Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation:
America’s Science and Technology Talent
at the Crossroads
Freeman Hrabowski
President, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Chair, Study Committee
September 2010
Changing World
• Our ability to meet the challenges and achieve the
opportunities of our time depends in large measure
on our science and engineering (S&E) enterprise.
• Yet, while our S&E capability is as strong as ever,
the dominance of the U.S. in these fields has
lessened as the rest of the world has invested in
and grown their research and education capacities.
Rising Above the Gathering Storm
• Gathering Storm documented this global leveling
and argued that the U.S. was at a crossroads: for
the U.S. to maintain the global leadership and
competitiveness in science and technology that are
critical to achieving national goals today, we must
– Invest in research
– Encourage innovation, and
– Grow a strong, talented, and innovative science and
technology workforce
Rising Above the Gathering Storm
• Resonated strongly in both
the executive and legislative
branches of government
• Led to:
– America COMPETES Act
– Substantial appropriations
through the American
Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009
Something Missing…
• Rising Above the Gathering Storm provided
compelling recommendations that we fully
support…but they are insufficient…
• Critical demographic trends require that a national
effort to strengthen the S&E workforce must draw
on the minds and talents of all Americans,
including minorities underrepresented in STEM
Origins of the Report
• Citing the need to develop a strong and diverse
S&E workforce, Senators Kennedy, Clinton,
Mikulski, and Murray requested a follow-up study
• Focused on increasing the participation of
underrepresented minorities in STEM a request
later included as a mandated report in the America
COMPETES Act.
Charge to the Committee
• Examine the role of diversity in the science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics 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.
• Identify best practices and the characteristics of these
practices that make them effective and sustainable.
• Write a consensus report that provides a prioritized list of
actionable recommendations across stakeholder groups
Committee Membership
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Freeman Hrabowski, Chair, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
James Ammons, Florida A&M University
Sandra Begay-Campbell, Sandia National Laboratories
Beatriz Chu Clewell, The Urban Institute
Nancy Grasmick, Maryland State Department of Education
Carlos Gutierrez, California State University-Los Angeles
Evelynn Hammonds, Harvard College
Wesley Harris (NAE), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sylvia Hurtado, Higher Education Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles
James S. Jackson (IOM), Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
Shirley McBay, Quality for Minority Education Network
Diana Natalicio, University of Texas El Paso
John Nemeth, Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Eduardo Padron, Miami Dade College
Willie Pearson, Georgia Institute of Technology
Sidney Ribeau, Howard University
John Slaughter (NAE), NACME
Richard Tapia (NAE), Rice University
Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Cytonome, Inc.
Linda Sue Warner, Haskell Indian Nations University
Why Broad Participation Matters
1. Our sources for the S&E workforce are
uncertain:
• For many years, the nation relied on an S&E workforce that was
predominantly male and white and Asian.
• In the more recent past, we have seen gains for women in some fields
and an increasing reliance on international students in others.
• Non-U.S. citizens (e.g. those from China and India) have accounted for
almost all growth in STEM doctorate awards
• However, we are coming to understand that relying on non-U.S.
citizens for our S&E workforce is an increasingly uncertain
proposition
Why Broad Participation Matters
2. The demographics of our domestic population
are shifting dramatically:
• That we need to draw on all domestic sources for a strong
and robust S&E workforce makes the future of our S&E
workforce all the more urgent.
• Those groups that are most underrepresented in S&E are
also the fastest growing in the general population.
Why Broad Participation Matters
3. Diversity is an asset and an opportunity:
• Increasing the participation and success of URMs in S&E
contributes to the health of the nation by: expanding the
S&E talent pool, enhancing innovation, and improving
the nation’s global economic leadership.
• The S&E workforce is projected by the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics to grow faster than any other sector in
coming years: This growth rate provides an opportunity
as well as an obligation to draw on new sources of talent
to make the S&E workforce as robust and dynamic as
possible.
U.S. population by race/ethnicity, 1990-2050
(2010-2050 projected)
100%
80%
60%
Hispanic
Two or more races
NHPI
Asian
40%
20%
19
90
19
95
20
00
20
05
20
10
20
15
20
20
20
25
20
30
20
35
20
40
20
45
20
50
0%
AIAN
Black
White
Student Population Projected to be 50% URMS by 2050 U.S. Population 18-24
Years Old, by Race/Ethnicity: July 1990-99 & Projections to 2050
Source: National Science Foundation, Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and
Engineering, 2004.
We Start from a
Challenging Position
• Underrepresented minority groups comprised 28.5
percent of our national population in 2006, yet just
9.1 percent of college-educated Americans in
science and engineering occupations (academic
and nonacademic)
• Suggests the proportion of underrepresented
minorities in S&E would need to triple to match
their share of the overall U.S. population.
U.S Population and U.S. Science and Engineering
Workforce, by Race/Ethnicity, 2006
U.S. Population
S&E Workforce
American Indian,
0.4
American Indian,
1
Hispanic, 4.7
Black, 4.0
Hispanic, 15
Asian, 16.4
Black, 12.5
Asian, 4.4
White, 67.4
White, 74.5
UR Minorities in US Pop = 28.5%
UR Minorities in US S&E = 9.1%
And Challenging Results
• Underrepresentation of this magnitude in the S&E
workforce stems from the underproduction of minorities in
S&E at every level of postsecondary education
– 38.8 percent of K-12 public enrollment
– 33.2 percent of the U.S college age population
– 26.2 percent of undergraduate enrollment
– 17.7 percent of those earning S&E bachelor’s degrees
– 17.7 percent of overall graduate enrollment
– 14.6 percent of S&E master’s
– 5.4 percent of S&E doctorates.
Enrollment and Degrees, by Educational Level
and Race/Ethnicity/Citizenship, 2007
S&E Doctorates 5.4
S&E Master's Degrees
52
14.6
Graduate Enrollment
42.6
58.3
17.8
27.1
70.3
11.9
URM
S&E Bachelor's
Degrees
17.7
78.3
4
non-URM
Temporary Residents
Undergraduate
Enrollment
U.S. College-Age
Population
26.2
71.7
33.2
66.8
38.8
K-12 Public Enrollment
0%
20%
2.1
0
61.2
40%
60%
0
80%
100%
Postsecondary Attainment
• There is a strong connection between increasing
educational attainment in the United States and the global
leadership of our economy.
• Calls—from the College Board, the Lumina and Gates
Foundations, and the Administration—to increase the
postsecondary completion rate from 39 to 55 or 60 percent.
• The challenge is greatest for underrepresented minorities:
– in 2006 only 26 percent of African Americans, 18
percent of American Indians, and 16 percent of
Hispanics in the 25-29-year old cohort had attained at
least an associate degree
News is Worse for STEM
• In 2000, the U.S. ranked 20th in the percent of 24-year
olds who had earned a first degree in NS&E.
• Gathering Storm recommended increasing the US
percentage from 6% to at least 10%.
• Underrepresented minorities would need to triple,
quadruple, or even quintuple their proportions in order to
achieve this 10 percent goal.
• 24-year olds with a first university degree in NS&E
– 2.7 percent of African Americans
– 3.3 percent of Native Americans /Alaska Natives
– 2.2 percent of Hispanics and Latinos
Why?
• Underrepresented minorities aspire to major in STEM in
college at the same rates as their white and Asian
American peers, and have done so since the late 1980s.
• Yet, they have lower four- and five-year undergraduate
STEM completion rates relative to those of whites and
Asian Americans.
• That a similar picture was previously seen in data in the
mid-1990s, signals that while we have been aware of
these problems for some time, we as a nation have made
little collective progress in addressing them.
Four- and Five-Year Completion Rates of 2004
Freshmen, by Initial Major Aspiration and
Race/Ethnicity
100
90
80
% of Students
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
4-Year Completion:
Started in STEM Field
White
4-Year Completion:
Started in non-STEM
Field
Asian American
Latino
5-Year Completion:
Started in STEM Field
Black
5-Year Completion:
Started in non-STEM
Field
Native American
Fixing the Problem
• Preparation, access, motivation, financial assistance,
academic support, and social integration provide URM
students the means for obtaining the ingredients for
success in STEM
–
–
–
–
–
the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and habits of mind
opportunities to put these into practice
a developing sense of competence and progress
motivation for and a sense of belonging to the field
information about stages, requirements, and opportunities
• These ingredients require attention at every stage along
the STEM educational continuum.
Preparation
• Today, the nation remains faced with many of the
same issues since A Nation at Risk: failing
schools, inequitable distributions of resources
across schools, achievement gaps.
• Moreover, substantial growth in the nation’s
Hispanic population has increased pressure on our
nation’s schools by increasing the number of
nonnative English speakers
Preparation
• Considerable disagreement over solutions such as
school choice, testing, and teacher pay…
• But substantial agreement about the need for
– Strong pre-school programs
– More qualified mathematics and science teachers in
predominantly minority and low-income schools
– Challenging high school curricula that prepare
underrepresented minorities for college
Access and Motivation
• Underrepresented minorities now comprise 26.2 percent of
all undergraduates: attaining this proportions represents a
significant national achievement.
• However, we must do much more to attract and retain
underrepresented minorities, low-income students, and
first-generation undergraduates who aspire to a major in
STEM.
Access and Motivation
• Improve college awareness activities for prospective
college students
• Focus on college admissions policies that support
matriculation of qualified underrepresented minorities
• Raise awareness of STEM careers through K-12 activities,
improved counseling for science and mathematics, and
activities that promote STEM
• Promote STEM outreach that specifically targets
underrepresented minorities
Affordability
• College affordability is an issue for all students, especially
as tuition rises above the inflation rate.
• Financial support that meets student need is strongly
correlated with student attendance and persistence, in
general and in STEM.
• It is most effective in reducing attrition among low-income
and minority students in STEM when provided in
conjunction with academic support and campus integration
programs.
Academic and Social Support
• Underrepresented minorities in 4-year institutions major in
STEM at the same rate as others, but their completion rate
is lower.
• Academic support and social integration constitute keys to
persistence and completion.
Academic and Social Support
• The institutional transformation needed to provide these
must be based on:
– Strong leadership from trustees and regents, the
president, provost, deans, and department chairs
– A campus-wide commitment to inclusiveness
– A deliberate process of self-appraisal focused on
campus climate
– Development of a plan to implement constructive
change
– Thoughtful program development
– Ongoing evaluation of implementation efforts
Moving Beyond the Crossroads
• Our proposal for “moving beyond the crossroads” includes
a discussion of:
– Guiding Principles to Frame National Policy
– Institutional Roles
– The Importance of Leadership
– Program Development and Characteristics
Policy Principles
1. The problem is urgent and will continue to be for the
foreseeable future.
2. A successful national effort to address underrepresented
minority participation and success in STEM will be
sustained.
Policy Principles
3. The potential for losing students along all segments of the
pathway from pre-school through graduate school
necessitates a comprehensive approach that focuses on all
segments of the pathway, all stakeholders, and the
potential of all programs, targeted or non-targeted.
4. Students who have not had the same level of exposure to
STEM and to postsecondary education require more
intensive efforts at each level to provide adequate
preparation, financial support, mentoring, social
integration, and professional development.
Policy Principles
5. A coordinated approach to existing federal STEM
programs can leverage resources while supporting
programs tailored to the specific missions, histories,
cultures, student populations, and geographic locations of
institutions with demonstrated success in preparing and
advancing URMs in STEM.
6. Evaluation of STEM programs and increased research on
the many dimensions of underrepresented minorities’
experience in STEM help insure that programs are well
informed, well designed, and successful.
Institutional Roles
• The diversity of American higher education institutions is
a competitive advantage in the global knowledge economy.
• This institutional diversity could be, but is not yet,
effective in addressing the varied needs of the nation’s
underrepresented minority students in STEM.
• For our recommended actions to be successful, every
institution of higher education should take steps to
address the problem of underrepresented minority
participation in STEM.
• Currently, only a small number of institutions are.
Institutional Roles
• Those that are taking steps can be found among all
institutional types and categories.
• They are successful because they are doing something
special to support the retention and completion of
underrepresented minority undergraduates in the natural
sciences and engineering.
• Their actions can be replicated and when they are, with a
focus on both numbers and quality, it will pay off
significantly.
Institutional Roles
•
•
•
Predominantly-White Institutions: The best way to increase the retention of
underrepresented minorities in STEM is to replicate programs of the
successful PWIs at a very large number of similar institutions, especially
large state flagships.
Minority-Serving Institutions: MSIs have a legacy of recruiting, retaining,
and graduating a disproportionate number of minorities, especially at the
undergraduate level. With additional support, MSIs can expand their
effectiveness in recruiting, retaining, and graduating an increased number of
minorities, especially at the baccalaureate level.
Community Colleges: To facilitate and increase the successful transfer of
underrepresented minorities in STEM to four-year institutions, an increased
emphasis on and support for articulation agreements, summer bridge
programs, mentoring, academic and career counseling, peer support, and
undergraduate research at two-year institutions is recommended.
Leadership
Leadership is key to the successful transformation of
institutions and development of sustainable programs.
• Sectoral Leadership: Leadership in articulating minority success as
an institutional goal is essential for all stakeholders.
• Institutional Leadership: The academic leadership—regents, trustees,
presidents, provosts, deans, and department chairs—should articulate
minority participation as a key commitment to set a tone that raises
awareness and effort.
• Programmatic Leadership: A champion at the program level is
typically critical to the success.
Successful Program Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Resources and Sustainability
Coordination and Integration – agencies, programs
Focus on STEM Pathways, and Transition Points
Program Design – innovative or replicative
Program Execution
Program Evaluation
Knowledge Sharing
Program Activities
• Research experiences
• Summer programs
• Access to quality
facilities and
equipment
• Intro courses that
support and advance
students
• Professional
development activities
• Mentoring
• Tutoring
• Peer support
• Study groups
• Social activities
Recommendations and Implementation Actions
Preparation
• Recommendation 1: Pre-School through Grade 3
Education
– Develop reading readiness, provide early mathematics skills,
and introduce concepts of creativity and discovery.
• Federal: Fully fund Head Start and pre-k programs.
• States: Align early childhood programs with public school curriculum
and quality standards
• Local School Districts: Align pre-school curricula with learning
expectations through third grade.
Recommendations and Implementation Actions
• Recommendation 2: K to 12 Mathematics and Science
– Vastly improve K-12 mathematics and science education for
underrepresented minorities.
• Federal: Require equitable state and district budgeting practices;
improve early intervention programs such as TRIO and Upward
Bound Math-Science program
• States: Adopt evidence-based curriculum standards across subject
areas to ensure college readiness.
• Local School Districts: Develop and provide quality math and
science curricula.
• Non-Profits: Pioneer innovative program approaches.
Recommendations and Implementation Actions
• Recommendation 3: K-12 Teacher Preparation
and Retention
– Improve the preparedness of K-12 mathematics and
science teachers.
• Federal: Provide incentives for the recruitment, retention, and
professional development of math and science teachers who
teach minority teachers.
• States: Coordinate STEM teacher training programs that
recruit, prepare, and place qualified teachers in high need
schools proportionately to all other schools.
• Institutions: Increase the pool of well-qualified K-12 math and
science teachers who are prepared to teach diverse students.
Recommendations and Implementation Actions
Postsecondary Success
• Recommendation 4: Access and Motivation
– Improve access to postsecondary education and technical
training and increase URM student awareness of and
motivation for STEM education and careers.
• Federal: Ensure that outreach programs linking institutions and K12 emphasize improving math and science awareness for
underrepresented minority students.
• Employers: Provide STEM career awareness and role models.
• Institutions: Engage in outreach and recruitment activities to help
cultivate students who may aspire to enroll in these institutions.
Recommendations and Implementation Actions
• Recommendation 5: Affordability
– Provide adequate financial support to URM undergraduate
and graduate students.
• Federal: Provide financial support through institutional grants that
also provide academic and social support; increase funding for
undergraduate and graduate STEM programs targeting URM
students.
• States: Fully support higher education generally.
• Non-Profits: Support programs that employ innovative approaches
or target specific niches in STEM education for URMs.
• Institutions: Provide need-based as well as merit-based financial
assistance to URM students.
Recommendations and Implementation Actions
• Recommendation 6: Academic and Social Support
– Transform the nation’s higher education institutions to
increase inclusiveness and college completion and success
in STEM for URM students.
• Federal: Increase funding for infrastructure, research, curriculum
development, and professional development at MSIs; create an
ADVANCE type program for URMs.
• Institutions: Articulate an institutional commitment to inclusiveness;
diversify the faculty; replicate practices of institutions with
demonstrated success in producing URMs in STEM.
• Professional Associations: Communicate the importance of
broadening participation to members, the public, and policy makers.
• Industry and Federal Labs: Provided structured incentives and
programs to ensure sustained impact; expand partnerships with
institutions that enroll large numbers of URMs in STEM.
Priority 1
Undergraduate Retention and Completion
• We propose, as a near-term focus for increasing the
participation and success of underrepresented minorities in
STEM, programs that increase undergraduate completion
through strong academic, social, and financial support.
• Financial support for underrepresented minorities that
allows them to focus on and succeed in STEM will
increase completion and better prepare them for the path
ahead.
• This financial assistance should be provided through
higher education institutions along with programs that
simultaneously integrate academic, social, and professional
development.
Priority 2
Teacher Preparation, College Preparatory Programs, and
Transitions to Graduate Study
•We propose an emphasis on teacher preparation and
secondary school programs that support preparation for
college STEM education.
•We encourage programs that facilitate the transition from
undergraduate to graduate education and provide support in
graduate programs.
Final Thoughts
• The report is relevant and
timely.
• The report expands the
previous knowledge
concerning STEM
education and workforce
development.
• This is a transformative
moment for the nation to
seize so that we do not fail
future generations.
Points of Contact
Peter Henderson, Co-Study Director
Director, Board on Higher Education and Workforce
phenders@nas.edu
Earnestine Psalmonds, Co-Study Director
Senior Program Officer and
Visiting Scholar from National Science Foundation
epsalmonds@nas.edu