Distinctives of High Producers of Minority Science and Engineering Doctoral Starts

Abstract

Demographic shifts in recent years have resulted in a smaller proportion of white males in the American population. Historically, we have depended on these individuals to comprise almost all of the science and engineering doctorates for our workforce. America must now develop S&E talent more fully among minority groups and women. Colleges and universities have moved ahead admirably in bringing these individuals into S&E programs and preparing them for doctoral study. Predictably, some have had greater success than others. The present study was completed under a National Science Foundation grant. It sought to identify the more successful institutions and to identify the elements of their success in an effort to effect a sharing of know-how. The National Research Council was asked to rank-order institutions according to their rates of success in sending Indian, Hispanic and black students on to graduate study in science and engineering. Site visits and interviews were made at ten of the top institutions. Using George Kuh's rubric for involving institutions, site visitors identified valuable threads among the practices for talent development among the populations under study.