Underrepresentation by Race-Ethnicity across Stages of U.S. Science and Engineering Education
Open accessAbstract
Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaskan Natives are underrepresented in science and engineering fields. A comparison of race–ethnic differences at key transition points was undertaken to better inform education policy. National data on high school graduation, college enrollment, choice of major, college graduation, graduate school enrollment, and doctoral degrees were used to quantify the degree of underrepresentation at each level of education and the rate of transition to the next stage. Disparities are found at every level, and their impact is cumulative. For the most part, differences in graduation rates, rather than differential matriculation rates, make the largest contribution to the underrepresentation. The size, scope, and persistence of the disparities suggest that small-scale, narrowly targeted remediation will be insufficient.
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With some notable exceptions, interventions aimed at strengthening the STEM academic pipeline have had limited success in propelling an adequate number of underrepresented minorities into graduate and professional schools.
“With some notable exceptions, these measures have had limited success in propelling an adequate number of URMs into graduate and professional schools”
From Underrepresented Minority High School and College Students Report STEM-Pipeline Sustaining Gains After Participating in the Loma Linda University Summer Health Disparities Research Program (2014) · cites this paper as [7]
The Discussion says many federal STEM initiatives are too small or narrowly focused to have a substantial impact, and that URM disparities persist despite gains in science and engineering doctorates. This supports the claim's general point about limited progress toward graduate-level participation, but the paper does not assess entry into professional schools or establish the success rate of the interventions as a group. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Riegle-Crumb, C., King, B., & Irizarry, Y. (2019) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x19831006 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Salto, L. M., Riggs, M. L., Delgado De Leon, D., Casiano, C. A., & De Leon, M. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108497 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Short, R. A., Struminger, R., Zarestky, J., Pippin, J., Wong, M., Vilen, L., & Lawing, A. M. (2020) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb3819 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Moreno, K., Cascelli, L., Chavira, G., Escobedo, P., Flores, G. E., Kwan, P., & Khachikian, C. (2026) · Trends in Higher Education · doi:10.3390/higheredu5040102
- Authors
- Garrison, H.
- Affiliations
- Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Garrison, Howard
- ORCID
- Garrison, Howard
- Venue
- CBE—Life Sciences Education
- Published
- 2013-09
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 357-363
- ISSN
- 1931-7913 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3763003
- OpenAlex
- W2135382546
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 8.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-sa
- Locations
- CBE—Life Sciences Education (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Race Theory in Education
- Keywords
- underrepresentation, racial and ethnic disparities, science and engineering education, Black students, Hispanic students, high school graduation, college enrollment, college major choice, college graduation, graduate school enrollment, doctoral degree, educational transitions, education policy
- MeSH terms
- Engineering, Ethnicity, Humans, Minority Groups, Science, United States, White People, Racial Groups
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