Factors That Influence The Matriculation Into Graduate School Stem Programs

Being admitted into college is a difficult process, one that requires students to be diligent in their studies, engage in a number of extracurricular activities, and overcome the everyday pressures and challenges that high-schoolers face across the country. Admittedly, not everyone in the United States is born with the same opportunities as socioeconomic factors as well as historic injustices have contributed to a society in which some people are far more likely to achieve upward mobility – of which, obtaining a college degree is a necessary part – than others. While there is need to rectify this reality,

Minorities are a growing segment of the population. However, this group continues to be underrepresented in the area of post secondary education. Obtaining an advanced degree remains a likely predictor of future career success. The problem facing the minority student is that barriers persist which continue to hinder enrollment, retention, and graduation rates in institutions of higher education. These barriers must be identified and examined and solutions offered if college completion rates are to be increased for this population.

As a part of the HBCU Alumni Alliance’s Higher Education initiative program; Alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are concerned about the inadequate representation of minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related professions. Consequently, DCHBCUAA STEM professionals have designed and organized an instructional hands-on STEM workshop for students in grades 10-12, to enlighten them on the different facets of professions available in the sciences. As a part of our community partnership with Kaiser Permanente, we have a workshop scheduled for Saturday, April 29, 2017, from 800 am-5:00 pm, at 2101 Jefferson Street in Rockville, Maryland.

Since the 1990’s however, there has been a 33% increase in the number of Hispanic Students enrolling in STEM programs. This does not mean that they necessary complete their degree, as Hispanics more likely to drop out of the program or university than their white counterparts. It used to be that one required a formal collegiate education in order to enter the STEM field, but more and more STEM students are entering the field through the completion of IT technical programs, or certificate programs. Hispanics have been taking advantage of this easier pathway into STEM careers, as 24 % of all STEM technical certificates were earned by Hispanics in the 2009-2010 school year. Unfortunately, the percentage of STEM degrees earned by Hispanics experienced

Since 2001, studies performed by the Princeton Review “show persistent… race bias in both the SAT and the ACT… The SAT favors white males, who tend to score better than all other groups, except Asian American males” (Zwick). Across the US, race bias is being displayed by the SAT and ACT tests. The SAT tends to cater to white males, while minorities and women are left with lower schools. Herman Aguinis along with being a professor at George Washington University and a chairman in The Kelley School of Business is also a researcher and professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Aguinis and his colleagues took a closer look at approximately 1,368 SAT takers who enroll in college annually. Their result show that 221,697 students attend colleges where a bias toward men and women based on the math component of the SAT is present (Unfair Bias in Standardized Tests?). Minorities and women are most likely not to submit test scores when given the option (Straws). Rebecca Zwick, professor in the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School states that “A 1994 College Board study found that there were on average, under predictions [of College GPAs] for Asian American students (and to a lesser extent white students) and over predictions for American Indian, black, and hispanic students” (Zwick). Predictions of college success for minority groups, such as Asian, American Indian, black, and Hispanic students, are unreliable. SAT scores were predicting higher or lower college GPAs than what was actually being acquired by these minority groups. The NACAC report of the commission on the use of standardized tests in undergraduate admission express concern that admissions test scores “calcify differences based on class, race/ethnicity, and parental educational attainment” (Rizzo). This prejudice towards minorities

Obtaining a college degree is ideal and expected in today’s society. Having attended and completed course work at a college institution can have an enormous effect on an individual’s life outcome. There are currently 2.2 million black students in college, with that being approximately 15% of the college population (Payne & Suddler, 2014). Black students’ enrollment in college has increased 5% over the past 40 years (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2015a). Although the Blacks students’ rate in college has increased it does not eliminate, nor decrease the challenges that comes with being a student.

The article, “Why Does the Gap Persist?” by Paul E. Barton is an attempt to try and make sense of why our minority students continue to struggle. Barton brings up the point that research has shown that equal access to education has not equated to equal achievement. Mr. Barton points out fourteen factors that affect student achievement. A summary of some of these points will follow.

Reyes summarizes the reasons why community college students from certain racial backgrounds struggle to get into STEM programs. African-American women, Hispanic women, and other women from similar backgrounds, in particular, drop out of STEM programs, citing reasons such as personal obligations and money issues. Minority women who pursue STEM degrees face hurdles other women simply do not. These include but are not limited to: a shortage of money, struggles adjusting to another college, and other obligations. In addition, individuals within the university do not believe in minority women as strongly as they believe in other students. There are many Caucasians in STEM programs, and some students from dissimilar backgrounds may not get the opportunity

That race continues to matter in public school classrooms has become abundantly clear particularly in education as in schools across the United States the student population has become more and more diverse (Bergeron, 2008). At the same time the opportunity gap between White and Latino and Black students remains quite wide. According to Lubenski (2002), the achievement gaps occur when one group of students is grouped by race/ethnicity or gender outperforms another group and the difference in average scores for the two groups is significant. While some gaps have begun to close, the opportunity gap between White and Black academic performance has continued to widen (Bohrnstedt, Kitmitto, Ogut, Sherman, & Chan, 2015). Glazer (2007) asserted that, “the most urgent issue in American education for the last half century has been the failure of large numbers of Black students to complete their education and reach an average level of competence” (p.81).

While an effort has been made to allow for a more seamless transition from high school to college or from AEL to college, there still is not a strong effort to increase persistence among African American students. According to Bush and Bush, (2010), African American males, in particular, are “under-achieving and lag behind their counterparts in the community college system. . .” (p. 52). With AEL aligning with the community college model, one could conclude that African American males are lagging behind their counterparts in AEL as well. According to Bush and Bush (2010), “There is a pronounced scarcity of educational literature and research about the community college system in general and African American

In an attempt to retain minorities in higher education, efforts of resolving this current issue have met many challenges that have caused decreases in the enrollment of predominantly white institutions. There have been a variety of studies conducted since 2000 to measure the value of higher education including minority attendance and performances. ((NCES,2016:APA,2012;Bischel,2012;; IGI,2017;Tinto2005,2006,2014,: Swail 1999,2008; Kamenetz,2016;USGA, N.D.; GAPS,2015). Most of these occurred in early 2000 with very little to nothing being done during meaningfully in the last decade. In the ACE study, New Jersey, and Arkansas, however, are examining the impact of minority higher education retention and it’s significant to our society and

Absent racial preferences, Hispanic acceptance at elite institutions would drop to half its current rate, while black acceptance would plummet by two-thirds. By contrast, the number Asian acceptances would rise from 17.6% to 24.3%. Given these statistics, Asian interest groups fear that race amounts to more than just “one factor among many” in admissions processes.

The mentoring program for underrepresented racial minority (URM) college undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors at Tacoma Community College (TCC) in Tacoma, WA has established short-, intermediate-, and long-term outcomes. This mentoring program aims to provide support to URMs in STEM majors to increase participant academic performance, confidence and self-efficacy, and sense of belonging within their educational department and the college campus. Furthermore, this mentoring program also aims to increase URM retention and graduation rates within STEM departments at TCC.

The Student Center for Science Engagement (SCSE) at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), was established in 2008 with the mission to support students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines with the challenges they face in their academic and career development. Mentoring relationships, critical components of the SCSE’s influence, are fostered by the SCSE’s advisors, mostly Ph.D.-level minority scientists. Accessibility to STEM professionals who reflect the student population has allowed students to envision themselves as scientists. SCSE advisors have systematically implemented holistic advising including but not limited to major and career exploration, research

I would like to start off by thanking you all for accepting me with such warmth tonight at this very special Stanford University STEM faculty conference. The opportunity I have been given to present my research on the underrepresentation of minorities in STEM, a subject I have grown to love during my years of delving into the vast expanse of the topic, means so much to me. I am not here to argue for any one of the particular viewpoints I have studied, but rather, I am simply here to share the most important information I have gathered. All I ask that you do is listen closely, refraining from blocking out information because you do not agree with it. Only in doing so will we be able to bring to light the different perspectives that have contributed