Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads (2011) / Chapter Skim
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1 A Strong Science and Engineering Workforce
1 A Strong Science and Engineering Workforce
Pages 17-32
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From page 17... ...
Yet, while our capability in science and engineering is as strong as ever, the dominance of the United States in these fields has faded as the rest of the world has invested and grown in research and education capacities. Gathering Storm documented this global leveling and argued that the United States is at a crossroads: For the United States to maintain the global leadership and competitiveness in science and technology that are critical to achieving national goals today, we 17
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. must invest in research, encourage innovation, and grow a strong, talented, and innovative science and technology workforce.1 This call to action in Gathering Storm resonated strongly in both national political parties and in the executive and legislative branches of government, resulting in the American Competitiveness Initiative, the Academic Competitiveness Council, the America COMPETES Act, and spending provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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In Educating Americans for the 21st Century (1983) the National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology presented a plan of action for improving mathematics, science, and technology education for all American elementary and secondary students and articulated the need for well-trained, highly qualified teachers of mathematics in a technological society.
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workforce as part of a larger plan to sustain our scientific and technological leadership. These workforce recommendations focused on improving K-12 STEM education as well as providing incentives to students to pursue S&E education at the undergraduate and graduate levels.3 However, the recommendations are insufficient: A national effort to sustain and strengthen our science and engineering workforce must also include a strategy for ensuring that we draw on the minds and talents of all Americans, including minorities who are underrepresented in science and engineering and currently embody an underused resource and a lost opportunity.
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2007. Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.
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Unfortunately, many institutions have seen this as sufficient for meeting their diversity goals and have even misclassified some international students and faculty as underrepresented minorities. It should be noted that minority women have not fared as well as white women in the S&E workforce, but they have shown greater increases in degree production.
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In subsequent years, the graduate enrollment of international students has increased, but as of 2008, writes CGS, "the rebound in total international enrollment still has not been large enough to reverse the declines that many institutions reported in 2004."6 In addition to these data on international enrollment levels, there is cause for concern about whether international students who earn doctorates here will seek to stay and participate in the U.S. science and engineering enterprise or choose to return home or to other parts of the world.
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population by the year 2050. So, without a change in course, the current gap between underrepresented minority presence in the population and underrepresented minority participation in S&E will only increase at a time when we most need to close it.
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S science and engineering workforce, by race/ethnicity, 2006.
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:10 Companies that implement workforce diversity policies identify important benefits that strengthen long-term competitiveness and, in certain instances, also produce short and medium-term improvements in performance. Companies also face costs of legal compliance, cash costs for additional staff and training, opportunity costs, and business risks.
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:13 Whether diversity affects overall economic growth depends upon the political environment. Diversity is highly damaging to growth in the context of limited political rights, but is not damaging in democracies.
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• The results support the central role of higher education in helping students to become active citizens and participants in a pluralistic democracy. Students who experienced diversity in classroom settings and in informal interactions showed the most engagement in various forms of citizenship and the most engagement with people from different races/cultures.
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From page 29... ...
The Senators and the COMPETES Act both charged the study committee to explore the role of diversity in the STEM workforce and its value in keeping America innovative and competitive; analyze the rate of change and the challenges the nation currently faces in developing a strong and diverse workforce; and identify best practices and the characteristics of these practices that make them effective and sustainable. They further charged the study committee with addressing the following questions: 1.
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From page 30... ...
• Experts on demographic trends in STEM fields, including Lisa Frehill, Commission of Professionals in Science and Technology. • Stakeholder groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Defense Industry Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Action Council for
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From page 31... ...
The committee also heard from individuals involved in earlier reports focused on increasing the participation of minorities in STEM fields, including the following: • Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development, Land of Plenty; • National Science and Technology Council, Ensuring a Strong U.S. Scientific, Technical, and Engineering Workforce in the 21st Century; • Building Engineering and Science Talent, A Bridge for All and What It Takes; • Willie Pearson Jr., and Diane Martin, Broadening Participation Through a Comprehensive, Integrated System; • National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Confronting the New American Dilemma: Underrepresented Minorities in Engineering; • American Association for the Advancement of Science, In Pursuit of a Diverse Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Workforce: Recommended Research Priorities to Enhance Participation by Underrepresented Minorities and other reports; and • National Research Council, Assessment of NIH Minority Research Training Programs and Understanding Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Research Careers.
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From page 32... ...
The final chapter provides recommendations and a comprehensive list of implementation actions across educational stages and stakeholders. It also includes two priority actions focused on the committee's near-term goal of increasing the persistence and completion of underrepresented minority undergraduates in STEM.
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