In 2004, the National Science Foundation (NSF) contracted with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct a short-term study to assess program impact and collect evidence of project success in infrastructure enhancement (i.e., courses, equipment, faculty), and student recruitment, retention, graduation and advancement in STEM careers.
In addition, the study was to describe the project model(s) and determine whether or not the model(s) could guide national efforts for achieving and sustaining diversity in the STEM workforce.
AIR undertook a three-part study that involved secondary analysis of the Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) and national data, case studies of the MIE projects to identify the project model(s) and benchmarking the core components of the model(s) against national standards.