National Academies: Revitalizing Graduate STEM

Education for the 21st Century 23 March 2017 Washington, DC

APS Bridge Program Erasing the Doctoral Degree Attainment Gap in Physics for Underrepresented Minority Students Theodore Hodapp APS Director of Project Development Sr. Advisor to Education and Diversity

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1143070. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not

necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Staff: •  Erika Brown (Project Manager, APS) •  Deepa Chari (Postdoc. Assoc., FIU) •  Brián Clash (Project Coordinator, APS) •  Monica Plisch (Management Team, APS) •  Geoff Potvin (Research Advisor, FIU) •  Rachel Scherr (Project Evaluator, SPU) Architect’s Council: •  Marcel Agüeros (Columbia) •  Ed Bertschinger (MIT) •  Andreas Bill (CSU Long Beach) •  Simon Capstick (Florida State) •  Kelly Holley-Bockelmann (Fisk/Vanderbilt) •  Cagliyan Kurdak (Michigan) •  Garrett Matthews (USF) •  Jon Pelz (Ohio State) •  Talat Rahman (UCF) •  Jon Urheim (Indiana)

www.aps.org ©2017, American Physical Society; Email: hodapp@aps.org

URM Bachelor and PhD STEM Degrees

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

22%

ComputerScience

BiologicalSciences

Chemistry Engineering Mathema>csandSta>s>cs

Physics Astronomy

Percen

tageofU

RM

BS

PhD

63 6 61

386 161 639

78

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Deg

rees

Ear

ned

by U

RM

s [%

]

Physics Bachelor's

Physics PhD

66 PhDs on average

US College-age minority population

2

•  All STEM disciplines fail to bring URM students from BS to PhD •  No change in last two decades •  Numbers are attainable (need about ~30/year more in physics) •  Critical: Must identify and retain students who are currently unsuccessful

Only ~30 students!

Sources: IPEDS Completion survey by race, US Census

www.aps.org ©2017, American Physical Society; Email: hodapp@aps.org

APS Bridge Program: Key Features

Recruit Promising Students: grad programs (unaccepted), undergrad programs (promising but uncompetitive, or unsure), website

Establish Supportive Programs: Bridge Sites (6), Partnership (21) •  Year 1: Grad or advanced undergrad courses, introduction to grad-

level research, active mentoring, progress monitoring, social integration into grad school

•  Year 2: Take 1st year grad courses, apply to PhD program, research underway

Place Students: Match students post-April 15th with interested programs •  APS Committee on Minorities vets new Partnership Institutions

Monitor student/site progress Research Disseminate / Advocate

3

www.aps.org ©2017, American Physical Society; Email: hodapp@aps.org

Partnership Institutions

4

Non-APS Sites: •  Bowling Green State University* •  Cal State Los Angeles* •  Columbia University •  Delaware State University •  DePaul University* •  Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University •  Fisk-Vanderbilt •  Florida International University •  MIT •  North Dakota State University •  Princeton University •  Texas State University* •  University of Chicago •  University of Cincinnati •  University of Connecticut •  University of Hawai'i at Manoa •  University of Houston, Clear Lake* •  University of Michigan •  University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill •  University of Rochester •  University of Texas, Arlington *Master’s degree is highest awarded

APS Sites: •  Cal State Long Beach* •  Florida State University •  Indiana University •  Ohio State University •  University of Central Florida •  University of South Florida

www.aps.org ©2017, American Physical Society; Email: hodapp@aps.org

Bridge Program Achievements

•  106 Students placed; 88% retention rate

•  Exceeded “30” the number to close the gap in physics

•  Most students supported by institutions – demonstrating sustainability

•  These students would not be in graduate programs without bridge programs

•  Admissions is failing these (and other) students

•  Basic retention measures can also benefit all students (induction, mentoring, progress monitoring, peer-involvement, etc.)

•  Graduate student groups are a tremendous resource

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Stud

ents

Le*Program

Placed/Retained

ProjectFunding

20132014201520162017

Na+onalAchievementGap

5

www.aps.org ©2017, American Physical Society; Email: hodapp@aps.org

Admissions Process is Failing Many Students

0.0#

0.1#

0.2#

0.3#

0.4#

0.5#

0.6#

0.7#

0.8#

0.9#

1.0#

400# 500# 600# 700# 800# 900# 1000#

Frac1on#(White)#

Frac1on#(Hispanic)#

Frac1on#(Black)#

Frac1on#(Asian)#

0.09 (Black)

0.34 (Hispanic)

0.44 (White)

650

0.61 (Asian)

6

Brian Zamarripa Roman (UCF) • Found grad admissions and

GRE fees too expensive • Mentor at UTEP convinced

him to apply to bridge program • Excelling at grad courses, one

of top students at UCF • Awarded NSF GRF (Mar 17)

Kevin Galiano (OSU) • Applied to only 1 program, not

accepted, did not understand grad admissions process

• 3.91 GPA in grad courses • Very productive researcher,

with high impact paper under review

Research projects in graduate admission: • No correlations between success in obtaining a

PhD and admissions metrics (GRE, GPA) • Students and faculty differ on interpretations of

admissions criteria •  Interpretation of GRE scores by faculty goes

against ETS guidance • Faculty use “fixed” mindset in evaluating students

leading to less diverse entering classes