Not All Disadvantages Are Equal: Racial/Ethnic Minority Students Have Largest Disadvantage Among Demographic Groups in Both STEM and Non-STEM GPA

Abstract

An analysis of institutional data to understand the outcome of obstacles faced by students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds is important in order to work toward promoting equity and inclusion. We use 10 years of institutional data at a large public research university to investigate the grades earned by students categorized on four demographic characteristics: gender, race/ethnicity, low-income status, and first-generation college student status. We find that on average across all years of study, underrepresented minority (URM) students experience a larger penalty to their mean overall and STEM GPA than even the most disadvantaged non-URM students. Moreover, the URM students with additional disadvantages due to socioeconomic status or first-generation college status were further penalized in their average GPA. These inequitable outcomes point to systemic inequities in higher education for students with historically disadvantaged backgrounds and the need to dismantle institutional inertia to support them.

Toward Sustained Cultural Change through Chemistry Graduate Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Communities

“…Diversity in STEM is unrepresentative of the diversity in the general population. − A 2017 survey by the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) found that women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM workforce relative to the proportions of these groups within the general population . In Canada, Aboriginal students are poorly represented in STEM relative to the general population .…”

Rubric-based holistic review represents a change from traditional graduate admissions approaches in physics

“…These metrics have been found to benefit groups already overrepresented in higher education. For example, prior work has shown students from groups underrepresented in higher education (e.g., first generation, low income, Black, Latinx, Native) suffered a grade penalty relative to their more privileged peers with students from minoritized racial groups suffering the largest penalties [11]. Other work has shown that the General and Physics GREs are biased against women and students from minoritized racial and ethnic groups [2,12] as well as against students from smaller or less prestigious universities [13].…”

Peer Mentorship In Interdisciplinary STEM Education: The Underrepresented Groups Experience

“…According to 10 years of institutional data from a large public U.S.-based university (see Figure 2), STEM majors had higher exit rates at 38% for all students with an even higher rate of 65% for underrepresented minority (URM) students, which has been attributed to the student experience in STEM majors (Haak, 2011;Palmer et al, 2011;Tinto, 2017;Whitcomb et al, 2021). Xu (2018) emphasized that institutional conditions and the gap in student support, particularly the quality of the academic program and faculty teaching and accessibility, have dominated the STEM students' college experience and their persistence in academic majors and to graduation.…”

“…Implementation of a CRE curriculum connects the URG student to the topic and increases the student's confidence in the topic through emotional connection, both of which contribute to the student's persistence in STEM (Gorski, 2016). Challenges to the CRE implementation in I-STEM have included a lack of prep time to develop new curricular content, institutional grading policies, and limited time to cover the materials necessary for completing the course (Bowen & Cooper, 2021;Whitcomb et al, 2021). Faculty may push back as they may perceive limits to their academic freedom or that such modifications in instruction may not align with their teaching philosophy (McGee & Bentley, 2017).…”

“…from "Underrepresented Minority Students Receive Lower Grades and Have Higher Rates of Attrition Across STEM Disciplines: A Sign of Inequity?" by K. M Whitcomb & C. Singh, 2021,. …”