ASHA Strategic Plan

Issue B

First Quarter Progress Report (January-March)

ISSUE B: A critical shortage and continuing attrition of doctoral-level faculty in higher education is affecting the preparation of professionals as well as the conduct of research in communication sciences and disorders.

1^st Quarter Highlights

• The Faculty, Researchers and PhD Students Website brochure and "Reward Yourself with a Career as a College Professor" brochure have been distributed at conferences such as: AAA, CAPCSD, and to Special Interest Divisions Steering Committees.
• The Mentoring Academic Researcher Careers (MARC) program is being developed within the Gathering Place portal. Program goals, description, eligibility and selection criteria have been completed. A presentation was made on the MARC Program at the CAPCSD conference in April 2006.
• The special interest divisions and ASHA will pay Convention registrations for 1 new investigator and 1 NSSLHA student whose convention presentation proposals receive the highest scores in each Convention Topic area.
• The special interest divisions are supporting existing Mentoring programs hosted on the ASHA Web site and are exploring ways to expand the use of the Mentoring portal to promote careers in research and as PhD faculty.
• The 2006 application guidelines for the Students Preparing for Academic and Research Careers (SPARC) were established and marketed and the open application period of March 1^st to May 16^th is underway.
• The 2006 Advancing Academic and Research (AARC) Award application and review guidelines have been established. Open application period extends from March 1^st to May 16^th.
• The program for the ASHA/ASHF Interdisciplinary Research Young Investigator award grants program has been completed and grants will be awarded in September 2006.
• Rep. Wilson (R-SC) introduced HR 670 that would reauthorize loan forgiveness of up to $17,500 for SLPs and highly qualified math, science, and special education teachers who have worked in Title 1 schools for 5 years. Similar legislation is being pursued in the Senate. ASHA lobbyists are continuing to work with the new Education & Workforce committee staff to have SLPs defined as a subsection of special education for the purposes of this bill.
• The precedent to recognize SLPs in schools as an area of national need was included in H.R. 609, the 2005 Higher Education Act reauthorization under the existing Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAAN) program that would qualify any school-based SLP with a new loan and five-years of service would qualify for $5,000 of loan forgiveness. As the legislation moves to conference, ASHA will attempt to broaden this recognition in other parts of HEA. It is unclear when or if the Senate will pass its bill and a conference can be held in 2006.
• A request for a line-item appropriation was submitted through the FY2007 Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations bill, through the assistance of Sen. Mikulski (MD) & Rep. VanHollen (MD), to seek a funding with the American Speech-Language Hearing Foundation acting as the primary distribution organization to award grants to CSD academic programs.

There are 9 strategies in the work plan for Issue B. Following is the status for the 1^st quarter.

NOTE: View the progress reports for the ASHA Focused Initiative on the PhD Shortage for additional information about ASHA initiated activities related to the Issue B.