Study Abstract

Systemic Research, Inc. has received a three year grant in March 2004 to continue working on implementation of a Self-Evaluation Indicator System (SEIS) and Academic Indicator Report (AIR) for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP). Systemic Research has successfully completed a 24 month grant (November 2001 - October 2003), "Development and Implementation of an Indicator Monitoring System for NSF's Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program" (HRD-0136117) to design, develop, and implement SEIS and AIR. SEIS is an instrument designed to collect both quantitative and qualitative progress indicators, and AIR presents both HBCU-UP individual institutions' and overall progress report based on SEIS.

In the HBCU-UP Program Solicitation (NSF 03-594) released in August 2003, NSF officially adopted SEIS as a part of the annual reporting requirements for HBCU-UP awardees. In September 2003, Systemic Research began the OMB clearance procedure under NSF's EHR Generic Clearance (OMB 3145-0136) to enable SEIS as a government approved HBCU-UP data collection instrument.

Each year Systemic Research will develop and deliver a customized annual SEIS instrument to each individual HBCU-UP site, host a SEIS workshop, compile collected SEIS data to produce AIR, conduct two site visits to gather additional information to publish case stories, and manage the SEIS web management system and HBCU-UP Open Forum. Other activities will include presentations at NSF PI/PD meetings, and participating in the HBCU-UP National Research Conference. NSF awarded 34 implementation grants (5 cohorts) and 13 planning grants (3 cohorts) to 45 HBCU institutions as of September 2003.

Intellectual Merit
The customized SEIS will provide common measures of performance across all HBCU-UP projects while considering uniqueness of each institution. The site visits and case stories will identify best practice models. Systemic Research will provide comprehensive technical assistance to HBCU-UP sites regarding academic indicator management and evaluation capacity building through numerous workshops, site visits, and on-going communication. Individual institutions' AIRs will be returned to the respective institutions for their on-going project review.

Broader Impact
For wide dissemination and broad impact, all publications will be available in three different formats; printed copy, CD-ROM, and web-based publications. The AIR overall progress report, program highlights, and case stories will be disseminated nation-wide. Systemic Research will provide technical assistance to both implementation and planning HBCU-UP grantees. The program impact and best practice models will be disseminated to the HBCU community, higher education institutions, education and research communities, other stakeholders and federal agencies, and Congress.

The project team, led by Jason J. Kim, Ph.D. (PI), and Linda Crasco (Co-PI), has accumulated extensive experience and knowledge-base in indicator design, database management, instrument development, educational evaluation and assessment from the various K-16 minority serving programs including the previous HBCU-UP SEIS and AIR design and implementation grant.