The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) is the principal federal agency supporting applied research, training, and development to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities. NIDRR's mission is to generate new knowledge and promote its effective use in improving the ability of persons with disabilities to perform activities of their choice in the community, as well as to expand society's capacity to provide full opportunities and accommodations for its citizens with disabilities.

NIDRR prides itself on being proactive in establishing program performance measures and developing accountability data systems to track the progress of its grantees. An electronic annual reporting system is used to collect data from grantees on many aspects of grant operation and outputs. Various formative and summative evaluation approaches have been used to assess the quality of the performance and results of the agency's research portfolio and its grantees. Prompted by the need to provide more data on its program results, in 2009 NIDRR requested that the National Research Council (NRC) conduct an external evaluation of some of the agency's key processes and assess the quality of outputs produced by NIDRR grantees (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2009a). Review of Disability and Rehabilitation Research presents the results of that evaluation.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• COMMITTEE ON THE EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF NIDRR AND ITS GRANTEES
• BOARD ON HUMAN-SYSTEMS INTEGRATION
• Acknowledgments
• Summary
  • PROCESS EVALUATION
  • SUMMATIVE EVALUATION
  • SELF-ASSESSMENT OF THE COMMITTEE'S METHODS FOR OUTPUT REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE EVALUATIONS
  • CONCLUSION
• 1. Introduction
  • CHARGE TO THE COMMITTEE
  • BACKGROUND ON NIDRR
  • HISTORY OF NIDRR ASSESSMENTS
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
  • REFERENCES
• 2. Evaluation Scope and Methods
  • SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION
  • METHODS
  • CONCLUSION
  • REFERENCES
  • ANNEX 2-1 SUMMARY OF QUALITY CRITERIA AND DIMENSIONS
• 3. NIDRR's Priority-Setting Processes
  • DESCRIPTION OF NIDRR'S PRIORITY-SETTING PROCESS
  • RESULTS OF THE ASSESSMENT OF NIDRR'S PRIORITY-SETTING PROCESS
  • CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • Formation of an Advisory Council
  • Strategic Planning
  • Establishment of a Standard Calendar
  • Expanded Dissemination of Notices Inviting Application
  • REFERENCES
• 4. NIDRR's Peer Review Process
  • DESCRIPTION OF NIDRR'S PEER REVIEW PROCESS
  • RESULTS OF THE ASSESSMENT OF NIDRR'S PEER REVIEW PROCESS
  • CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • REFERENCES
  • ANNEX 4-1 SELECTION CRITERIA
• 5. Grant Management
  • GRANT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
  • USE OF GRANT RESULTS/OUTPUTS TO INFORM FUTURE PROJECTS
  • REFERENCES
  • ANNEX 5-1 SUMMARIES OF NEW GRANTS OR OTHER TYPES OF PROJECTS GENERATED BY NIDRR GRANTEES
• 6. Summative Evaluation
  • SUMMARY OF METHODS DEVELOPED FOR ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF OUTPUTS
  • RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION OF GRANTEE OUTPUTS
  • SELF-ASSESSMENT OF THE COMMITTEE'S REVIEW METHODS
  • CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE EVALUATIONS
  • REFERENCES
  • ANNEX 6-1 JOURNAL IMPACT FACTORS OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES FROM GRANTS IN THE ORIGINAL POOL FROM WHICH THE SAMPLE OF 30 GRANTS WAS DRAWN (N = 111 GRANTS, 631 ARTICLES)
• Appendixes
  • Appendix A Grant Summaries
  • Appendix B Rating Sheets/Questionnaires
  • Appendix C Acronyms
  • Appendix D Committee and Staff Biographical Sketches

This study was supported by Contract No. ED-OSE-09-C-0048 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

Suggested citation:

National Research Council. (2012). Review of Disability and Rehabilitation Research: NIDRR Grantmaking Processes and Products. Committee on the External Evaluation of NIDRR and Its Grantees. J.C. Rivard, M.E. O'Connell, and D.H. Wegman, Eds. Board on Human-Systems Integration, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.