Minority participation in high school physics

Abstract

In the May 2014 issue of The Physics Teacher, we reported that 39% of high school seniors in the 2013 class took at least one high school physics course prior to graduation. (See TPT 52, 214–15.) This month we take a closer look at participation in high school physics by racial/ethnic group. As we see below, Asian students are most likely to take a high school physics course, while the participation of African-Americans and Hispanics remains below 30%. As we will see over the next few months, the lower participation can be explained, at least in part, by socioeconomic factors. About half of Hispanic seniors and almost 45% of African-American seniors were enrolled in schools where the student body was deemed as “worse off” than their peers by principals and teachers, and these “worse off” schools were less likely to offer physics. In October, we will look at high school physics enrollment by socioeconomic status of the student body.