Inequity exemplified by underrepresented minority students receiving lower grades and having higher rates of attrition across STEM disciplines

Abstract

Underrepresented minority (URM) students are subjected to historically rooted inequities when pursuing an education, especially in STEM disciplines with little diversity. In order to make STEM education equitable and inclusive, evidence for how students from different racial/ethnic demographics are faring is necessary. We use 10 years of institutional data at a large public university to investigate trends in the majors that Asian, URM, and White students declare, drop after declaring, and earn degrees in as well as the GPA of the students who drop or earn a degree. We find that higher percentages of the URM students drop most majors compared to other students and these trends are particularly pronounced in physics and economics. Moreover, we find alarming GPA trends in that the URM students consistently earn lower grades than their Asian and White peers. Furthermore, in some STEM disciplines, the URM students who earn a degree are earning the same grades as the Asian and White students who dropped the major. This troubling trend may signify lack of sufficient support, mentoring, and guidance to ensure excellence of the URM students who are already severely disadvantaged. These quantitative findings call for making learning environments equitable and inclusive so that many URM students who come to college with severe disadvantages are appropriately supported and can excel similar to other students.