Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) is a program in the Division of Human Resource Development (HRD), within the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). LSAMP was authorized by Congress and established in 1991 to help diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce. The program accomplishes this mission by funding institutions of higher education through a collective plan of action to implement evidence-based strategies for recruitment and retention to STEM degree for students historically underrepresented in these disciplines.
The LSAMP program priorities are to (a) increase individual student engagement, retention and progression to baccalaureate degrees for underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, (b) enable successful transfer of underrepresented minority students from two-year to four-year institutions in STEM programs (c) increase access to high quality STEM mentoring and undergraduate and graduate research experiences, (d) facilitate seamless transition of underrepresented minority students into STEM graduate programs and degree completion and (e) stimulate new research and learning on broadening participation in STEM disciplines.
In Oct 2021, the University of Michigan (as the lead institution for the Michigan LSAMP) received funding to continue its LSAMP programming. As a well-established alliance that has been in existence for more than 10 years, the MI-LSAMP is receiving funding to continue and expand programming to increase diversity in STEM disciplines. In addition, NSF is supporting knowledge generation, knowledge utilization, assessment of program impacts and dissemination activities.
For the length of the current grant period (2021 to 2026), the MI-LSAMP research initiatives will be led by researchers affiliated with the Diversity Research & Policy Program in the University of Michigan’s School of Education. More information about the MI-LSAMP research team and its ongoing activities can be found here.
Similarly, the MI-LSAMP evaluation efforts are being conducted by Rath Educational Evaluation & Research, a firm that is contracted as MI-LSAMP’s external evaluator. More information about the MI-LSAMP evaluation team and its activities can be found here.
Both teams view research & evaluation as a collaborative process, and have been meeting regularly since 2021 to discuss logistical matters and other issues that affect the work of both teams.
The research and evaluation activities described here are supported by a continuing grant (Award Number 2109942) from the Division of Human Resource Development, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation. The grant “Louis Stokes New STEM Pathways and Research Alliance-Michigan Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (MI-LSAMP)” also supports the programmatic activities of the alliance. The findings, conclusions and opinions expressed on this site are solely those of the research and evaluation teams and do not reflect or represent the official views of the National Science Foundation.