--========================_3788892==_ Dear Penners: glad to be able to reach you directly. i am working on a grant proposal which goes to fipse (fund for the improvement of post secondary education) next tuesday. this proposal was a close contender for $$$ last year, and this year we will almost certainly be funded. i would think that some of you on this list might be in a position to help. so i have attached the text of the preliminary proposal for your reading pleasure. but i do have a couple of specific requests. here goes. 1) the project will have funds to put econ majors at the four participating hbcus on the net - at these schools students do not generally have email accounts. these accounts will be through a commericial vendor called PSI. we are thinking about how to configure some math enhancement activities using the net. are any of you teaching at phd departments and are willing to take on a tutorial role in this net? 2) if you are in a phd school do you have any african american grad. students who would like to be tutors via the net? i will have some money for this. 3) we will be doing a student conference series - do any of you have experience doing these things "on line?" what is involved? I look forward to hearing from you. --========================_3788892==_ 1 Enriching the Undergraduate Economics Curriculum at Four Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Increase the Supply of Black Students Attending Doctoral Programs in Economics and Public Policy. Introduction. The proposed project will involve four historically black universities (H.B.C.U.s) in a collaborative effort, endorsed by the National Economic Association, (the organization of black professional economists) to increase the number of African American students seeking doctoral degrees in economics and public policy. The economics departments of Hampton University (Hampton VA), Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View TX), Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta GA), and Howard University (Washington DC) will work with project staff (the two project directors plus one site director in each department), visiting experts in economics and public policy, and consultant experts in teaching quantitative disciplines, to deliver a range of programs at each site which will: (1) show minority students the direct relevance of economics for African American communities; (2) stimulate a greater number of students to major in the discipline; (3) encourage more majors to seek graduate degrees in economics and public policy; (4) provide guidance and mentoring for H.B.C.U. students from economics faculty at highly ranked graduate departments; (5) deepen substantially the public policy component of many phases of economics education at the H.B.C.U.s; (6) provide a sustained forum for H.B.C.U. economics faculty to interact with economics faculty at highly ranked graduate departments; (7) set the stage for a program of self-study of H.B.C.U. economics departments.1 Problem Identification. Significant undergraduate study in economics is a major advantage for acceptance into and success in post-baccaluareate programs programs in economics and public policy. Unless the number of students majoring in economics at the H.B.C.U.s increases, the number of African Americans going onto graduate school in economics will continue to be very small. Demographic information on economists underscores the need to increase the number of African American students going on the graduate school in economics: of the 12,000 plus members of the largest professional association of economists, the American Economic Association (A.E.A.), only 125 are black! While the need to increase the supply of black economists is obvious, the best way to meet this need is less clear. At first blush it might seem that the current minority advancement programs like those sponsored by the A.E.A. and the Woodrow Wilson Institute for Public Policy, the Minority Advancement Program in Public Policy, (M.A.P.P.) address this problem. These programs, however, have some significant limitations. =46irst, these summer programs are only available for a tiny fraction of the black student population: the A.E.A. program enrolls only 25 students per summer, while M.A.P.P. enrolls about 150 (30 students at each of 5 sites: University of Texas; Stanford University; Carnegie Mellon; Princeton; and the University of Michigan). Consequently there is tremendous excess demand for these programs. A second limitation is the fact that very few of the selected students are from H.B.C.U.s. Consequently, these programs fail to reach significant numbers of the black students who have the potential to go on to graduate programs in economics and public policy, but who need some additional, discipline based enrichment to succeed in such graduate programs. A third limitation concerns the assumptions of the intervention. Both programs presuppose the existence of motivated students majoring in economics or related disciplines. If however, few students at the H.B.C.U.s are enrolled in programs leading to the economics degree, then these programs do little to increase the pool of potential African-American students going on to doctoral programs. The proposed project is an attempt to remedy these deficiencies. Project Design. The proposed project will pool the resources of the community of African American economists and policy analysts to provide extensive enrichment of economics education at each of the four participating schools. Project staff include the project directors (Feiner and Jones), site directors on each campus, expert consultants who will staff the student based conferences, and carefully selected professors from major economics departments with established reputations as excellent teachers in quantitative areas who will travel to each campus to teach a two week, math based economic seminar. (Arrangements for this unique feature of the project will be made by Dr. Cecelia Conrad, immediate past President of the National Economic Association working in close collaboration with Dr. Feiner. Preliminary contact with two top tier economics departments reveals both an interest in this project component and a willingness to absorb the costs of the visiting professor). The project will begin with a semester for planning. The economics departments will work with project staff to select the themes for the four student based conferences as soon as possible after notification of project funding. Project directors and site directors will work closely with departments to ensure that all affected by this project have a voice in the selection of conference topics. Work will then commence on assembling all the material needed to integrate these content areas into all aspects of the economics curriculum - from introductory classes through the upper level applied courses. Examples of topics which will be selected include: "The High Rate of African American Unemployment;" "The Economics of African American Families;" "Discrimination and Bank Lending;" "The Persistence and Consistence of Racial Income Inequality;" and "The Economic Problems of Urban American." Midway through the first semester of the project all staff will meet for three to four days to finalize all the elements of content integration relating to the selected topics. At this time project participants will be joined by Dr. Uri Triesman for intensive training in the methods he has pioneered for improving minority student performance in math based disciplines. We also hope to include at least one faculty member from Denison University who will instruct us the innovative use of computer labs in economics. (Please note: we are seeking support from a number of sources for computer labs in economics at all four schools. Upon securing such funds we will establish computer labs based on the model developed at Denison). By the end of the planning meeting each site director will have chosen one conference theme upon which she/he will specialize. Each site director will work closely with the African American economists with expertise in that area and will then serve as a resource person on that topic for the project as a whole. As specialists the site directors will spend the remainder of the term preparing an instructors manual for distribution to all participating economics faculty which will contain all the elements needed for teaching that specific content area. Special attention will be paid to innovative teaching methodologies including strategies for cooperative learning, and active learning. During semester two, and repeating in each of the remaining three semesters during which we will conduct student based conferences, the site directors, working with the project directors will implement the components of the proposed project. At its conclusion the project will have produced a replicable plan for enriching economics education at H.B.C.U.s thereby stimulating non-traditional students to major in the discipline and then pursue doctoral degrees. (See Appendix A for a schematic outline of the project). The centerpiece of the project will be the series of student conferences focussing on current issues of immediate concern to African American communities. Each semester the project directors and the site directors will organize panels of distinguished black economists or public policy analysts who willvisit each site for two days. Project staff will help the experts and resident faculty prepare for the student conferences. =46aculty teaching both upper level and introductory classes will have an instructor's handbook which includes the array of materials needed to integrate conference topics into virtually all aspects of the economics curriculum. The student conferences will include panel sessions, lectures, small group seminars and media exhibitions. Visiting experts will also meet with upper level classes and with interested students in a variety of informal settings. These student conferences, based as they are on the visits of expert black economists and policy analysts, will enrich economics department offerings in a number of ways. The panel presentations will be integrated with course work at both the introductory and advanced levels. Consequently faculty and students will be exposed to very current material in a variety of content areas. The special topics classes will produce newsletters for distribution with the campus paper which will announce the upcoming conference and introduce all students to the questions, issues and policies which will be the focus of the conferences. Experts will visit the relevant upper level classes to lead discussions and present cutting edge research on the topics under consideration. Students and panelists will meet in other less formal situations to explore the prospects of graduate school. As students respond to the project and evince their interest in economics and graduate school, the site directors will counsel students on course selection, internships, graduate school opportunities and application procedures. A principal concern is to ensure that this project successfully addresses the quantitative weaknesses frequently exhibited by minority student populations which are likely playing a significant role in discouraging African American students from pursuing studies in economics. We believe that the specially designed, two week seminars in mathematical aspects of economics, taught by talented professors from prestigious universities, when combined with H.B.C.U. faculty training in Triesman's techniques and the development of stronger computer labs in the economics curriculum, will help overcome student resistance to the technical, math-driven side of economics. A secondary concern is overcoming the obstacles to economics as a career choice arising from the absence of African American role models in economics. This problem is addressed through the many campus visits of minority economists and public policy analysts. Indeed, we are confident that programming which shows the direct relevance of economic theory and empirical technique to the most pressing problems of African American communities will both attract students to the major and interest them in the prospect of attending graduate school. Feasibility and Continuity. The project directors, Dr. Susan Feiner (Hampton University) and Dr. Barbara Jones (Prairie View A & M University) have considerable expertise in designing economic education programs. Dr. =46einer is a nationally recognized leader in economic education curriculum reform whose work focuses on the role of multicultural approaches to economics. Dr. Jones is an economist and the Dean of the School of Business at one of the largest public historically black universities. For many years she has directed the efforts of the N.E.A. to increase the supply of black economists. All four participating Universities have agreed to support this project beyond the three years for which FIPSE funding is sought. Such support will include continued one eighth released time for the site-directors so that they can run student conferences one time per year. The schools will also provide continued funding for the conferences, expert visits, and the newsletter. Project Calendar and Budget. F.I.P.S.E. is asked to support this project for three years. Project staff will meet during Fall of 1994 to design elements for inclusion in the economics curriculum.Prior to this meeting all project staff will have agreed upon outcomes based learning objectives for all activities to occur as part of the project. Project staff will work with the consulting economists and policy analysts to ensure that their presentations meet the learning objectives for each topic. Beginning in Fall, 1994, project staff will work with other departmental faculty to help them integrate these topics and materials into the syllabi and course objectives of the relevant economics courses. All activities related to the student conferences will be repeated during semesters 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the project (Winter 1995 through Fall 1996). The project concludes with a two day conference, open to economics educators from all 127 H.B.C.U.s, during which project results will be shared and training in the topics used to accomplish project results will be provided. The program will be administered from Hampton University and Prairie View A & M University with assistance from the National Economics Association.2 Assessment of project results will be guided by assessment experts at the Hampton University Center for Teaching Excellence. Funds are sought for: project director released time (Feiner only); site director released time; room and board for all project participants at the planning meeting; travel, room and board for visiting experts to attend student based conferences; conference activities including the newsletters; the gala capstone conference; office supplies; toll telephone; and a special consultant fee for Triesman. 1 This proposal was selected for submission of a final proposal to FIPSE in 1993. The project directors were told, however, that financial contingencies in the agency prevented the funding of this project. In this revised preliminary proposal a number of the criticisms raised in prior review's have been addressed and we hope that FIPSE will again find this project to be of sufficient merit to warrant an invitation to submit a full proposal. 2 Many of the most highly respected black economists in the United States from such prestigious institutions as; Harvard University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Barnard College, Wellesley College, The Joint Center for Economic and Policy Studies, The National Urban League and The Urban Institute, have agreed to participate in this project. --========================_3788892==_--
