Assessment of NIH Minority Research and Training Programs: Phase 3

Excerpt

The goals of the study are (1) to assess and analyze NIH minority trainee educational and career outcomes to the extent feasible with the existing data and information at NIH, supplemented by interviews of minority trainees, and (2) to recommend improvements to the NIH coordinated tracking and information system of minority research training programs and their participants.

In order to assess and analyze NIH minority trainee educational and career outcomes, the study committee was charged with addressing the following questions to the extent that they may be addressed using available data from NIH supplemented by interviews with minority trainees and program administrators: 1. Do the NIH minority research training programs work? 2. Which minority programs and which features of minority programs have been most successful in helping individual students and faculty members move a step forward toward productive careers as research scientists? 3. What additional factors contribute to minority trainee success, including characteristics of individual participants and the academic institutions at which they received NIH research training support and/or obtained their terminal degree? 4. Which minority programs have been least successful and why? 5. How can a system be set up that would better address assessment questions in the future?

In addition, the study committee was charged with developing policy recommendations for an improved coordinated tracking information system that would do the following: 1. Provide NIH administrators a means for obtaining improved annual feedback on minority research training programs; 2. Assist the development of future goals; 3. Assist the development of performance measures; and 4. Assist the improvement of program effectiveness.