Award Abstract # 1649297
NSF INCLUDES: A National Network for Access and Inclusion in Physics Graduate Education

NSF Org: OSI
Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI)
Recipient: AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
Initial Amendment Date: September 12, 2016
Latest Amendment Date: September 12, 2016
Award Number: 1649297
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: James Matthew Douglass
mdouglas@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2467
OSI
 Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI)
MPS
 Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date: October 1, 2016
End Date: September 30, 2018 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $299,787.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $299,787.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2016 = $299,787.00
History of Investigator:
  • Monica Plisch (Principal Investigator)
    plisch@aps.org
  • Theodore Hodapp (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Casey Miller (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Julie Posselt (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Geraldine Cochran (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: American Physical Society
ONE PHYSICS ELL IPSE
COLLEGE PARK
MD  US  20740-3841
(301)209-3657
Sponsor Congressional District: 04
Primary Place of Performance: American Physical Society
One Physics Ellipse
College Park
MD  US  20740-3841
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
04
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): CE5JV8E9K4S3
Parent UEI: GQQEEZHBUFC6
NSF Program(s): Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES
Primary Program Source: 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 029Z
Program Element Code(s): 032Y00
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.049

ABSTRACT

Physics awards smaller percentages of PhDs to women (19%) and underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities (7%) than any other field in the sciences, and underrepresentation is especially pronounced at selective universities. As global competition for scientific talent heats up and US demographics shift, cultivating a robust domestic workforce is critical to US technological leadership. We seek to build on the successful American Physical Society Bridge Program (apsbridgeprogram.org) by transforming physics graduate education to fully support the inclusion of women and ethnic and racial minorities. Our vision is to create a national network of disciplinary colleagues, expert researchers, and representatives from professional associations who will develop and build evidence-based knowledge of effective practices for recruitment, admissions, and retention of women and underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities. This pilot project will include six large, highly selective physics graduate programs to demonstrate and map out a plan for a discipline-wide effort. The pilot focuses on improving admissions practices, because this strategy promises immediate and measurable impact backed by extant research. The pilot will also take exploratory steps to develop scalable recruitment and retention strategies. To refine interventions, we will conduct research to identify and understand demographically-based loss points of students in graduate physics programs and to understand how network participation facilitates change. The project will also establish connections with other STEM disciplines, beginning with mathematics and chemistry, to explore expanding these efforts.

This project is grounded in research on diversity in graduate education, organizational learning, and the resources of networks to catalyze cultural change. The project team includes expertise in institutional change, graduate admissions, student success, diverse and inclusive environments, and social science research. The pilot advances a novel research agenda on inclusion in STEM by addressing recruitment, admissions, and retention in physics graduate education as interconnected challenges of faculty learning, professional networks, and disciplinary cultural change. Physics graduate programs will report admissions data and common metrics, and will document changes resulting from project activities. Faculty will be trained on holistic admissions and diversity in selection processes, and be guided in the use of inclusive admissions practices. An external evaluator will examine project effectiveness and readiness for scaling to an Alliance phase project.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Miller, Casey W. and Zwickl, Benjamin M. and Posselt, Julie R. and Silvestrini, Rachel T. and Hodapp, Theodore "Typical physics Ph.D. admissions criteria limit access to underrepresented groups but fail to predict doctoral completion" Science Advances , v.5 , 2019 10.1126/sciadv.aat7550 Citation Details

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.

Vision and goals

The guiding vision of the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) launch pilot project was to transform the system of graduate education, starting with physics, to become fully inclusive of women and underrepresented ethnic and racial minorities (UERM). The IGEN pilot aimed to make progress toward the following objectives: (a) increase the numbers of UERM and women participating in partner graduate programs, (b) establish a national network to advance inclusive graduate education, and (c) conduct research that builds critical knowledge. Key outcomes are described below.

Inclusive graduate admissions

IGEN builds on the work of the APS Bridge Program, a NSF supported project to increase the number of UERM who earn a PhD in physics. The APS Bridge Program revealed that many UERM who were unsuccessful in the traditional graduate admissions process could be successful in a physics doctoral program once admitted through the Bridge Program. This indicated an opportunity to increase participation of UERM and women through reform of traditional graduate admissions. IGEN experts developed workshops on inclusive graduate admissions practices and delivered them at 6 universities with highly-selective physics graduate programs. Most of these graduate programs made progress in adopting inclusive practices for graduate admissions. Some challenges to adopting inclusive practices were also identified, indicating a need for further work to advance understanding of effective approaches to institutional change. The workshops on inclusive graduate admissions attracted broad participantion across STEM disciplines, and IGEN experts were invited to give multidisciplinary workshops at many other universities beyond the 6 original institutions, demonstrating broad interest in inclusive graduate education.

Alliance of professional societies

Disciplinary societies in the physical sciences expressed strong interest in partnering with the APS to develop programs to improve diversity in graduate education. These societies included the American Chemical Society, the American Astronomical Society, Materials Research Society, and the American Geophysical Union. All have expressed interest in documenting and disseminating effective programs and practices, developing and implementing common tools and infrastructure, organizing a national conference, participating in a leadership council of professional societies, advocating within their respective disciplines, and conducting joint research efforts. In 2018, APS submitted a collaborative proposal to form an INCLUDES Alliance project with these societies. The proposal was awarded and the new project is successfully launched.

GRE study

A study to assess the predictive value of common graduate admissions measures found few significant correlations with PhD completion. Undergraduate GPA was the only statistically significant model across the data set, which included 20% of all physics doctoral students admitted in 2000-2010. Notably, none of the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) tests were a statistically significant predictor of physics PhD completion. At the same time, there are well-documented and substantial GRE score differences associated with race, ethnicity, gender, and citizenship. Taken together, these results imply the physics community is using measures that fail to predict PhD success and risk excluding women of all races and ethnicities, UERM of all genders, and US citizens. Informed by these results, APS is reviewing a draft policy statement on appropriate use of GRE scores in graduate admissions decisions. If approved, such a statement would be a significant advocacy tool for inclusive practices in physics graduate admissions.


Last Modified: 02/18/2019
Modified by: Monica J Plisch

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