Frequently Asked Questions 1. Q: What elements are included in the grant application? Is there some way to see what is required in the grant application? or must one register with the site? A: Yes, in order to access the proposal you must register. http://grantmaking.rwjf.org/pipelineprofessionandpractice. 2. Q: If we are applying for a grant to improve our recruitment and admissions programs to enroll a more diverse student body, why is it required for us to show evidence that we have a community-based service learning program for our students? And vice versa? A: The findings from Phase I indicate that students recruited and enrolled as part of a diversity initiative are interested in providing services to their communities. Also, in preparing the school’s environment for diversity, all students benefit from learning experiences in underserved communities. These two initiatives support each other. 3. Q: What do you mean by evidence of a community-based program and a recruitment and admissions program geared toward diversity? A: On the application form, there is a place for you to indicate the number of weeks you rotate students to extramural sites, and the number and types of community-based sites with which your school affiliates. While there is no magic number of weeks that has been shown to enrich and broaden the students’ education, most of the Phase I schools began with 15 days of off-site rotations and ended with an average of 50-60 days of off-site rotations for most senior students. Similarly, there will be a place on the application form to indicate the types of underrepresented minority (URM) student recruitment programs the school operates. Recruitment initiatives may include summer enrichment programs, whether the school subscribes to whole file review of a candidates’ application, the number of first year URM students enrolled in the fall of 2007, and the percentage of URM students in the overall student body. 4. Q: What do you mean by whole file review of a candidate’s application? A: Whole file review is the manner in which a school processes the applications of candidates. Instead of relying mainly on quantitative scores such as DAT and GPA scores, the school considers all of the qualities that candidates’ possess. These qualitative characteristics include leadership, educational and family background, and considers the type of challenges students have faced in order to obtain pre-dental education, including the need to work to support him/her self and/or family. 5. Q: Why is it expected that schools have already made accomplishments in line with the Dental Pipeline program goals? A: Phase I schools had five years to plan and implement their programs. Much time was required in completing tasks, including curriculum committee approval for curriculum changes that permit extramural service learning, in developing affiliation agreements with off-site clinics and practices, and gaining an understanding of the types of changes necessary at the admissions committee level to enroll a diverse class. Once these issues were well thought out, most of the schools made their major advances in the final two years of the grant. This current Phase II grant is for 27 months, only 3 months of which can be used to do final planning. Therefore, unless the school already has set diversity and off-site service learning as a demonstrated priority, there would not be sufficient time to achieve the expected outcomes. This grant is intended to provide the extra support needed for a school that has already been developing programs to move to the next plateau of program implementation. 6. Q: Are schools funded in Phase I of the Dental Pipeline program eligible to apply for a Round 2 grant? A: The California Dental Schools are not eligible to apply for the RWJF Dental Pipeline grant. The California Endowment has approved a Phase II program for the five schools in that state. The other Phase I dental schools can be part of a recruitment collaborative but may not apply on their own to be a funded site. 7. Q: What do you mean by recruitment collaborative? A: In Phase I, the five California schools developed collaboration on recruitment of URM students. The schools in the northeast set up a similar collaborative approach to recruitment. The collaborative approach brought the schools together to produce recruitment materials that they all could use on trips to colleges, develop joint post-baccalaureate programs, and hold meetings for pre-health advisors. The collaborative approach included joint planning activities, which developed into an organizational structure. This is described in an article published in the J. Dent Educ 2007; 71(3):339-347, and the California and Northeast manuals. 8. Q: How would Phase I schools become involved in a recruitment collaborative, if we wish to set up a regional collaborative with one? A: Phase I schools are eligible, only if they are part of, or lead, a multischool recruitment or community-based practice collaborative. Funds for the collaborative would be shared between schools as part of a budget for the collaborative. 9. Q: What do you mean by a community-based practice collaborative? A: Some schools (for example, schools within the same state) may wish to collaborate and partner to expand their network of community-based sites for student rotations and share resources such as management, quality assurance initiatives or other joint endeavors that could strengthen community-based education. Such arrangements would be permitted for grant proposal submission. 10. Q: The CFP mentions that Round 1 schools are only eligible, if they are "part of or lead a multischool recruitment or community-based practice collaborative". Would partnerships with a school within an academic medical center, e.g. with the medical school count as a "multischool" collaborative? 12. Q: Which students does this project consider underrepresented minority and low-income students? A: Underrepresented minorities (URM) are defined as racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the dental profession relative to their numbers in the general population. Although Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans are the primary underrepresented racial groups in the dental profession, there may well be others in your region that fit this definition. Low-income students come from families with annual incomes below or within 200% of the poverty level, or as defined by your institution. 13. Q: Should we include all didactic and clinical experiences over the four years of the undergraduate education in our description of current community-based education? A: Please focus on experiences in clinical settings such as community health centers, clinics and practices that provide care to primarily underserved patients. This may include student experiences as observers, dental auxiliaries, and providers of care in all four years of the DDS program. 14. Q: Why is the community-based program aimed at senior level students? A: Part of the goal for the Dental Pipeline program is to provide more care to underserved patients. Therefore, students at the senior level who have already gained initial competency in a variety of clinical procedures, have the capacity to add to the workforce in the off-site clinics. In Phase I, senior students were able to treat 7 to 8 patients a day on their assignments. 15. Q: For proposals on community-based service learning - is there a required amount of time that 4th year students need to spend in the community sites to meet the grant requirements? 17. Q: What do you mean that the community-based program should be set up as a service-learning program? A: Students require preparation for their off-site assignments. Service-learning includes preparing students with a seminar(s) prior to going to their assignments, which provides them with cultural and communication skills and includes a post assignment seminar(s) to discuss their experiences. Assigning students to undertake reflective assignments while on rotation expands the students’ education. In the JDE (Mofidi, M. et al. Dental Students’ Reflections on Their Community-Based Experiences: The Use of Critical Incidents. J. Dent Educ 2003; 67: 515-523.) the reflective assignment method used in one of the Phase I schools was eventually used successfully by several of the other Phase I schools. 18. Q: Why is it required that students receive credit for the clinical procedures they accomplish while on rotation? A: It was the experience of Phase I schools that to make it possible for students to spend a substantial time off-site and still complete requirements for graduation, it was necessary to award credits for the procedures done off-site. Many of the schools carried out calibration exercises between off- and on-site faculty, so that the preceptors off-site would evaluate students in a similar manner as the on-site faculty. 19. Q: In order to apply, is it necessary to already have in place affiliations with community-base clinics, hospitals, and practices? A: Yes. Since the grant period is 27 months, it is necessary to already have affiliations in place; however, part of the proposal may include expanding the network of off-site facilities to move the program to the next level. For example, a school may currently be operating an elective community-based service learning program and wish to expand it for all students. Then, part of the comprehensive strategy that the school proposes can include adding new sites and developing new affiliation agreements. 20. Q: Are community-based health centers, accredited dental hygiene, and GPR residency programs eligible to apply? A: No. Eligibility for this second round of funding is limited to accredited dental schools only. 21. Q: What types of recruitment and retention programs will this grant support? A: Schools that are applying under this category should already be involved in efforts to increase their enrollment of URM/LI students, but may wish to make more progress through a comprehensive recruitment program that includes adding a summer enrichment program for applicants at the college level. Schools may wish to develop with their parent university or with an already established post-baccalaureate program, a pipeline into their entering class after successful completion of the post-bacc program. Retention programs can include efforts to improve the climate in the school for diversity and specific academic and personal counseling programs. The school may wish to utilize funds to hire staff or to compensate faculty to participate in these efforts, but the school should indicate that such positions or funds would continue after the grant is over. 22. Q: What is meant by "a school must show evidence of a comprehensive 'enrollment management program'”? A: A comprehensive enrollment management program incorporates diversity goals from the perspectives of admissions, financial aid, recruitment/outreach, student affairs, academic affairs and classroom learning outcomes. 23. Q: Can funds be used to assist the admissions process in adjusting to whole file review? A: Yes. Moving to a whole file review process is complex. For example, further work may be necessary in preparing electronic files to facilitate the whole file review of candidates. Formalizing a process to take into account attributes of candidates other than the quantitative scores such as DAT and GPA may be necessary, and require the school to get additional assistance to accomplish that task. However, a school should already have adopted a policy to subscribe to a whole file review prior to the submission of the grant application. 24. Q: What do you mean by a patient-centered delivery system? A: Most off-site community based clinics and practices place the patient at the center of the operations of their facility. In this environment, the dentists provide direct patient care. Adequate allied dental health personnel for efficient care are employed, and quality assurance systems are in place to assess the outcome of care. It was the experience of the Phase I schools, that in this setting, usually one or two students at a time could be rotated to the site. The dental director usually put aside some time in the first few days to oversee the student until he/she became comfortable with the students’ clinical ability and judgment, but later was able to continue seeing their normal patient load. Successful schools provided the dental director with a written report on the competency level of the assigned students. Longer rotations at the site were better on student learning and less disruptive of the patient-care mission for the site. 25. Q: The grant requires that we supplement Foundation funds with at least $50,000 of institutional or other funds in each of the two grant years. Why is this? A: The Foundation seeks schools that are already committed to the goals of this program and are willing to put their own funds to improving their operational capacity. It has been the experience of many funders, including the RWJF, that without a financial commitment by the grantee, there is less likelihood that the institution will sustain programs. 26. Q. The planning budget period is described as a 3-month period, but the given dates (3/1-6/30)cover four months. Can you clarify? A. Yes, you are correct. 3/1 to 6/30 is really four months. The National Program Office has built into the timeline a 1-month grace period just in case the grants are not issued by RWJF until 4/1. If you are awarded a grant, there will be an opportunity to nail down the timeline more firmly, whether it is a 4-month or 3-month planning period. For now, just budget for 3 months of planning.
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