Adrianna Kezar and Elizabeth Holcombe in Inside Higher Ed: An Overlooked solution for diversifying STEM

This op-ed by Pullias co-director Adrianna Kezar  and research associate Elizabeth Holcombe was originally published in Inside Higher Ed on Jan. 14, 2019.

For decades, researchers have tried to boost the very low success rates of first-generation, low-income and underserved minority students in STEM education in college. Yet while more students from these groups have been entering colleges and pursuing STEM majors, the vast majority still are not earning STEM degrees. According to recent statistics, only 29 percent of Latinx students, 25 percent of Native American students and 22 percent of black students complete a STEM degree within six years.

Those students keep dropping out of STEM fields at a discouragingly high rate despite the fact many colleges and universities — as well as foundations and national organizations — have gone out of their way to fund and develop programs specifically to improve the retention of first-gen, low-income and underserved minority students in STEM. Campuses have experimented with a plethora of interventions, from robust summer bridge programs and first-year seminars to career counseling services and one-off workshops. Many institutions have undertaken curriculum and instructional reform, as well as offered students undergraduate research opportunities, tutoring, partnerships with learning centers and other support.

Yet attrition rates for such students remain high. Why has this challenge proved so pernicious and persistent — despite the expensive and time-consuming efforts made to address it?

Read the rest of this op-ed in Inside Higher Ed. The research for this op-ed was drawn from the California State University STEM Collaboratives, a project designed to provide immersive educational experiences to incoming STEM students on eight CSU campuses, with the goal to improve persistence and close achievement gaps.