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Audit of NSF's Math and Science Partnership Program and MSP/EHR's response to the report

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/oigaudit/inter nal/mspprogram.pdf

Office of Inspector General, Response by MSP/EHR

NSF Publication

May 2004

MSP Papers

The Office of the Inspector General recently conducted an audit of the MSP program in order to determine whether the MSP award recipients have effective evaluation processes in place, and to determine NSF's plan to evaluate the overall performance of the MSP program.

The full report as well as the response offered by the Directorate of EHR and the MSP Program has been made available by NSF.

Brief excerpt from MSP/EHR response:

"...perhaps the most important point to be made is that elements in a project's evaluation plan that are perceived by the Audit Team as "missing" are not always indicative of a flaw in evlauation planning, but rather of the evolving project design that emanates for its R & D nature." (p.22)

We hope that this statement as well as other assertions made by the Audit Team and by NSF will serve to stimulate a rich discussion among MSPnet Hub members.

Join the Discussion on Evaluating the MSPs

Table of Contents

Introduction	1
Background	1
Expectations for MSP Project and Program Evaluation	2
Objective, Scope, and Methodology	3
Results of Audit	6
NSF Needs to Provide MSP Project Evaluation Guidance	7
Agency Response and OIG Comments	12
NSF Needs to Make Evaluating the MSP Program a Priority	14
Agency Response and OIG Comments	15
Attachment
A. Agency Response	16

06/09/2004