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Universities contribute to economic growth and national competitiveness by equipping students with higher-order thinking and academic skills. Despite large investments in university science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, little is known about how the skills of STEM undergraduates compare across countries and by institutional selectivity. Here, we provide direct evidence on these issues by collecting and analysing longitudinal data on tens of thousands of computer science and electrical engineering students in China, India, Russia and the United States. We find stark differences in skill levels and gains among countries and by institutional selectivity. Compared with the United States, students in China, India and Russia do not gain critical thinking skills over four years. Furthermore, while students in India and Russia gain academic skills during the first two years, students in China do not. These gaps in skill levels and gains provide insights into the global competitiveness of STEM university students across nations and institutional types., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

The findings reported in this paper are based on surveys of U.S. high school students who registered and managed their science and engineering fair (SEF) projects through the online Scienteer website over the three years 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22. Almost 2500 students completed surveys after finishing all their SEF competitions. We added a new question in 2019/20 to our on-going surveys asking the students whether their high school location was urban, suburban, or rural. We learned that overall, 74% of students participating in SEFs indicated that they were from suburban schools. Unexpectedly, very few SEF participants, less than 4%, indicated that they were from rural schools, even though national data show that more than 20% of high school students attend rural schools. Consistent with previous findings, Asian and Hispanic students indicated more successful SEF outcomes than Black and White students. However, whereas Asian students had the highest percentage of SEF participants from suburban vs. urban schools- 81% vs. 18%, Hispanic students had the most balanced representation of participants from suburban vs. urban schools- 55% vs. 39%. Differences in students' SEF experiences based on gender and ethnicity showed the same patterns regardless of school location. In the few items where we observed statistically significant (probability < .05) differences based on school location, students from suburban schools were marginally favored by only a few percentage points compared to students from urban schools. In conclusion, based on our surveys results most students participating in SEFs come from suburban schools, but students participating in SEFs and coming from urban schools have equivalent SEF experiences, and very few students participating in SEFs come from rural schools., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Grinnell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Addressing racism is key in moving forward as a nation and creating a more equitable environment. Within this paper, Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. describes the critical need to shift from diversity, inclusion, and equity (D.I.E.) to inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-racism, and learning (I.D.E.A.L.).

Gender differences in science and engineering (S&E) have been studied in various countries. Most of these studies find that women are underrepresented in the S&E workforce and publish less than their male peers. The factors that contribute to gender differences in experience and performance in S&E careers can vary from one country to another, yet they remain underexplored. This paper is among the first to systematically compare gender differences in the publication productivity of academic scientists and engineers with doctoral degrees in the U.S. and China. Findings from negative binomial regressions show that women publish less than their male counterparts in science but not in engineering in the U.S. In China, women do not differ from men in publication productivity in science but publish more than their male counterparts in engineering. In addition, we find that some background variables affect men's and women's publication productivity differently. The findings are analyzed in the context of the different cultures of the two fields (science vs. engineering) and of the two countries (the U.S. and China). Limitations and policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased efforts to diversify science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States have drastically increased the number of studies offering insight into the experiences of women in STEM programs in higher education. This paper presents a thematic review of the literature regarding their status from 2007 to 2017 including journals, trade magazines, theses, and dissertations. It focuses on areas of recruitment, retention, barriers, and faculty issues. Stereotypes, biases, campus culture, classroom experiences, identity, and sense of belonging are also explored. The author additionally identifies gaps and suggests related areas for new research as well as implications for librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Little research has examined the associations between perceived inclusivity within informal science learning sites, youth program belonging and perceptions of program career preparation. This study explored relations between these factors at three timepoints (T1 = start of program, T2 = 3 months and T3 = 12 months after start). Participants were a diverse sample of 209 adolescents participating in STEM youth programs within informal science learning sites situated in the United States and United Kingdom (70% females: Mage = 15.27, SDage = 1.60), with 53.1% British and 64.1% non-White. Path analysis revealed that only perceptions of inclusivity for own social identity group (i.e., gender, ethnicity) at T1 were associated with T2 STEM youth program belonging. There was a significant indirect effect of T1 perceptions of inclusivity for one's own social identity groups on T3 perceptions of program career preparation via T2 program belonging. This study highlights that, over time, perceptions of inclusivity around youth's own social identity groups (i.e., gender and ethnicity/culture) are related to a sense of youth program belonging, which in turn is later associated with perceptions of program career preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few women major in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at the undergraduate level. Given the drive to attract and retain students in general, and women in STEM in particular, educational institutions need to know what resources and services might help support these students in their work. This study seeks to provide a better understanding of how undergraduate women in STEM use the academic library. The study involved focus groups and interviews with women at a research-intensive university in the United States. Grounded theory principles provided a basis for analysis of the collected conversations. The findings from this study indicate that undergraduate women in STEM depend on the academic library as a quiet place to study where there are few distractions and technology is easily available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) into library programming is a continuing trend in the United States. At the Mount Prospect Public Library (MPPL) in Illinois, there are many STEAM programs in-house that focus on science and technology, but we were looking for ways to add it to outreach programming. Our receipt of the Association for Library Service to Children's (ALSC) Building STEAM with Día grant allowed us to build upon an established Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros (Día) program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Citing their students' low levels of empathy, medical educators have scrambled to implement curricula with the hopes of buffering against the corrosive effects of biomedical and clinical experiences in medical school. The assumption undergirding these studies by social scientists and medical educators alike is that immersion in biomedical education and clinical experience erodes students' empathic capacities, and that exposure to humanities and social sciences content will amend these losses. But we do not know if this assumption is correct. In this project, we empirically assess this assumption by utilizing a unique data set constructed from student applicant and survey data from the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). We test whether medical school students (N = 8255) from the United States (U.S.) with different academic backgrounds represented by their college major have different levels of empathy, net of demographic control variables. We report two findings. First, we find that students who majored in humanities or interpretive social sciences disciplines have higher empathy scores than their peers who majored in the positivistic social sciences and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines. Second, we find that the relationship between empathy and time in medical school is more nuanced than we would expect from the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with disabilities have been historically marginalised and consistently underrepresented at all levels of education. In the U.S., the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) in the 1970s changed the landscape for primary and secondary education, increasing access for many students. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, and since that time students with disabilities have entered postsecondary institutions at greater rates. While in 2001, only about 5% of college students identified as having a disability, more recent estimates put the proportion of undergraduate students with disabilities at approximately 11%. Despite this growth, only 5% of post-baccalaureate students report having a disability relative to undergraduate students. This raises the question of how accessible graduate and professional education is for students with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to identify trends in the representation of female authorship regarding the topic of the status of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in higher education in the United States from 2007 to 2018 in prominent interdisciplinary journals. We conducted a comprehensive search for articles and collected the genders of the first and senior authors from 647 citations. We assessed the number of male versus female authors, the percentages of female first authors and senior authors, and the percentage of female corresponding authors for each year. Additionally, we also analyzed the citations to determine the journals and publishers who produced the most literature in this area. Women constituted 59% overall authorship and 34% first authorship. The top publishers in this area include Sage Publications, Springer/Nature, and Elsevier. Women constituted 60% of the first authors in STEM literature on the status of women and 38% of senior authors. Although there was growth over time in first authorship in STEM literature written by women, they continue to remain a minority in senior authorship. We suggest it is women that are leading this discussion, highlighting the additional lift that women in STEM in higher education must make; researching and publishing on their own experiences as part of their self-advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Career counselors must continually enhance their knowledge and skills to assist clients contemplating careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Therefore, the authors review STEM disciplines and theory‐driven strategies for assisting diverse individuals to explore, enter, and persist in STEM careers. Appropriate use of career assessments can contribute greatly to this effort. To identify available measures for STEM‐focused domains and constructs, the authors conducted a journal content analysis of stand‐alone STEM‐related career assessments from 1983 to 2016, identifying 39 articles with 153 measures. Notable results included the emergence of social cognitive theory and social cognitive career theory as prevailing frameworks for instrument development, a wide variety of disciplines and journals represented, an underrepresentation of minority samples, and untapped potential for cross‐discipline and researcher–practitioner collaboration. Useful strategies and resources for counselors and recommendations for enhancing career assessments and interventions are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this mixed methods research study, we examined sociocultural factors related to the successful persistence of college students who identified as African American or Latino, attended Early College High Schools, and who were enrolled as STEM majors at 4-year institutions. A college persistence scale was administered in the quantitative phase (n = 50) and focus group interviews were administered in the qualitative phase with students who fell in the upper and lower quartiles of the persistence scale (n = 9). An all possible subsets multiple linear regression analysis revealed that STEM majors and former early college high school students who demonstrated higher levels of persistence (R2 = 49.9%) also reported high levels of academic integration and degree commitment at their respective universities. Constant comparison analysis of the qualitative data yielded eight themes (e.g., Transitioning to College, College Persistence, Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Culture). A mixed research matrix then was used to compare code frequency data (quantitative) yielded from inputting the themes (qualitative) into QDA Miner 4.1.21. Based on study findings, implications and recommendations for practice and future research are discussed for policy makers, educational leaders, Early College High School educators, and college advisors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggest that individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely than other disability groups and the general population to gravitate toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, the field knows little about which factors influence the STEM pipeline between high school and postsecondary STEM major. This study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study–2, a nationally representative sample of students with an ASD in special education in the United States. Findings suggest that students with an ASD who took more classes in advanced math in a general education setting were more likely to declare a STEM major after controlling for background characteristics and previous achievement level. Educational policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers are fundamental inputs for innovation, the main driver of productivity growth. We identify the long-run effect of STEM employment growth on outcomes for native workers across 219 US cities from 1990 to 2010. We use the 1980 distribution of foreign-born STEM workers and variation in the H-1B visa program to identify supply-driven STEM increases across cities. Increases in STEM workers are associated with significant wage gains for college-educated natives. Gains for non-college-educated natives are smaller but still significant. Our results imply that foreign STEM increased total factor productivity growth in US cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of US firms using matched employer-employee data. Unlike most previous work, we use the firm as the lens of analysis to account for greater heterogeneity and the fact that many skilled immigrant admissions are driven by firms themselves (e.g., the H-1B visa). OLS and IV specifications show rising overall employment of skilled workers with increased skilled immigrant employment by the firm. Employment expansion is greater for young natives than for their older counterparts. The departure rates for older workers relative to younger workers appear highest for those in STEM occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents questions answers on How do some Black male student-athletes explore and plan for careers in sports and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.