UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES - GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND INFORMATION STUDIES

HOME OF THE CIRP - THE NATION'S OLDEST AND LARGEST STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

A New HERI Project Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Sylvia Hurtado and Mitchell Chang, Principal Investigators

Purpose
The specific aim of this comprehensive national project is to examine underrepresented student access to resources and forms of engagement that result in outcomes (skills, dispositions, and behaviors) necessary for a research career in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.  The goal of the project is to:

	Generate new knowledge to guide the preparation and advancement of underrepresented students toward successful research careers
	Provide information on the diversity experiences, access to resources, and issues that impact the engagement of African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American students attending a variety of institutions, including minority-serving institutions
	Inform educators by sharing national research findings, encouraging them to use the data locally, and inviting them to attend a forum to showcase successful practices
	The ultimate goal of the project is to assist colleges in their education of racial/ethnic minority students that can serve as role models and address important questions related to their population of origin through a research career.

Sponsor
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) external reviewers together with program staff selected this project as one of six R01 awards to support research that investigate the effectiveness of interventions that are intended to increase interest, motivation and preparedness for careers in biomedical research, with a particular interest in those interventions specifically designed to increase the number of underrepresented minority students entering careers in biomedical and behavioral research. The project includes all students since the findings will apply to undergraduate preparation for research careers.

The Project
The study draws on data from over 700 institutions that regularly participate in surveys at college entry, after the first year of college, and at the fourth year of college using the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) surveys at the Higher Education Research Institute. This allows campuses and researchers to monitor the experiences of large numbers of African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American students at key transition points. Since institutions also receive their data on entering freshmen, and can participate in subsequent follow-ups, another aim is to encourage campuses to use the data and share findings on their own campuses with faculty in related disciplines. In an attempt to encourage broader conceptions of talent and its development in preparation for research careers, a study of introductory courses on selected campuses will also help determine whether students' grades are associated with the skills and dispositions needed for a research career.

Benefits to Participating Institutions
Participating institutions will consist of any campus that signs up for involvement in the 2004 CIRP Freshman Survey, Your First College Year (YFCY) administered in the spring of 2005 the first year of college, and a subsequent follow-up after students have selected their majors (College Student Surveys or CSS). Each instrument contains questions related to the project. In addition, a set of institutions will be invited to participate because they have extensive experience providing programs for under-represented students and encourage them to participate in undergraduate research programs that facilitate entry into biomedical and behavior science careers. Each campus benefits in these specific ways:

	As is typical with CIRP data, all data collected is returned to each campus with a normative report so that campuses can compare their students’ experiences with similar types of institutions. Data are also provided in a format that allows each campus to locally study their students and generate their own reports for specific audiences and program planning.
	Reports will be available online each year of the project to inform educators and faculty in the disciplines about students’ access, engagement, and aspirations to pursue research careers in the biomedical and behavioral science disciplines.
	Campuses can request special reports be generated by staff at HERI for their use from the surveys for a small additional cost.
	Representatives from campus will participate in forums to share data and to showcase promising practices that increase student motivation and participation in biomedical and behavioral science research among underrepresented students.
	NIH will be regularly informed about the activities of participating campuses and will be highlighted in presentations to staff so that they begin to have a working familiarity with campus efforts and interventions.

The NIH Project Team
  Sylvia Hurtado, Co-Principal Investigator
  Mitch Chang, Co-Principal Investigator
  Victor Saenz, Post-Doc/Project Director
  June Chang, Post-Doc
  Oscar Cerna, Research Analyst
  Nolan Cabrera, Research Analyst
  Lorelle Espinosa, Research Analyst
  Julie Park, Research Analyst

For more information about the project, please email us at herinih@ucla.edu.

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