This report, released in January 2011, grew out of a workshop and follow-up session sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR).The two-day workshop and subsequent meeting sought to develop and validate evaluation practices to assess the value of NSF’s investment in broadening participation across all directorates and programs.Invited participants included NSF grantees, professional evaluators, and the policy community (which included representatives from Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NSF staff, and staff from other federal agencies).

The workshop, funded by EHR’s Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Systems, was structured around responding to two questions:

• what metrics should be used for project monitoring; and
• what designs and indicators should be used for program evaluation?

The workshop resulted in providing information for program monitoring and program evaluation as well as advice for data gathering from NSF awardees.

Read the full report. 

Read more about NSF’s commitment to broadening participation in the STEM labor force.