Informal efforts such as peer support groups and mentorships appeared to be effective in fostering a sense of community among URM STEM doctoral students, thus helping them persist in their doctoral programs. While there may be resource and legal constraints preventing broader implementation of programs that explicitly benefit URM students, it is likely that more can be done to institutionalize some of efforts that address unique needs of underrepresented students in STEM doctoral fields.


This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

 


Last Modified: 03/07/2018
Modified by: Hironao Okahana

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