Technologia del Mundo
by Marvin Greene
mgreene@ccgmag.com
NATIONAL CRISIS FOR HISPANICS AND STEM D
espite skyrocketing numbers, Hispanic/Latino college students are not getting the opportunity to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in col- lege compared to other ethnic groups. The reasons for this deficiency are complex. Research indicates that nearly three in five Hispanic/Latino college students gets their start in post- secondary education at the often inferior community-college level. These two-year institutions don’t do STEM well.
Additionally, when it comes to STEM education, a disconnect between two- and four-year institutions is exacerbating the plight for Hispanic/Latino students. Educators, academics, policymakers, advocates and others say the lack of a smooth handoff between community colleges and baccalaureate institutions signals a deep-rooted educational problem in U.S. higher education that demands an immediate solution.
“There are problems with math and science education in the entire school con- tinuum— from public school systems, primary, secondary and into college and graduate study. It really is a systemic problem. Math education in particular is not effective today,” said Alicia C. Dowd, a professor and researcher at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Educa- tion and co-director of its Center for Urban Education.
Dowd and other Center for Urban Education researchers have conducted extensive surveys into the issue of raising educa- tional attainment for Hispanic/Latino students, including a 2010 National Science Foundation-financed study, “Improv- ing Transfer Access to STEM Bachelor’s Degrees at Hispanic Serving Institutions through the America COMPETES Act.” One of the recommendations in the report emphasizes that faculty from community colleges and four-year universities be brought together to plan and implement STEM curricular innovations.
Dowd told Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology in an in- terview that Hispanic/Latino students interested in STEM fields and attending community college are being ill served. “Latino students who earn associates degrees in community colleges are very, very unlikely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in STEM. Transfer rates are very low, and then to transfer and get a STEM bachelor’s degree is the toughest thing of all basi- cally,” Dowd says.
Dowd’s 2007 paper, “Community Colleges as Gateways 14 HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | 2012
Gatekeepers: Moving Beyond the Access Saga Toward Out- come Equity,” examines the role of community colleges and how they serve as a vital conduit for new entrants to higher education, like Hispanic/Latino students, but lack funding and respect. “They (community colleges) are the gateway, but they are suffering for lack of resources. They can’t get enough faculty members to teach classes that they are turning stu- dents away in the hundreds of thousands,” Dowd said.
Clearly, the number and rate in which Hispanic/Latino stu- dents are enrolling in U.S. colleges is impressive. In many respects, Hispanic/Latino students are providing the fuel for the nation’s resurgent education system, where citizens are turning to school as a hedge to the recession and national job losses of the late 2000s, according to experts.
Census figures projects Hispanic/Lati- nos will comprise 18 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2018 and a third of the U.S. population by 2050.
The Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows that more than 1.8 mil- lion Hispanic/Latino students 18 to 24 years old entered college in 2010, a 24 percent increase over 2009. Hispanic/ Latino students accounted for 15 percent of overall U.S. college enrollment in the age group in 2010, according to Pew, a Washington-based nonpartisan researcher that
chronicles Latinos’ growing impact on the nation.
A record 12.2 million students 18 to 24 years old attend col- lege in the United States today, the August 2011 Pew report says, largely because of the increase in Hispanic/Latino num- bers.
Dowd said Hispanic/Latino students are a magnet for com- munity college education, largely because their populations are concentrated in states like California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and New York, all of which have strong community-college systems. As a key point of access for Hispanic/Latino students, two-year schools are a lower-cost educational alternative. They offer a “something for everyone” curriculum, including occupational certificate programs, general education credits, remedial education, English-language instruction and non- credit coursework for business training, self-improvement and leisure, according to Dowd’s paper.
But Dowd’s research shows that community college students do not enjoy a smooth transition to four-year colleges, particu- larly in STEM fields. Among Hispanic/Latino students the prob- lem is a crisis because students seeking to transfer educational credit face a difficult time.
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