Transcript Improving the Rate of Success for Underrepresented Racial

HERI Brown Bag
Improving the Rate of Success for Underrepresented
Racial Minorities in the Biological and Behavioral
Sciences: Insights from a National Project
NSF/NIH Research Team
February 12, 2009
Targeted Institutions and Participants
 Minority serving institutions (MSIs)
 Institutions that produce large numbers of
minority baccalaureates in the sciences (Top 50)
 MARC/MBRS/MORE/PREP program
institutions—includes PWIs and MSIs
 Other types of institutions to round out the
sample (liberal arts colleges, private universities)
 Three-part matched sample: URM students in
STEM, White & Asian American students in
STEM, and URM students in non-STEM majors
Research Plan: Key Components Completed
 CIRP Freshman Survey (Summer/Fall 2004)
 YFCY End of First Year Survey--160 institutions in working sample
(Spring 2005)
 Classroom-based surveys of introductory courses at 5 institutions in
Year 3 (2006-2007)
 Campus Case Studies: Focus groups and institutional site visits at 5
institutions in Year 3 (2006-2007).
 Four-year follow-up: College Senior Survey in Year 4 (2007-2008)
 Non-response recovery of CSS in Year 5 (2008-2009)
Research Plan: Key Components To Come
 Best Practices Survey in Year 5
 Focus groups and post-baccalaureate survey
development in Year 6 (2009-2010)
 Post-baccalaureate survey (PBS) in Year 7
(2010-2011)
 Telephone response recover of PBS in Year 8
(2011-2012)
Phase II: First-year follow-up (YFCY) - Predictors of
participating in health science research (published in RHE)
 Positive predictors of participation in health science
research include:
 Taking first-year experience courses
 Participating in departmental clubs
 Receiving advice from upper-division students
 Having frequent interactions/contact with faculty
 Attending an institution that offers a structured research
opportunity for first-year students
 Sub-sample of Black students showed similar results,
yet social self-concept, participation in a learning
community, and positive interactions across
race/ethnicity were key
Phase II: First-Year Follow-Up: Stereotype Threat:
Undermining the Persistence of Racial Minority Freshmen
in the Sciences
 Examined how the interaction of stigmatizing
experiences and identification with a biomedical and
behavioral science (BBS) majors affects the likelihood
of persisting in a BBS major through the first year
 Analyses – HGLM, factor analyses, interaction effects
 Results show URM freshmen more susceptible to
negative effects of stereotype threat (reported high
levels of both domain identification and stigmainducing experiences) were significantly less likely to
persist in their initial science major
Phase II: First-Year Follow-Up: Stereotype
Threat: Undermining the Persistence of
Racial Minority Freshmen in the Sciences
Likelihood of Science Major Persistence
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
Low Frequency of Stigma-Inducing
Experiences
0.25
Moderate Frequency of StigmaInducing Experiences
0.2
High Frequency of Stigma-Inducing
Experiences
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Low
Medium
Domain Identification
High
Phase II: First-Year Follow-Up:
Developing Student and Faculty Support Networks
Preliminary Findings
Participation
in first-year
programs
Background
Characteristics
(demographics)
College
Characteristics
HS
Academics
College
Academics
HS
Social activities
College Social
Activities
Faculty and
student support
networks
Phase II: First-Year Follow-Up:
Developing Student and Faculty Support Networks Preliminary
Findings (Student Support)
Order of
importance
White/Asian students
URM students
1
Hours per week spent
socializing with friends
Discussing course content with
students outside class
2
Discussing course content
with students outside class
Hours per week spent
socializing with friends
3
Hours per week spent in
student clubs/groups
Cross-racial interactions
4
Cross-racial interactions
Hours per week spent in
student clubs/groups
5
Interacting with academic
advisors
Attending an MSI
6
Taking first-year seminar
course
Agreement that faculty are
interested in students'
personal problems
Phase II: First-Year Follow-Up:
Developing Student and Faculty Support Networks
Preliminary Findings (Faculty Support)
Order of
importance
White/Asian students
URM students
1
Interacting w/ academic advisors
Interacting w/ academic advisors
2
Faculty are interested in students’ Faculty are interested in students’
personal problems
personal problems
3
Faculty are interested in students’ Faculty are interested in students’
academic problems
academic problems
4
Worked with an academic advisor
to select courses
Worked on a professor’s research
project
5
Joined pre-professional or
departmental club
Received negative feedback
about academic work
Phase III:
Classroom Based Study – Classroom Questionnaires
 Classroom Questionnaires (pre & post):
Two online surveys focused on critical thinking
dispositions and habits of mind for scientific
research
Sample consisted of 2-3 introductory
science/math courses per campus
 Targeted approximately 2,400 undergraduates currently
enrolled in introductory science course
 Pre-Survey response rate of 26%
 Longitudinal response rate of 44% (pre-survey as
baseline)
Merged final grades with survey data
Phase III: Classroom Based Study
Preliminary Findings
Effects on GPA
Learning to think more analytically (+)
Feeling overwhelmed by coursework (-)
Bring an underrepresented minority student (-)
Effects on “thinking like a scientist”
Saw real-life application of learning (+)
Inquisitiveness (+)
Truth-seeking (+)
Feeling overwhelmed by coursework (-)
Phase III: Campus Site Visits
Diversifying Science: Underrepresented Student Experiences in
Structured Research Programs
 Becoming a scientist
In the teaching lab…I mean, you run an experiment
and it always works. It’s so nice. It always works.
You take biochem lab, you take genetics lab, and
you do it, and man, it’s going to work. It’s been
done 50,000 times in the lab… People who have
never been in a research lab, I think the first time
your experiment fails, it’s kind of like a shock to
everyone. It’s kind of like, “What?” Yeah, it makes
you learn how to think… (UTSA female)
Phase
III:
Campus
Site
Visits
Findings: Becoming a Scientist (cont.)
Becoming a Scientist (continued)
 Scientific self-efficacy through research
I had a good experience with my PIs [principal
investigators] just because they made me feel like…as
an undergrad, you kind of feel like on the bottom of the
food chain and they kind of believe in you and say,
“Yes, you can do this. I’m giving you this project to do
and I know you can do it.” So it kind of builds your
confidence and just them believing in you makes you
feel like you can actually complete the project because
you can. (UNM female)
Phase III: Campus Site Visits
Culture of Science
 Collaborative
 It seems like at Xavier, the people have a mentality…like
the sharing mentality, so if you’re not…if you don’t share or
if you’re not…if you’re thinking about number one, they kind
of shun you to the side. I mean, because everyone else is
in the group and [if] you think you can work better on your
own, we’ll let you work on your own. That’s how it is here.
(Xavier female)
 Competitive
 …you start getting to know everyone in the department or in
the classes that you’re taking, so you’re almost
embarrassed to do poorly in class, so you work harder. Like
you’re driven to work harder because you want to be a good
student and you want to succeed. (UNM female)
Phase III: Campus Site Visits
Social Stigma
 Racial stigma and research opportunities
I worked with an Anglo girl who was there and basically
paid her way there and the only reason she was there is
because she knew someone who knew someone, and I
told her, “Oh, I’m in this…minority summer research
program,” and she’s like, “Yeah, well, you’re lucky
you’re a minority, you could say that on a piece of paper
so you could get in.” (UNM female)
 Racial stigma and scientific self-efficacy
[B]ecause I am a minority student, I feel as if I need the
validation. Anybody else would not need it. You know,
nobody else has this feeling of, “You know what? My
opinions aren’t going to be listened to…unless I get the
PhD.” (MIT male)
Phase III: Campus Site Visits
Administrator Interviews – Preliminary Findings
 Administrator interviews (two to four per campus)
 Interviews covered areas relating to program administration,
student recruitment, and campus support for programs
 Participants included program administrators and affiliated
faculty
 Culture of Science
 The academic/research environment in which science is
conducted at the institution
 Preliminary findings reveal that URM students' perceptions of
competitive environments negatively impact persistence in
the major and grad. school aspirations
“It’s so competitive here that if anybody has a little bit of information that
will give them a leg up, they won’t share it with [other students].”
“I knew it was competitive. Everybody wants to get into graduate school,
medical school, get a job... You have no idea… It’s so competitive that
it’s borderline cutthroat... It’s interesting, the campus culture that is
around now in 2007. It’s a lot different than when I was here in the ‘70s
and ‘80s.”
Phase IV: College Senior Survey and
Faculty Survey
 Summer/Fall 2007
 Finalized instruments and protocols
 Recruited and confirm participation of institutions
 Spring 2008
 Administered the College Senior Survey
 Summer and Fall 2008
 Expanded project sample to include science, technology,
engineering and math majors with additional funding from NSF
 Collected registrar’s data from more than 200 institutions
 Administered 2007 Faculty Survey to supplemental sample of STEM
faculty at our participating institutions (6,636 STEM faculty
responded from 205 institutions)
 Longitudinal sample (Freshman Survey and CSS)
 6,373 students at 240 institutions
Next Steps for the Coming Year
Collect student enrollment/completion data
from the National Student Clearing House
Create response weights for the CSS
Create factors from CSS and Faculty
Survey for key constructs of interest
Administer the Best Practices Survey to
participating institutions
Academic Papers
 The pre-college characteristics and experiences of minority
students committed to scientific research careers (2006). Journal
of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 12, 61-83.
 Predicting transition and adjustment to college: Minority
biomedical and behavioral science students’ first year of college.
(2007) Research in Higher Education, 48(7), 841-887.
 Training future scientists: Predicting first-year minority student
participation in health science research. Research in Higher
Education. (2008). Research in Higher Education, 49(2), 126-152.
 The contradictory roles of institutional status in retaining
underrepresented minorities in biomedical and behavioral science
majors. (2008). The Review of Higher Education, 31(4), 433-464.
 Diversifying science: Underrepresented student experiences in
structured research programs. (2009). Research in Higher
Education, 50(2), 189-214.
RESOURCES & Project Staff
 Papers and reports are
available for download
from project website
RESEARCH STAFF
Sylvia Hurtado, Co-PI
Mitch Chang, Co-PI
 Project email:
[email protected]
Graduate Research Assistants
Kevin Eagan
Lorelle Espinosa
Monica Lin
Christopher Newman
Jessica Sharkness
Minh Tran
Paolo Velasco
 Project website:
Administrative Support
Aaron Pearl
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/nih