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The Academic Career Readiness Assessment: Clarifying Hiring and Training Expectations for Future Biomedical Life Sciences Faculty

Laurence Clement

*Address correspondence to: Laurence Clement (E-mail Address: [email protected]).

Office of Career and Professional Development, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143

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Jennie B. Dorman

Office of Career and Professional Development, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143

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, and

Richard McGee

Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611

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Adele Wolfson, Monitoring Editor

Published Online:26 May 2020https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-11-0235

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Abstract

We describe here the development and validation of the Academic Career Readiness Assessment (ACRA) rubric, an instrument that was designed to provide more equity in mentoring, transparency in hiring, and accountability in training of aspiring faculty in the biomedical life sciences. We report here the results of interviews with faculty at 20 U.S. institutions that resulted in the identification of 14 qualifications and levels of achievement required for obtaining a faculty position at three groups of institutions: research intensive (R), teaching only (T), and research and teaching focused (RT). T institutions hire candidates based on teaching experience and pedagogical practices and ability to serve diverse student populations. RT institutions hire faculty on both research- and teaching-related qualifications, as well as on the ability to support students in the laboratory. R institutions hire candidates mainly on their research achievements and potential. We discuss how these hiring practices may limit the diversification of the life science academic pathway.

Vol. 19, No. 2

June 01, 2020

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History

Submitted: 14 November 2019

Revised: 18 February 2020

Accepted: 26 February 2020

Information

© 2020 L. Clement et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2020 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

This project was funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Guidance for Trainees Award 1015227 and by the UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development. We are appreciative of the many faculty who have contributed their time and expertise to the development of ACRA through interviews. We would like to thank Kelly Albus, Andrea Goldfien, Bill Lindstaedt, Victoria McGovern, Thi Nguyen, Naledi Saul, Allyson Spence, and Allison Hunter for their scientific and technical support in developing and conducting this project. We also thank Rachel Care, D’Anne Duncan, Michael Matrone, Michael Mullen, Gabriela Monsalve, Sapna Puri, Alexandra Schnoes, Tina Solvik, Elizabeth Watkins, Sumitra Tatapudy, and the UCSF Trends, Issues and Programs meeting attendees for their support of the project and/or for feedback on our findings. A special thanks to Stephanie Gardner, Diane Ebert-May, and John Vasquez for their thoughtful feedback on the article, and the members of the Graduate Career Consortium Education Research Committee, including Kelly Ahn, Amanda Bolgioni-Smith, Andrew Green, Christine Kelly, Natalie Lundsteen, Chris Smith, and Shoba Subramanian. We would like to thank the Association of American Medical Colleges for awarding the ACRA rubric the first prize of the 2019 Innovations in Research and Research Education Award.

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