SPRING WISRD MAGAZINE, VOL 6, ISSUE 2

Improving Diversity in STEM: Weed-Out Classes, Workplace Professionalism, and Counterspaces By Ximena Perez

Histor ically, STEM fields display the same lack of diversity observed in many other facets of Amer ican culture. Apart from a few female and racial minor ity scient ists, most people would find it difficult to name histor ically significant non-white, STEM researchers. This is not to say that they don?t exist , but the norm is white males. In almost every field of STEM, men outnumber women, part icular ly in physics and engineer ing. And in the fields in which men and women are equally represented, women face drast ic under-representat ion at a faculty level as well as income inequality. The dispar ity is even more astounding when examining the rates of members of racial and ethnic minor ity groups in STEM. Based on proport ion of the populat ion, an overrepresentat ion of white individuals exist in STEM fields with 67.4% in the general STEM field and 74.5% in the science and engineer ing workforce (Dou, n.d.). A 2011 study by the Nat ional Research Council found that the number of people from underrepresented minor ity groups part icipat ing in STEM fields proport ionately represented about a third of the total minor ity populat ion in the country (Dou, n.d.). Two factors that contr ibute to the scarcity of diversity are weed-out classes in undergraduate inst itut ions and grappling with

professionalism later in the workforce. One of the root causes of this inequity is academic tracking and weed-out classes. Weed-out classes were introduced in the 19th century to separate students that were likely to excel in STEM fields due to the limited slots available in those classes. Weed-out classes are part icular ly common in science and mathemat ics fields at Amer ican universit ies. As the name suggests, they?re designed to ?weed out?students who may be unlikely to do well and succeed in these fields. These classes are often lecture based and have high D, F, Withdrawal, Incomplete (DFWI) rates. Weed-out classes come to define student career paths and end up pushing some out of STEM fields ent irely. Those who excel in these introductory weed-out courses often go on to complete a major in the field. Those who do poor ly are discouraged and made to feel as if they don?t belong in STEM. Undergraduate students?exper iences in introductory STEM classes correlate with the student retent ion and persistence in STEM majors and careers. According to a study published in the Journal for STEM Educat ion Research, half of college students who intend to graduate with STEM degrees fail to do so within six years of start ing college. The major ity of students who leave STEM majors drop

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