July 18, 2006
More Diversity On-line
I was very happy to see that Diverse Issues in Higher Education now has an RSS feed--which I have added to my blogroll. And the on-line articles now have commenting functionality. Great, great news.
And as an extra bonus, the July 13th issue features a listing and analysis of the "Top 100" graduate degree awarding institutions for students of color. (Data are for the 2004-2005 academic year, based on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Set.)
As usual, the findings are of a good news-bad news variety. An example of the good news:
Over the past 10 years, the total number of graduate level degrees awarded to students of color has nearly doubled, increasing from about 73,000 to just under 138,000. This represents an average annual growth rate of 6.6 percent. During this same time period, graduate degrees conferred to non-minority students increased at an average annual rate of 2.2 percent. At the start of the 10-year period (1994-1995), minorities represented 15 percent of graduate degree recipients. For 2004-2005, minority representation increased to 21 percent. Among the traditionally under-represented minority groups (African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians), total graduate degrees awarded doubled from roughly 48,000 to 96,000, the average annual growth rate was 7.2 percent and representation climbed from 10 percent to 15 percent.
As an example of the bad news, we still seem to be struggling to increase the numbers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields:
Differences in disciplinary involvements and preferences across racial/ethnic groups have deep and complex cultural and societal roots. There are several notable efforts to improve participation, particularly in the STEM fields, among under-represented minority groups. As of 2004-2005, it appears that these efforts have not yet met with significant success, particularly among African-Americans. In 1994-1995, 210 doctoral degrees were awarded to African-Americans in STEM fields, representing 13 percent of all doctoral degrees conferred to African-Americans. Although the number increased to 340 by 2004-2005, this represents only 12 percent of doctoral degrees conferred to African-Americans. Put another way, the percentage of STEM doctoral degrees awarded to African-Americans has increased from a dismal 1.3 percent in 1994-1995 to a nearly as dismal 1.9 percent a decade later.
Posted by perry032 at July 18, 2006 07:55 AM | TrackBack
| Printer-friendly version