Faculty Evaluation
Council of Colleges of Arts & Sciences, ADVANCE Institutional Transformation
The Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) is the focus of a collaborative effort funded through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) ADVANCE program. The overarching aim of its grant is to cultivate academic leaders who are more knowledgeable about STEM gender equity issues, more able and motivated to address those issues, and thus better positioned to effect positive and transformational change in their own colleges and departments. CWD uses several assessment strategies including longitudinal survey analysis, document analysis, and observations to conduct summative, formative, and process evaluations for this $1.2 million project.
NSF CAREER Award Assessment of Educational Outreach Plans
Funded by the NSF CAREER program, Dr. Sapna Cheryan received a grant to fund her research and education activities related to stereotypes in computer science. Part of her educational plan is to educate teachers, professors, advisors, and students about how stereotypes can limit the diversity in the CS field and how even minor adjustments to environments can have a positive impact on student perceptions of CS. CWD evaluates progress towards Dr. Cheryan’s educational goals through workshop feedback and portfolio reviews.
Center for Institutional Change, Chair Leadership Workshops
Leadership Excellence for Academic Diversity (LEAD) was a series of two-day national leadership workshops over a three-year period for department chairs, deans, and emerging leaders in STEM offered by the ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change at the University of Washington and funded by the National Science Foundation. The goals of LEAD included:
- Learn practical strategies and tools to improve department culture and climate.
- Explore unintended and unconscious biases that disproportionately impact women and under-represented faculty.
- Address important issues such as the recruitment and selection of faculty, the evaluation of faculty performance, conflict resolution, and leadership.
- Discuss case studies on faculty and departmental life.
The UW Center for Workforce Development served as the evaluator of LEAD to measure the usefulness, relevance, and applicability of the workshop content.
Center for Institutional Change, ADVANCE Institutional Transformation
With a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award, the University of Washington created the Center for Institutional Change (CIC) to help transform the culture at the UW. The aim of ADVANCE was to increase the participation of women in science and engineering.
The UW ADVANCE project was designed to build upon existing strengths at the university while serving as the catalyst for institutional transformation. The CIC focused on the implementation of programs designed to eliminate existing barriers to women and to precipitate cultural change at both the departmental and the institutional level. The UW ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change had six major components:
- Leadership development for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) chairs and deans.
- Department cultural change.
- Examination of UW policies for equity and policy transformation.
- Mentoring women in STEM for leadership.
- Visiting scholars who can contribute to the goals of the project.
- Transitional support for female faculty members in STEM departments.
The Center for Workforce Development served as the internal evaluator for the ADVANCE grant and managed a faculty and graduate student mentoring program for the CIC. CWD also coordinated the external evaluation process led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The NSF ADVANCE grant has ended, but CIC has continued a subset of the activities and CWD has continued to serve as internal evaluator, albeit in a more limited capacity.