For research assistantships, however, we are on somewhat shaky ground in terms of making the same kind of determination of success. First of all, the funds are controlled by the institution, and the PI and the department have the final say on who gets funded under particular grants. We do not always know which students get support. We have little or no information about the demographic characteristics of the students being supported, which makes the RA a weak mechanism for addressing issues related to under-representation. It is even difficult for us to get an accurate count of how many students receive our support.
Different institutions have different databases, formats, policies, and procedures.
And, sometimes NSF support is shown separately from other agencies, sometimes it is not. The sources of support can change over the course of a year, as grants end and new funding sources replace them. There are also Privacy Act restrictions on the students records, which may prevent us from obtaining basic information like their social security numbers. In sum, there are a host of issues to address. Our Division of Science Resources Studies is currently working with professional societies and institutions on this, with the goal of developing a reliable and feasible means of identifying and tracking the students we support.