In February 2009 the Foundation funded a project by Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) to enable them to develop a national strategy for enhancing the completion rate in STEM master's degrees. With these funds, CGS surveyed what was known about this subject, produced a paper that summarized what is known, outlined a research agenda for improving knowledge about what affects attrition and completion rates, and began laying out a taxonomy of STEM master's degrees. They also convened a meeting of researchers, graduate deans, and others to discuss the paper and what CGS could and should do further in this area. The strategy that emerged from this preliminary work calls for a two-phased follow-on program. The first phase, funding for which is provided through this grant, would (a) further develop a taxonomy of STEM master's programs; (b) establish standardized definitions for "entry", "attrition", and "completion" in STEM master's programs; (c) provide a first look at comparable completion and attrition rates within STEM master's programs in a variety of programs in a selected number of institutions; and (d) determine factors perceived to affect student success or attrition and identify promising practices to foster student success. Based on what is learned from all this, CGS will decide whether a second phase is warranted that would gather data on completion and attrition from a larger, more representative set of institutions and track implementation and effects of promising interventions designed to improve outcomes for all or a subset of STEM master's degree types.

The relative absence of minority males, compared to minority females, in higher education and subsequent careers has become widely recognized across the United States. This is especially true for African American males, although the problem is also very real for Hispanic and Native American males. Although a few individual universities (including Howard University, Ohio State University and the University of Georgia) have begun to focus on this issue, it urgently requires higher profile and more systematic attention. This grant will fund efforts by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) to take up this issue for its own member institutions within the fields of mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. APLU's 218 member institutions enroll 3.5 million undergraduates and 1.1 million graduate students, including 34% of all students and 36% of minority males who are enrolled in U.S. four-year public and private institutions. The first phase of this effort will employ a planning task force of prominent scholars, university administrators and others to define the problem and develop an action plan. Anticipated products include a published paper that presents the action plan, summarizes what is known about the issue, identifies gaps in this knowledge that could be filled by further research, provides a preliminary list of resources for university presidents and others who want to address the issue, and summarizes the attributes of successful programs that are already underway. The planning task force will also produce a policy statement that can be endorsed by presidents of APLU-member institutions that raises awareness about the issue of minority males in STEM disciplines and frames the issues for an anticipated second phase of the project.

Funds from this grant will support activities by Purdue University to recruit qualified, eligible Native American students for enrollment in graduate study in science or engineering, as well as a variety of activities designed to help meet the challenges facing Native students pursuing graduate work. Supported activities include recruitment trips by Purdue faculty to schools with Native students studying science and engineering as undergraduates, visits by prospective students to Purdue, design and production of print and web-based outreach materials, an annual retreat for enrolled students, regular mentoring for Native students, and coursework about successfully integrating the demands of graduate study with the demands of membership in a tribal community.

The National Action Council for Miniorities in Engineering (NACME) has been the Foundation's longtime partner in its grantmaking in the Education for Underrepresented Groups program, administering both the Minority Ph.D. program and the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership. NACME receives applications, selects students for scholarships, administers awards, and supports recruitment efforts by participating faculty. This grant funds new obligations in these programs incurred from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. Funds will be used to provide scholarships to newly accepted minority Ph.D. students in both programs, support efforts to recruit new students, and support established "feeder" programs at North Carolina A&T and the University of Puerto Rico that have proven successful in graduating minority students who go on to graduate study in science and engineering.