Capacity Building to Diversify STEM: Realizing Potential among HBCUs

This report provides findings from The Urban Institute’s evaluation of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP). Begun in 1998 and administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the program’s goal is “to enhance the quality of undergraduate education and research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at HBCUs as a means to broaden participation in…STEM workforce. Between 1998 and 2009, the program made 139 institutional awards for a total of over $200 million.

The external evaluation, commissioned by NSF in 2006, focused on the implementation projects funded under the HBCU-UP program, which are five-year, institution-wide STEM education and research capacity-building projects. Given great flexibility to design and implement strategies that address each institution’s STEM needs and long-term goals, projects tended to focus on institutional capacity-building activities such as curriculum development and faculty professional development…The evaluation of HBCU-UP measured changes carried out by grantees, and whether those changes were associated with the ultimate program outcome of contributing to the education and retention of minority students in STEM...

The Urban Institute evaluation of the HBCU-UP program included both process and summative components, seeking to understand the implementation of the program and to measure its ultimate outcomes. The process component relied mostly on qualitative methods (interviews and case studies) to study the characteristics of funded projects as well as the factors that may promote or inhibit the attainment of project goals. Results guided the definition of the HBCU-UP model of institutional capacity building and informed the thrust of this evaluation: the summative component. The summative evaluation relied on qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the course revisions carried out by institutions, the experiences and opinions of participating faculty, the educational progression and career outcomes of graduates…and, most importantly, the efficacy of the HBCU-UP model. Through a quasi-experimental design that compared HBCU-UP faculty and graduates to nationally representative samples of each—the analysis led to five conclusions and recommendations” (p.v).

“The evaluation began in 2005 and included all institutions funded through the HBCU-UP program in the 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003 cohorts” (p.4).

(Abstractor: Author and Website Staff) 

Based on the evaluation, the report offers conclusions and recommendations. The conclusions are summarized below: 1. “HBCU-UP grantees succeeded in building an institutional infrastructure that supports the education of STEM majors... 2. The HBCU-UP program yielded an intervention model characterized by a core set of strategies associated with successful student outcomes... 3. Successful HBCU-UP projects shared elements that suggest that effective projects (a) design interventions to address well-defined problems; (b) provide a comprehensive array of strategies…(c) tailor their strategies and activities to their institutional mission and characteristics; and (d) institutionalize the key components of their projects. 4. HBCU-UP graduates outperform national samples of STEM baccalaureate degree holders in degree completion and in participation in the STEM workforce with a graduate degree” (p.v). 5. “The HBCU-UP program has been successful in contributing to the education and retention of women, and minority women, in STEM” (p. vi). The recommendations include the following: 1. “Encourage the inclusion of core model components in proposals from HBCU-UP grant applicants. Core model components are associated with successful student outcomes and seem crucial to transforming grantee institutions by enhancing their capacity to produce STEM graduates who go on to complete STEM graduate programs and enter the STEM workforce... 2. Emphasize the inclusion of project components that strengthen the link to graduate studies, particularly in the early post-undergraduate years... 3. Consider characteristics of successful projects in selecting sites for grant awards under the HBCU-UP program. Reviewers should look for the following characteristics in grant applications to make award recommendations: (a) a clear identification of problems to be addressed; (b) a comprehensive approach…(c) an intervention tailored to the needs and context of the institution and its students; and (d) plans to institutionalize major project components. 4. Encourage dissemination of findings and lessons learned to the HBCU community... 5. Use the knowledge gained through the HBCU-UP program regarding the production of African American STEM workforce talent to inform the policies and practices of predominantly white institutions (PWIs)” (p.vi). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Clewell, Beatriz Chu; Cosentino de Cohen, Clemencia; and Tsui, Lisa.
• Organizational Author(s): The Urban Institute
• Funding Source: Funding source not identified
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies