Evaluation of NSF's Program of Grants for Vertical Integration of Research and Education in the Mathematical Sciences (VIGRE) (2009) / Chapter Skim
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5 Program Achievements
5 Program Achievements
Pages 57-70
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From page 57... ...
A third challenge to evaluating the VIGRE program comes from the difficulties in comparing awardees' achievements to those of a control group. One approach is to do this chronologically and to 1 "Dear Colleague" letter, September 10, 1997, from Donald Lewis, Director, Division of Mathematical Sciences, National Science Foundation, to the mathematical sciences community (hereafter cited as "Dear Colleague" letter, September 10, 1997)
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From page 58... ...
; California Institute of Technology; University of California, San Diego; University of Minnesota) , or were judged by NSF to have failed in their VIGRE programs (University of California, Berkeley; Yale University; TABLE 5-1 VIGRE Grants Received Among 25 Top-Ranked Mathematics Departments Since the Inception of the VIGRE Program in 1998 Rank Institution Grant 1.5 Princeton University Yes 1.5 University of California, Berkeley Yes 3 MIT No 4 Harvard University Yes 5 University of Chicago Yes 6 Stanford University No 7 Yale University Yes 8 New York University Yes 9.5 Columbia University Yes 9.5 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Yes 11 California Institute of Technology No 12 University of California, Los Angeles Yes 13 University of Wisconsin, Madison Yes 14 University of Minnesota No 15 Cornell University Yes 16 Brown University Yes 17 University of California, San Diego No 18 University of Maryland, College Park Yes 19 Rutgers University, New Brunswick Yes 20 State University of New York, Stony Brook Yes 21 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Yes 22 University of Pennsylvania No 23 University of Texas, Austin Yes 24.5 Purdue University Yes 24.5 Rice University Yes NOTE: Stanford University's Department of Statistics did receive a grant.
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From page 59... ...
, for example, gives a number of illustrative examples of success by VIGRE awardees. A second source of information is individuals at departments that had received VIGRE grants and who spoke to the committee.
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From page 60... ...
The department's recent activities include research assistantships, a seminar series, and a summer statistics camp for undergraduates; traineeships, travel support, and a summer "camp" used to introduce incoming graduate students to their new environment; and fellowships for postdoctorals, as well as an ongoing VIGRE seminar.4 University of Chicago The University of Chicago VIGRE program, which began in 2000 and will continue through 2010, has been particularly successful.5 The largest VIGRE influence has been the new summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, which in 2008 will have 82 University of Chicago undergraduate participants mentored by 30 graduate students and taught by 9 faculty members.
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From page 61... ...
Communications skills are fostered by oral presentations within the RFGs, and written skills are fostered as graduate students write up expository or instructional material, postdoctorates prepare grant applications, and RFG participants help students apply for mini-grants for travel, summer support, visitor support, and so on. The recruitment and outreach efforts of the VIGRE RFGs are remarkable.
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From page 62... ...
Approaches to Evaluating VIGRE Achievements Final reports from awardees also present a positive picture of the impact of the grants. For example, summarizing their first VIGRE award, the leadership team at the University of Washington wrote: VIGRE support has made a significant impact on the three departments involved in this endeavor: • The number of majors in the mathematical sciences has dramatically increased.
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From page 63... ...
(Recall that VIGRE is now part of EMSW21, so fewer VIGRE awards are made.) As noted in Chapter 3, 52 departments at 39 different institutions have been awarded VIGRE grants over the lifetime of the program (excluding Louisiana State University, whose award was too recent to be included in this study)
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From page 64... ...
Figure 5-1.eps bitmap image TABLE 5-2 Number of Proposals from One or More Departments at an Institution That Never Received a VIGRE Award, by Year, 1999 2008 Year Number of Proposals 1999-2000 23 2000-2001 21 2001-2002 24 2002-2003 24 2003-2004 25 2004-2005 19 2005-2006 6 2006-2007 5 2007-2008 1 SOURCE: Data provided by the National Science Foundation. TABLE 5-3 Number of Unfunded Proposals from Institutions, Among Those That Never Received a VIGRE Award Number of Number of Proposals Departments 1 22 2 18 3 13 4 7 5 or more 4 SOURCE: Data provided by the National Science Foundation.
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From page 65... ...
. However, applying for a VIGRE grant, regardless of receiving an award, might have had some posi tive effects on a department.
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From page 66... ...
Even so, nearly half of the Group I Private and one-third of the Group I Public institutions never received VIGRE grants. Harvard University and Princeton University received 5-year grants in the early years of the program, as did the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University, although the latter were both terminated after 3 years.
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From page 67... ...
get richer." 13 In response to the committee's request for information from VIGRE awardees, 24 responding departments reported that the quality and quantity of mathematics students have gone up in recent years, whereas 4 said that there has not been much change. Non-VIGRE departments saw things quite differently: 24 reported recent improvements and 12 reported recent deterioration.
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From page 68... ...
In recent years, that strict 10% cap on the amount of faculty salary was relaxed in principle, but faculty salary still constitutes a very small percentage of each EMSW21 award. I am not aware of any academic-year teaching reduction that was funded directly by a VIGRE award.16 The committee had no objective way of measuring the effect of the VIGRE program on curriculum change at departments that obtained VIGRE grants.
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From page 69... ...
(no.) to Have to Have Stayed to Have Topic Reported On Increased About the Same Decreased Not Applicable Mentoring of students by postdoctorals or 31 2 0 0 graduates Teaching collaborations with departments 11 21 0 1 outside mathematics or statistics Research collaborations with departments 22 11 0 0 outside mathematics or statistics Group activities that include undergraduates, 29 4 0 0 graduates, postdoctorals, and faculty Outreach to K-12 students 16 16 0 0 Outreach to K-12 teachers 17 15 0 0 Summer camps in mathematics/statistics 18 9 0 6 Postdoctoral fellowships 26 6 1 0 Graduate traineeships 25 6 2 0 Undergraduate research experiences 28 4 0 0 SOURCE: Data provided by departments in response to committee survey dated November 15, 2007.
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From page 70... ...
In the latter instance, for NSF to maximize the potential of VIGRE funding, at least some of the impact must transcend those who directly receive funding. One could ask, for example: • What is the effect of VIGRE on the U.S.
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