HERI Brown Bag Improving the Rate of Success for Underrepresented Racial Minorities in the Biological and Behavioral Sciences: Insights from a National Project

1
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

2
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 institutionsincludes
  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

3
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)

4
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)

5
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

6
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
  stigma-inducing experiences) were significantly
  less likely to persist in their initial science
  major

7
Phase II First-Year Follow-Up Stereotype
Threat Undermining the Persistence of Racial
Minority Freshmen in the Sciences
8
Phase II First-Year Follow-Up Developing
Student and Faculty Support Networks Preliminary
Findings
BackgroundCharacteristics(demographics)
Participationin first-year programs
CollegeCharacteristics
Faculty andstudent supportnetworks
HSAcademics
CollegeAcademics
College SocialActivities
HSSocial activities
9
Phase II First-Year Follow-Up Developing
Student and Faculty Support Networks Preliminary
Findings (Student Support)
10
Phase II First-Year Follow-Up Developing
Student and Faculty Support Networks Preliminary
Findings (Faculty Support)
11
Phase IIIClassroom 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

12
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 (-)

13
Phase III Campus Site VisitsDiversifying
Science Underrepresented Student Experiences in
Structured Research Programs

• Becoming a scientist
• In the teaching labI mean, you run an experiment
  and it always works. Its so nice. It always
  works. You take biochem lab, you take genetics
  lab, and you do it, and man, its going to work.
  Its 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, its kind
  of like a shock to everyone. Its kind of like,
  What? Yeah, it makes you learn how to think
  (UTSA female)

14
Findings Becoming a Scientist (cont.)
Phase III Campus Site VisitsBecoming a
Scientist (continued)

• Scientific self-efficacy through research
• I had a good experience with my PIs principal
  investigators just because they made me feel
  likeas 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.
  Im 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)

15
Phase III Campus Site VisitsCulture of Science

• Collaborative
• It seems like at Xavier, the people have a
  mentalitylike the sharing mentality, so if
  youre notif you dont share or if youre notif
  youre 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, well let you work on
  your own. Thats how it is here. (Xavier female)
• Competitive
• you start getting to know everyone in the
  department or in the classes that youre taking,
  so youre almost embarrassed to do poorly in
  class, so you work harder. Like youre driven to
  work harder because you want to be a good student
  and you want to succeed. (UNM female)

16
Phase III Campus Site VisitsSocial 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, Im in
  thisminority summer research program, and shes
  like, Yeah, well, youre lucky youre a
  minority, you could say that on a piece of paper
  so you could get in. (UNM female)
• Racial stigma and scientific self-efficacy
• Because 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 arent going to be
  listened tounless I get the PhD. (MIT male)

17
Phase III Campus Site VisitsAdministrator
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
• Its so competitive here that if anybody has a
  little bit of information that will give them a
  leg up, they wont 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 Its so competitive that
  its borderline cutthroat... Its interesting,
  the campus culture that is around now in 2007.
  Its a lot different than when I was here in the
  70s and 80s.

18
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 registrars 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

19
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

20
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.

21
RESOURCES Project Staff

• RESEARCH STAFF
• Sylvia Hurtado, Co-PI
• Mitch Chang, Co-PI
• Graduate Research Assistants
• Kevin Eagan
• Lorelle Espinosa
• Monica Lin
• Christopher Newman
• Jessica Sharkness
• Minh Tran
• Paolo Velasco
• Administrative Support
• Aaron Pearl

• Papers and reports are available for download
  from project website
• Project email herinih_at_ucla.edu

• Project website
• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/nih