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Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities (2017)
Chapter: Appendix A: STEM Participation Rates
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: STEM Participation Rates." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24622.
STEM Participation Rates
Table A-1 is reproduced from Eagan and colleagues (2014), which was commissioned for Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees: Systemic Change to Support Students' Diverse Pathways (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016). It analyzes data collected from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's annual Freshman Survey, which surveys hundreds of thousands of students at four-year colleges and universities nationwide. The data presented are from the incoming students in Fall 2012.
Figure A-1 is from Estrada and colleagues (2016) and reflects the current percentages of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees for the following populations: underrepresented minority (including African American, Hispanic or Latino/Latina, American Indian, and Alaskan Native), white, and Asian/Pacific Islander. The data were derived from the data tables prepared by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics and based on data from the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS 2010 Completions Survey.
TABLE A-1 Student Characteristics and Precollege Preparation Across STEM Disciplines and Social Sciences, as Percentages of Total Students by Discipline Category
Student Characteristics
Biological Sciences (15,338)
Engineering (15,727)
Math/Computer Science (3,850)
Physical Science (4,140)
Social Science (20,763)
Men 40 79 75 57 30
Women 61 21 25 43 70
American Indian <1 <1 <1 <1 <1
Asian 14 13 16 10 7
Black 8 6 8 5 10
Latino 9 9 8 6 14
White 54 59 53 65 53
Other 15 13 15 14 15
Below $50K 30 25 32 26 38
$50K-$100K 30 32 31 34 29
Above $100K 40 43 37 40 33
Mother's education
No college 26 23 27 22 31
Some college 16 15 16 16 17
College degree or higher 59 62 58 62 52
Precollege preparation
HS GPA: A- or higher 62 62 55 64 45
Years of HS math: 4 or more 92 94 92 92 84
Years of HS physical science: 3 or more 29 39 33 50 28
Years of HS biological science: 3 or more 29 12 13 16 18
Completed calculus 39 51 45 45 24
Completed AP calculus 42 60 51 50 22
NOTES: Total student enrollment is shown under each discipline category. Numeric values are the percentage of this total. AP = advanced placement; GPA = grade point average; HS = high school.
SOURCE: Eagan et al. (2014, Table 2).
FIGURE A-1 Current percentages of underrepresented minority, white, and Asian/Pacific Islander populations with STEM degrees.
NOTE: URM (underrepresented minorities) includes African American, Hispanic or Latino/Latina, American Indian, and Alaskan Native. In this analysis, "STEM degrees" includes degrees categorized by the National Science Foundation as "Science & Engineering" (but excludes degrees in psychology and social sciences) in data tables prepared by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics and based on data from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 2010 Completions Survey.
SOURCE: Reproduced from Estrada et al., 2016, Figure 1, p. 2. Permission was granted by the authors.
Eagan, K., Hurtado, S, Figueroa, T., and Hughes, B. (2014). Examining STEM Pathways among Students Who Begin College at Four-Year Institutions. Paper commissioned for the Committee on Barriers and Opportunities in Completing 2- and 4-Year STEM Degrees. Washington, DC. Available: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/dbassesite/documents/webpage/dbasse_088834.pdf [December 2016].
Estrada, M., Burnett, M., Campbell, A.G., Campbell, P.B., Denetclaw, W.F., Gutiérrez, C.G., Hurtado, S., John, G.H., Matsui, J., McGee, R., Okpodu, C.M., Robinson, T.J., Summers, M.F., Werner-Washrune, M., and Zavala, M. (2016). Improving underrepresented minority student persistence in STEM. CBE–Life Sciences Education, 15(es5), 1-10.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees: Systemic Change to Support Students' Diverse Pathways. S. Malcom and M. Feder (Eds.). Committee on Barriers and Opportunities in Two- and Four- Year STEM Degrees. Board on Science Education. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Board on Higher Education and the Workforce. Policy and Global Affairs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Next: Appendix B: Committee Questions to Undergraduate Institutions and Selected Responses »
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Undergraduate research has a rich history, and many practicing researchers point to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) as crucial to their own career success. There are many ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that focus on increasing the active engagement of students and decreasing traditional lecture-based teaching, and UREs have been proposed as a solution to these efforts and may be a key strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In light of the proposals questions have been asked about what is known about student participation in UREs, best practices in UREs design, and evidence of beneficial outcomes from UREs.
Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for learning provided by a research experience. This study analyzes UREs by considering them as part of a learning system that is shaped by forces related to national policy, institutional leadership, and departmental culture, as well as by the interactions among faculty, other mentors, and students. The report provides a set of questions to be considered by those implementing UREs as well as an agenda for future research that can help answer questions about how UREs work and which aspects of the experiences are most powerful.
Front Matter i–xx
1 Introduction 11–32
2 Heterogeneity of Undergraduate Research Experiences: Characterizing the Variability 33–68
3 Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Larger System of Higher Education: A Conceptual Framework 69–96
4 Research Documenting Student Participation in UREs 97–128
5 The Role of Mentoring 129–146
6 Faculty Impact and Needs 147–162
7 Need for Research About UREs 163–180
8 Considerations for Design and Implementation of Undergraduate Research Experiences 181–210
9 Conclusions and Recommendations 211–232
Appendix A: STEM Participation Rates 233–236
Appendix B: Committee Questions to Undergraduate Institutions and Selected Responses 237–248
Appendix C: Committee and Staff Biographies 249–258
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