Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads (2011) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Dimensions of the Problem
2 Dimensions of the Problem
Pages 33-50
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From page 33... ...
In the late nineteenth century, they note, technological change in the United States became "skill-biased" -- driving demand for an ever more skilled workforce. This skill-demanding technological change was an important force in the United States throughout the twentieth century, with the change brought on by the information technology revolution only the latest chapter, leading to a pattern of increased educational attainment.1 Goldin and Katz have summarized that history of increased educational attainment in the United States: Not long ago the United States led the world in education and had done so for quite some time.
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From page 34... ...
has challenged the United States to have the highest proportion of postsecondary graduates in the world by 2020.5 Patterns of racial participation in education overlay this history in a critical way. Underrepresented minorities were largely and systematically excluded from mainstream educational opportunities through de jure and de facto segregation that continued from Plessy v.
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From page 35... ...
This period of inclusion for underrepresented minorities, however, particularly from the 1970s on, coincides with stagnation in both public educational investment and overall levels of educational attainment. So, little progress has been made to more than marginally improve educational outcomes for minorities.6 While the targeted level of 55 percent postsecondary attainment is already achieved by Asian Americans in the United States and nearly matched by our white population (as it is by their peer cohorts in Canada and Japan)
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From page 36... ...
The data on underrepresented minorities in the S&E workforce, however, suggest that while there has been needed progress, there is also reason for continued concern, even alarm. For example, the percentage of our college-educated, nonacademic S&E labor force that is African American increased from 2.6 percent in 1980 to 5.1 percent in 2005, and the percentage that is Hispanic increased from 2.0 percent to 5.2 percent during that period.9 However, these percentages and the progress they represent remain small and insufficient, as African Americans comprise 11 percent and Hispanics 14 percent of the U.S.
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From page 37... ...
NSF, S&E Degree Awards, 2006, Table 3. underrepresented minorities; the percentage of URM women is even lower.10 Whites were overrepresented at 74.5 percent of the S&E workforce compared to 67.4 percent of the U.S.
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From page 38... ...
In 2007, they earned 0.5 percent of S&E doctoral degrees awarded by U.S institutions to U.S. citizens and permanent residents and just 0.3 percent of S&E doctorates awarded to all recipients (including non-US citizens who are temporary visa holders)
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From page 39... ...
• African American and Hispanic students persist in these fields through their third year of study. By the spring of 1998, students in each racial/ethnic group continued to study STEM fields at nearly the same rates (56 percent of African Americans and Hispanics, 57 percent of whites and Asian Americans)
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From page 40... ...
completion rates of the 2004 STEM majors by race/ethnicity, finding that underrepresented minorities completed at a much lower rate at both intervals relative to their white and Asian American peers. White and Asian American students who started as STEM majors have four-year STEM degree completion rates of 24.5 and 32.4 percent, respectively.
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From page 41... ...
sented minorities and whites and Asian Americans are similarly large for the 1995 and 2004 cohorts, and, in the case of the 2004 cohort, the gap appears to increase as the interval from matriculation grows. Another salient dimension to the picture of STEM completion for underrepresented minorities is the difference in completion rates for underrepresented minorities in STEM relative to those for underrepresented minorities who major in non-STEM fields.
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From page 42... ...
ACE also found that "strategies for increasing the degree completion of minority students in the STEM fields are the same for increasing success in any other major," a conclusion similar to that of Daryl Chubin and Wanda Ward, who have examined features of programs designed to increase participation of underrepresented minori
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From page 43... ...
For example, there was a 77 percent increase in S&E associate's degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities from 1998 to 2007, with an increase of about 50 percent in computer sciences.14 Community colleges face the same challenges in retaining students as do other institutions, or even more than they do. Many incoming freshmen lack the basic mathematics and science prerequisites for persistence, especially in urban communities that serve a large minority population from low-performing high schools, and the institutions are forced to provide intensive programs in remedial education to increase minority student retention in STEM.
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From page 44... ...
Individuals of underrepresented minority ancestry comprise the majority of these groups, so the growth of this category may result in some level of underreporting of minority participation. NSF/SRS documentation.
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From page 45... ...
(In both cases, again, these are gains over a very small base.) The increases among Hispanics and African Americans partially compensated for decreases during this period in the numbers of whites and Asians earning S&E doctorates (the downward trend in doctoral degrees awarded to whites and Asians turned around in 2003 and are heading back to pre-2000 levels)
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From page 46... ...
From 1998 to 2007, temporary visa holders increased their numbers in S&E doctorate awards by 50.4 percent and were, therefore, one of the fastest growing groups by far. This increase continued over time during the post-September 11 period when there was significant concern about the application, acceptance, and enrollment of non-U.S.
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From page 47... ...
Three African American chemists, for example, are responsible for mentoring close to 400 minority students in the field who then went on to earn PhDs and, for the most part, to enter academic careers.17 However, the level of underrepresented minority participation in the doctoral S&E workforce is very small. As shown in Figure 2-7, underrepresented minorities as a whole comprised just 8 percent of academic doctoral scientists and engineers working in four-year colleges and universities in 2006.
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From page 48... ...
Figure2 7.eps TABLE 2-2 Principal Investigators on NIH Research Grants, by Race/ Ethnicity African Americansa Hispanicb Otherc Fiscal Year White 2000 86.2% 1.3% 2.9% 11.4% 2001 85.7% 1.3% 2.9% 12.1% 2002 85.2% 1.5% 3.1% 12.4% 2003 84.4% 1.6% 3.3% 13.2% 2004 83.5% 1.7% 3.3% 14.1% 2005 82.8% 1.7% 3.5% 14.8% 2006 82.1% 1.8% 3.5% 15.4% a Race data may contain individuals reporting Hispanic ethnicity, as well as individuals reporting more than one race b "All Hispanic" includes Hispanic Race, plus individuals reporting Hispanic Ethnicity (for these individuals the data includes individuals who are represented in one or more of the racial groups) c Includes Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native.
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From page 49... ...
There is underproduction of S&E graduates at every educational level from secondary school through doctoral education. Underrepresented minorities are also significantly underrepresented in the doctoral population, in the faculty, and among researchers awarded federal research funds.
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