In the United States, undergraduate underrepresented minority (URM) students tend to change out of declared majors in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines at a rate of nearly sixty percent prior to earning a post secondary degree. This phenomenon contributes to a general concern that the United States is not producing…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) maintains a prominent role in the athletic tradition of this country, yet researchers agree that some of its member institutions have exhibited bias with respect to race and gender. With respect to Black males in the football bowl subdivision (FBS), the head coach to player ratio is…

California schools have had persistent difficulties filling special education vacancies, but in the past two years, these shortages have skyrocketed, as evidenced by the growth of substandard special education authorizations. When schools struggle to fill a position with a qualified teacher, they often hire teachers who are still in training or…

The disparity between the demographics of California's community college students and faculty is striking. Specifically, underrepresented minority (URM) students represent the largest population at 49%, yet only 22% of faculty are URM. In 1992, legislation was passed to allow community colleges to establish Faculty Diversity Internship Programs…

To meet projected labor demands in science and engineering, the workforce of the future must be educated today in increasing numbers. Indeed, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) underpin the government's ability to defend the nation and to assure the vitality of the economy. STEM jobs are the fastest growing occupational…

Women from working class and some ethnic minority backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in science, particularly in areas such as physical sciences and engineering. Many find it difficult to see science as something that is "for them", which then has implications for their learning and participation in science. In this paper, I…

The Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics or SATS was administered for three consecutive years to students in an Introductory Statistics course at Cornell University. Questions requesting demographic information and expected final course grade were added. Responses were analyzed to investigate possible differences between sexes and racial/ethnic…

Equitable representation is an ongoing challenge for Canadian teacher education. While university educators recognize that a diverse teaching force supports both student outcomes and teacher retention, various groups--including first-generation students, students with disabilities, students of Aboriginal descent, and other racialized…

To address disproportionalities in suspensions for students of color, many districts have prohibited schools from suspending students for willful defiance of school authorities and implemented restorative justice programs (RJP) that address student misconduct using alternative conflict resolution practices. However, there is limited evidence on…

American Indians and Alaska Natives are underrepresented as social work students, social work educators, and within the profession in general. In addition, many historical and socioeconomic factors have contributed to disproportionality in higher education attainment between these students and those within other ethnic groups. Compounding the…

A persistent achievement gap between White and minority students in the United States has been monitored and reported for many decades, yet progress toward closing the gap has been remarkably slow. This is particularly consequential for the future of education in the United States considering that students of color are expected to make up 59% of…

Suspensions and expulsions have long been employed in schools to discipline students for disruptive behavior and maintain a safe school environment. However, a growing body of research suggests that these types of disciplinary interventions negatively impact student achievement and increase both students' risk of dropping out and their likelihood…

Recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Education provided new data for 2016-17 that include the race and gender of the 155,854 teachers in Pennsylvania's public schools. Research for Action (RFA) compiled and cleaned the raw data and is providing, for the first time, a public dataset with the race and gender demographics of each public school,…

This report is part of a five-report series on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that identifies the challenges facing English learners with disabilities and their families, as well as the unique needs facing students with disabilities from low-income families, and it examines how they fare in the public education system. The…

Student discipline issues can impact student achievement and disrupt the learning process in the school setting. Behavioral issues among female students have become prevalent in public schools, and disciplinary rates of African American female students are disproportionately high. School administrators have the responsibility to manage student…