written by Apriel K. Hodari, Jeffrey Saul, and Beth Hufnagel

Despite the decades since the Civil Rights movement, women and minorities are still greatly under-represented in mainstream science education and practice, with physics being one of the fields of lowest participation.  In the face of this, 84 schools do successfully serve under-represented minorities and women.  These 84 schools include 34 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that grant 60% of all physics bachelors earned by African-Americans.1  Similarly, 16 Women's Colleges and Universities (WCUs) grant 5% of such degrees earned by women.2  It is our thesis that the 84 institutions we are targeting have something to teach the rest of us about promoting the success of under-represented minorities and women.3  Based on our previous research4 of introductory physics courses at HBCUs and WCUs, we propose two separate projects to carefully examine these institutions for admissions, curricular, and environmental practices that could improve majority institutions' ability to promote the success of women and minorities in physics.  This paper discusses the background to our proposals, and lists key features of the proposed research.  We seek input regarding our focus, experimental design, and research methodologies.

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Published July 26, 2001
Last Modified July 6, 2013

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