About
CERP is contracted with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineers (CISE) to provide evaluation of the NSF CISE Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs, which include REU Sites and REU Supplements.
For NSF CISE REUs beginning summer of 2022 or later, CERP is providing evaluation for those programs at no cost. If you have an REU Site or REU Supplement, and you are interested in working with CERP for evaluation, please complete our interest form. After you submit your interest form, you will receive a confirmation email from someone on the CERP team (cerpreu@cra.org). If you are preparing an NSF proposal for your REU, we will also provide you with a paragraph to include in your proposal.
Meet the team
Burçin Tamer, Contract oversight
Heather Wright, Project manager
Ama Nyame-Mensah, Lead evaluator
Taniya Ross-Dunmore, Administrator
Audrey Rorrer (UNC-Charlotte), Project consultant
Evaluation Process
Depending on whether you are running an REU Site or you have an REU Supplement, we will use an evaluation method most appropriate for your awarded project and student population.
REU Sites
- Four weeks prior to your REU start date, we will send PI instructions and a PI form. This form must be completed within 1 week.
- Two weeks prior to your REU start date, we will send a suggested participant recruitment email and the pre-survey link for you to send to your REU participants. Participants will have until 1 week after the REU starts to complete this pre-survey (a total of 3 weeks). We will monitor that data collection and request reminders as appropriate.
- On the last day of your REU, we will send you both the second PI form for you to complete and the post-survey link for participants to complete. These must be completed within 3 weeks after the REU ends. We will also monitor that data collection and request reminders as appropriate.
- Approximately 2-3 months after data collection is complete, you will receive a report that summarizes your REU participants’ responses alongside a comparison group of REU participants at similar REU sites (depending on sample sizes). Click here to view an example report.
REU Supplements
For all NSF CISE REU Supplements, CERP will be collecting survey data directly from participants within one year following their experience. There are no action items from you as a PI other than submitting complete and accurate information about your participants during annual reporting (a requirement already stipulated by NSF).
If you are submitting a proposal for an REU Supplement and need to indicate your evaluation plan, please complete this form to receive text for your proposal.
CERP’s step-by-step process for evaluating CISE REU Supplements:
- During NSF annual reporting, you (The PI) will submit student information with your report.
- During the summer, CERP will pull student information submitted through the NSF Annual Reports submitted over the last year.
- During the fall, Supplement students culled from our query will receive a survey about their REU experience.
- Approximately 3 months after data collection ends, Supplement PIs will receive a general report that aggregates their student responses with other supplement student participants
Measures
Our REU Evaluation surveys include various measures tailored towards different experiences of students that participate in NSF CISE REUs. Below is a non-exhaustive list of measures included.
Click here to request a copy of our participant surveys.
Previous REU experiences
- Year, setting, and details of previous REUs that students have participated in
General attitudes and beliefs regarding computing
- Perceptions of abilities, skill sets, and accomplishments
- Levels of identification with computing and sense of belonging
- Perceived support from professional network and mentors
Future plans and career aspirations
- Highest degree intentions
- Employment and graduate school plans
- Future career interests
- Career values and perceptions of computing careers
Previous and current program details and experience
- Academic background (e.g. pre-college CS and Math courses)
- Enrollment information and reasons for matriculation and persistence
- Perceptions of degree program and institution
- Degree of involvement in curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities
Demographics
- Gender
- Race/ethnicity
- Sexual orientation
- Disability
- Marital status
- Socio-economic measures
- Parents’ education and career
Evaluation for an Active NSF CISE REU Site or Supplement Award
- If you are interested in having CERP evaluate your currently active NSF CISE REU program, please complete our interest form below.
- After you complete the interest form, you will receive an email from the CERP team (cerpreu@cra.org) within a few days confirming receipt of your form response.
Evaluation for an NSF CISE REU Site or Supplement New Proposal or Renewal
- If you are interested in having CERP evaluate your NSF CISE REU proposal or renewal, please request a proposal paragraph by completing our interest for below and selecting “proposal”. This general proposal paragraph will state your collaboration with CERP as your evaluator. If you have more than one proposal, please complete a form for each proposal.
- After you complete the request form below, you will receive an email from the CERP team (cerpreu@cra.org) confirming receipt of your form response that includes the proposal paragraph. include in your proposal.
IRB
Thank you for your interest in CERP’s evaluation of your NSF CISE REU project. While CERP has received IRB approval to conduct this evaluation, your institution’s IRB may require you to get separate approval to conduct the evaluation. CERP urges you to consult your institution’s IRB to determine whether they will require their own separate review.
Click here to request our IRB approved materials.
Guidelines for talking to your local IRB about the REU Evaluation The information below is intended to support PIs with guidelines and talking points for approaching your own institution’s IRB about the REU evaluation. The Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) has received IRB approval from Solutions IRB for this REU Evaluation project as an Exempt, Category 2 project. As the contracted agency acting on behalf of NSF, CERP has also received approval for the project and its materials from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Control Number: 3145-0266; Expiration Date: 04/30/2025). All currently-funded NSF REU projects in the U.S. are eligible to use evaluation services being offered by CERP and are covered by this IRB approval. Based on current OHRP definitions of when an institution is considered to be “engaged” in research, most institutions we work with do not require separate review and approval from their own institution’s IRB. This is because the local REU PI distributes anonymous pre-program and post-program survey links to the REU participants on behalf of CERP but has no other involvement in the research process (e.g., creation of the survey instruments, consent process, data collection, data analysis, or any other aspect of the study), and the PI will not have access to any data files or individually-identifying information resulting from this study. If you are a PI seeking to clarify your local IRB’s requirements, here are some key points to cover: If your institution’s IRB does require separate review and approval, you or another colleague will need to serve as PI for the portion of the research project that will occur with students at your institution. Please complete the request form linked above to receive CERP-created materials that will help you with your local submission. You can choose to receive a version of the materials that only pertains to the local implementation (recommended), or you may receive a version of materials that includes the comprehensive set of materials for the full national evaluation being conducted by CERP. Both sets will include a document “IRB resources for individual institutions,” which includes common IRB application questions and suggested answers.
If you have any other questions or need any additional information to satisfy the requirements for a particular question on your local IRB forms, please contact us at cerpreu@cra.org.
Frequently Asked Questions about CERP REU Evaluation
What is the cost of working with CERP evaluation?
With funding through a contract with NSF, CERP’s evaluation services are free for NSF REU Sites and REU Supplements. PIs do not need to include a budget for CERP’s evaluation in their proposals.
If I work with CERP, do I need to hire another evaluator?
CERP’s evaluation fulfills NSF’s evaluation requirement, so another evaluator is not necessary.
Will CERP collaborate with other evaluators?
While CERP is happy to provide other evaluators with the methodology and copies of the survey, CERP is not directly collaborating with other REU Site and Supplement evaluators for this project.
Will CERP share data with other evaluators?
Due to privacy considerations, CERP does not share raw data collected through this project. PIs are encouraged to share the summary reports that CERP will provide each year (assuming that there are enough participant responses) with other evaluators as needed.
When I signed up to work with CERP for evaluation, I received a proposal paragraph. How do I include it in my REU Site/Supplement proposal?
The proposal paragraph that we provide should be inserted directly into the required section of your proposal on evaluation. . As it is a general paragraph, please feel free to add minor modifications to the language so that the paragraph includes any project-specific language or institutional information.
As an REU PI working with CERP for evaluation, do I need to have my own IRB approval?
CERP will have IRB approval to conduct evaluation through Solutions IRB. As an REU PI, you are encouraged to contact your IRB office to determine whether additional oversight is required by your institution. Once we have our IRB-approved materials this upcoming spring of 2022, we will supply a copy of the approval letter and templates on our website that you can use to initiate that conversation.
Can I add site-specific questions to the CERP survey?
We have some limitations in our ability to change our surveys as our project requires approval of all study instruments by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), we can only include survey items we have submitted to them for approval. However, we will keep a record of any requested additions and will plan to review and submit changes for next year’s evaluation cycle.
Will surveys also be sent to mentors/staff?
Although official surveys for evaluation will not be sent to REU mentors and staff, CERP will collect information about the REU from PIs and other project leadership to better understand the structure of each REU. This data collection effort will be in service of providing appropriate comparison groups.
Who is responsible for administering the evaluation surveys to student participants?
Each REU project will be responsible for administering the evaluation surveys to participants. Prior to data collection, CERP will provide PIs (or the determined contact person) with all materials necessary for distribution, such as recruitment templates and the survey link. All communications from CERP will come from cerpreu@cra.org.
