"First, science and its benefits must be delivered toward making life better for all Americans¾ never just a privileged few…Science must not create a new line of separation between the haves and the have-nots, those with and those without the tools and understanding to learn and use technology…Science can serve the values and interests of all Americans, but only if all Americans are given a chance to participate in science."
 
 
 

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) wishes to express appreciation to Dr. Shirley Malcom, Head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science for making the arrangements to include the panel discussion as part of the 150^thAnniversary Meeting of AAAS. OSTP also extends its gratitude to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation for providing the financial support for publication of this document

Dear Colleague:

On June 13, 1997, President Clinton issued Executive Order No. 13050, which created the Initiative on Race and authorized the creation of an Advisory Board to advise the President on how to build one America for the 21^st Century. The Board was tasked with examining race, racism, and the potential for racial reconciliation in America using a process of study, constructive dialogue, and action. The Board also focused on the role race plays in civil rights enforcement, education, poverty, employment, housing, stereotyping, the administration of justice, health care, and immigration.

I believe scientists and engineers have a unique contribution to make to the challenges faced by the President’s Initiative on Race, particularly in regard to the development of talent among groups traditionally underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering. Therefore, I am pleased to release the proceedings of the panel session on Meeting America’s Needs for the Scientific and Technological Challenges of the Twenty-First Century, held February 13, 1998 at the 150^th Anniversary Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This panel session helped inform the Administration on suitable goals and strategies for diversifying the scientific and technological community. The richness of this input is rooted in the experience and diversity of the participants, who came to the panel session from academia, industry, professional societies, and government.

The panelists, Dr. David Hamburg, President Emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Dr. John H. Gibbons, then-Assistant to the President for Science and Technology are to be commended for leading an enormously informative conversation on the President’s goal of One America. A diverse scientific and technological workforce will ultimately position the United States for continued leadership in the coming millennium.
 

Contents

Letter from the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology

About the Panel: OSTP-AAAS One America Conversation

Summary of OSTP-AAAS One America Conversation

Opening Remarks

Panel Discussion

Need to Diversify the S&T Community

Education Access for Minority Children in S&T

Role of Mentoring

Outreach Programs that Work

Target Minority Recruitment in Science and Engineering

Educational Barriers

Race and the Role of Standardized Tests

Closing Remarks

Appendix A Central Goals of One America in the 21st Century:

The President's Initiative on Race

Appendix B White House Letters to Invited Panelists and Contributors

Appendix C Panel Agenda: OSTP-AAAS One America Conversation

Appendix D Biographical Summaries of Invited Panelists and Contributors

Appendix E Position Papers of Invited Panelists

The Advancement of Science

Shirley Malcom

Partnering for Workforce Development: A Model for Increasing the Supply of Skilled Workers

Cathleen Barton

Development Fund for Black Students in Science and Technology

Julian Earls

Under-representation Perspectives from Academia

Carlos Castillo-Chavez

Diversifying the Science and Technology Community

Richard Tapia

Race & the Misuse of Standardized Tests in Predicting Academic Potential

Percy Pierre

Achieving a Diverse Science and Technology Community

Samuel Massie

On the Retention of Under-represented Minorities in Science

Lydia Villa-Komaroff

Absence of Minorities From Research Fields Will Result in Grave Consequences in U.S.

John Alderete

Why America is Still "A Nation at Risk" Fifteen Years Later?

Darleane Hoffman

Addressing the Issue of Under-representation of Minority Groups in Graduate Engineering and Science Education

Howard Adams

Personal Reflections on Race and Achieving S&T Diversity

Satya Atluri

Beyond Conflict or Compromise

Fred Begay

Procter & Gamble's Goals and Perspective

O. LaVelle Bond

Workforce Diversity in the S&T Community: Key Strategies & Future Directions

Herbert Wong

Appendix F Position Papers of Invited Contributors

Engineering and Affirmative Action: Crisis in the Making

George Campbell, Jr.

Race and Fear: The Real Hot Buttons Behind the Diversity Debate

William Gray, III

Are We Still A Land of Opportunity?

Charles Vest

Science and technology offer exciting opportunities to shape America’s future. Yet, science and technology fields traditionally have attracted a less diverse pool than many of the non-technical fields. In the 1945 report to President Harry S. Truman defining a national program for post-World War II scientific research, Science-The Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush reported that "There are talented individuals in every segment of the population, but with few exceptions those without the means of buying higher education go without it. Here is a tremendous waste of the greatest resource of a nation – the intelligence of its citizens. If ability, and not the circumstance of family fortune, is made to determine who shall receive higher education in science, then we shall be assured of constantly improving quality at every level of scientific activity."

As part of its determination to propel the Nation into the 21^st century on a strong scientific and technological foundation, the Clinton Administration articulated several goals in the policy document, Science in the National Interest. Two of the major goals are the production of the finest scientists and engineers for the 21^st century and scientific literacy for all. To help achieve these goals, the Administration is committed to maximizing the Nation’s pool of talented, well-educated, and highly trained scientists and engineers. This entails maintaining demonstrated excellence in the production of scientists and engineers, by actively increasing the participation of talent reflective of the Nation’s diversity.

Scientists and engineers have a unique contribution to make to the challenges faced by the President’s Initiative on Race (see Appendix A), particularly in regards to the development of talent among groups traditionally underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering. In response to these challenges, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) co-sponsored a One America panel session at the AAAS 150^th Anniversary Meeting entitled, Meeting America’s Needs for the Scientific and Technological Challenges of the Twenty-First Century. The OSTP-AAAS One America panel was co-chaired by The Honorable John H. Gibbons, then-Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and David Hamburg, President Emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Hamburg also served as the moderator of the conversation. The panel session brought together twenty prominent scientists and technological leaders of academia, industry, and government to discuss the need for participation of all Americans in science and technology, and the responsibility and expectations of a diverse scientific and technological community in contributing through research and education to the national good. Biographical summaries of the invited panelists are given in the Appendix A. What follows is a brief summary of the OSTP-AAAS One America panel discussion.
 
 
 

The OSTP-AAAS One America panel sought to carry forward a discussion of the ideals that underlie a government-academe-industry partnership for creating a diverse scientific and technological community, and it was organized around the basic goals of the President's Initiative on Race. The discussion focused on three issues: the need to diversify the science and technology community; how to encourage minority students to choose technical careers; and how to deal with the challenges to recruitment programs in science and engineering that target minorities.
 
 

John Gibbons convened the panel discussion, and offered in his opening remarks the purpose of the session with respect to President Clinton's goals through his Initiative on Race, and to science and technology policy. Gibbons stated, "in the President's Initiative on Race, we have an effort to move the country much closer to a stronger, more just, and a more unified nation, one that offers opportunities and fairness for all Americans. It is a chance for every citizen in our country to be part of a national conversation about racial diversity in America, and about the strength that diversity brings to our nation, and indeed, to parts of the nation like the science and technology community." America needs more workers trained in science and technology. The global economy, which has been created by advances in transportation and communication technologies, has broadened the distances between the "haves" and "have -nots." We have to carefully craft our application of these advances, so that we can narrow, rather than broaden, the gaps between our socioeconomic communities. Gibbons urged that we in science and technology have a unique contribution to make to these challenges, and the kinds of challenges that the President has put before us in his Initiative on Race.

The moderator for the panel discussion, David Hamburg, discussed the common themes flowing from the position papers, which were submitted by the panelists and invited contributors prior to convening for the conversation. Hamburg spoke of the serious barriers against minority participation in science and technology that must be addressed. He described the need for ensuring that all Americans can understand issues that have technical content in the public arena. Hamburg also researched the issue of the demographic changes that can be foreseen in the next century. He stated they are "so far reaching that they call for a re-assessment of the opportunities to diversify science and technology achievement in education and career opportunities in this country."

Hamburg suggested that we can enlarge the scope of opportunity for distribution of knowledge and skills in the population, and that the challenge is for public policy to highlight the public-private best practices and implement them on the national scale. Finally, Hamburg urged that we must live up to the promise of life-span development of people from childhood to adulthood by encouraging a higher level of learning through science and technology.
 
 

Need to Diversify the S&T Community

The under-representation of minorities in science and technology raises important concerns regarding both equal opportunity and the future ability of the nation to produce an adequate number of scientists and engineers. Demographic data show a workforce increasingly comprised of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and persons with disabilities - groups historically underrepresented in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. This country must invest in education and training for these groups not only to make good on its promise of equal opportunity, but also to insure that employers have a qualified workforce in the 21st century. John Alderete drew attention to the growing demographic shifts in the U.S. population in the next century. He cited that, "in just two or three years, if not sooner, Latinos will be the majority minority population in this country, and that in less than 50 years, there will be 100 million Latinos in this country - the single largest minority this continent has ever seen." Alderete noted that "only five percent of us will be elderly, and eighty-five percent of us will have been born here multi-generational." He further warned that "if you think the 1990 LA riots were bad, we haven't seen anything yet, if we don't start educating more people."

Carlos Castillo-Chavez and Richard Tapia agreed that we still have serious barriers against minority participation in science and technology which must be addressed. According to Tapia, "under-representation in science and technology is not just a health of science issue, it's a health of the nation issue." Herbert Wong urged that "we really need to learn how to leverage the differences, as well as, the similarities amongst ourselves, and we must not enter into a competitive or conflictual area around our differences. We need to figure out how to draw value from our diversity and to create knowledge in order to gain from our differences." Wong added that "effective change comes because of institutional and organizational change, rather than just individual or small group efforts. We can make some progress through our individual energies and efforts, but we really need to mobilize this effort into institutions and organizational frameworks." Wong further suggested that "we have got to build workforce environments of inclusion. We have to pay attention to social support of workers. We have to build those healing communities that address the across-group concerns and conflicts. Without this effort, knowledge creation and productivity is severely diminished."

Satya Atluri pointed out that "as intellectual property becomes increasingly global, most of these international students are exporting knowledge back to their homelands, and I think this is a serious tragedy for the country." Atluri urged that "we should work on national policies that encourage persons of all races or national origin to thrive in this country and open all the doors to them at all levels." Atluri would also like to see the country adopt the concept of magnet institutions - perhaps 10 or 15 institutions - where massive amounts of resources are synergized for minority students, especially for those who are native-born.
 
 

Educational Access for Minority Children in S&T

Access to education is, above all else, a promise to all children. We need to take full advantage of emerging computer and communication technologies to meet this promise. The panelists acknowledged the Administration's commitment to expanding these technologies to public schools, and work to connect every classroom in the country to the Information Superhighway. They also recognized President Clinton's concern for the need to expand our capacity to conduct research on education - what works, what doesn't, and how new approaches to education can be successfully implemented in America's classrooms.

Still, the panelist felt that the only sure way we can help every child in America to climb the "ladder of opportunity" is through increased Federal funding to improve math and science education for all children and to increase access to job training in technical fields. The panelists urged that this is essential in a new economy forged by expanded trade and technology, and constrained by skilled worker shortages. If America's high school children are graduating with math and science competencies well below the competencies of our global competitors, how can we expect them to contribute to America’s economic future? All of the panelists agreed that we need to take bold new steps now to reverse the downward trend in math and science education of America's children - especially for African American, Latinos, and Native American children. Various forms of Federal aid to education supported by this Administration were acknowledged as working to facilitate the development and application of standards, to assist school districts serving poor communities, to assure safe and drug-free classrooms, to improve curricula in accordance with changes in our economy, and to empower adult learners entering school for a lifetime. However, the panelists unanimously agreed that we need many more Federal dollars funding grass-roots efforts that show more school children from all communities how to say, "Yes, I can do this."
 
 

Role of Mentoring

Shirley Malcom opened the panel discussion by focusing on the tremendous value of mentors and role models for minority participation in graduate education at colleges and universities categorized as Research I institutions. Malcom stated that the AAAS surveyed Research I institutions exclusively in order to ascertain the state of their effectiveness in this area, because they are the producers of future scientists and engineers holding the elite Ph.Ds, who in turn become future faculty at Research I universities, future governmental and industrial policy makers, future PCAST members, and future directors of NSF and NIH. She spoke of the "isolated" educational environment encountered by African American, Latino, and Native American students at Research I institutions, and that such an environment is resulting in a decrease in the enrollment of minority students in the graduate schools of these institutions.

Howard Adams cited that many minority students simply don't receive adequate funding from inside the institution. "If you don't have inside funding, you don't have a key to the lab," Adams cautioned, "You don't have a mentor. You don't have an advisor. You don't have colleagues. You don't belong to the journal clubs. You don't belong to any of the scholarly activities that one must do if you are going to graduate." Adams further warned, "if minority students don't have the advising and the nurturing, they don't know the milestones that will enable them to be successful." Even after we do all of this, Adams urged that "we have to give minority students access to the recommendations (sponsorships) that are going to launch them forward to the next level."

The issue of science and technology mentoring - recruitment, retention, and academic development - was cited by many of the panelist as primary concerns that educators face with minority engineering students. Richard Tapia, recalled as a poor, Mexican American child how he excelled in math and science. But, how his technical abilities could lead him out of inner city Los Angeles seemed uncertain. "I just needed someone to tell me, ‘Yes, it’s possible.’" Tapia recalled several teachers who went the extra mile and encouraged him to "take his talent and love of math, and make a career out of it."

The importance of role modeling and mentoring recognized at the highest level of the Federal government was warmly praised by several of the panelists. The annual Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring were established in 1996. Since then, dozens of individuals (including panelists Richard Tapia, Howard Adams, and Carlos Castillo-Chavez) along with numerous organizations and institutions have been honored for their outstanding mentoring efforts that have encouraged significant numbers of minorities, women, and disabled persons to succeed in these fields. Tapia, Adams, and Castillo-Chavez identified the President Mentoring Awards as a step in the right direction, because it encourages academia to recognize the efforts that many faculty are realizing in the mentoring and nurturing of minority student participation in science and technology.

Outreach Programs That Work

According to Howard Adams, "there still remains a lack of information, research, and professional training on establishing effective formalized mentoring programs. Methods and techniques currently being used are disjointed and frequently without guidelines for implementation. The formation of mutual mentoring relationships between the participants (mentors and protégés) are often left to chance." "This hit-and-miss approach," says Adams, "fails to take advantage of proven strategies for the development and implementation of effective mentoring programs." To help fill this void, the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. has established the National Institute on Mentoring (NIM), headed by Adams at the Georgia Institute of Technology to improve existing mentoring techniques employed by universities, industries, and governmental agencies, and to offer consulting services to these same institutions and agencies in the areas of developing and implementing formalized mentoring programs where none presently exist. Adams, like many of the panelists, recommended that more programmatic models like NIM are needed.

Cathleen Barton and Julian Earls picked up on the theme of best practices and programs that focus on workforce development and minority community outreach from the industrial and Federal agency perspective. Cathleen Barton spoke on behalf of her responsibility in leading an effort to increase the supply of technically skilled workers in the semiconductor industry. Barton stated that the key approach to developing a technically-trained workforce for the semi-conductor industry is increasing the awareness of parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and re-training adults about the educational opportunities available to give them entrance into the fields of high technology.

Earls, along with a group of black scientist and engineers, decided to take personal responsibility in addressing the problem of financial support for black students who desired to pursue a career in science and technology. Earls described the Development Fund for Black Students in Science and Technology, a Washington, D.C. non-profit organization. He also articulated the NASA position that "it is too late to go into a high school and talk to students about majoring in science and engineering." He also summarized a sample of the NASA research grant programs targeted to historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities.

For 160 years, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has been in the business of promoting personnel solely from within. O. LaVelle Bond stated that "if we [P&G] don't get the kind of people that we need, we don't get the kind of people to help our business run." P&G is both a marketing and high technology company. Sixty percent of P&G's managerial employees have technical degrees. "By increasing our diversity efforts over the last five years, we have significantly expanded our minority managerial recruits," cited Bond.

To get this done, Bond reported that P&G had to develop business strategies aimed at utilizing the best sources of the brightest talent out there and forming strategic alliances with the communities in which the talent pool resides. "We focus on a handful of models that work out there, and we figure out how to appropriately adopt or adapt them. We do not focus on trying to find ‘a silver bullet’ to solve this issue of workforce diversity," according to Bond. He further reported that P&G is involved in youth development programs like Inroads, and has contributed nearly $2 million to the United Negro College Fund. P&G alliances with these organizations influence people to make good career decisions, and this has been a very important company objective. P&G has identified about 40 colleges and universities as primary talent sources to meet their workforce needs. Each of these universities is involved with a team that is headed by a corporate officer at P&G. Each of these teams is charged to identify the issues, opportunities, and needs of the recruits and the company.

Targeted Minority Recruitment in Science and Engineering

Regarding targeted minority recruitment in science and engineering, a consensus emerged during the conversation that diversity in science and engineering is crucial to national wealth-building and knowledge-creation. However, America's efforts to achieve this goal are currently stalled in the political and legal aspects of affirmative action. The national debate on affirmative action notwithstanding, in American higher education "…race-based scholarships, where race is the sole determining factor, account for less than 1 percent of all graduate and undergraduate scholarships, and about 5 percent of all scholarships exclusively at the undergraduate level. Scholarships that include race as a component account for less than 5 percent of all scholarships in America," according to William H. Gray III, President of the United Negro College Fund. He further suggests that higher education leaders must "…help the people of the academy understand the need for inclusiveness, and that being inclusive does not mean lowering standards." Most of the panelists agreed that we must provide similar research and statistical data that show the economic and technological competitiveness impact of under-representation in science and engineering.

Howard Adams pointed out that "there are more underrepresented minority students taking mathematics and good science classes than ever before." Adams reported that "there are more Native Americans, Hispanic, and African American students taking the SATs than ever before." "There are more of our kids who want to go to college," according to Adams, "so, the good news is that we are making some difference in this area, although we are not recruiting nearly enough students." Adams warned that "we still sell graduate education as bad medicine for minority students." He advised that we have to get the appropriate information to minority students about the benefits of graduate school.

Lydia Villa-Komaroff articulated the value of a Ph.D. as a degree of opportunity for minority youth. She thinks all too often the message we send to minority youth is that they shouldn't get a Ph.D. because they won't get a job. In fact, what we really mean is that "it is going to be hard to get a job in academia." However, the truth is that professionals holding Ph.Ds have a significantly lower level of unemployment than professionals who don't, according to Villa-Komaroff. She stated that we, in academia, are far too narrow in our definition of success for our students, particularly for minorities, and we must address this.
 
 

Educational Barriers

"All of our children can learn, but many of us who teach math and science don't really give our children a chance to learn," cautioned Samuel Massie. He further suggest that "as we teach our children, we look at newer methods of presenting math and science material - somehow we have got to bring it down to a level that a child can understand."

James Comer believes, "we have to give a lot of attention to pre-kindergarten, elementary and high school teacher training. The way we teach just misses the way young people learn. So, we have to address the way the education colleges are really preparing teachers to teach...based on the way children learn."

Comer further suggested that we must encourage our children towards a higher level of learning and thinking. He cited several examples to support this. "Children are born explorers, investigators, and scientists," Comer acknowledged. "We have to encourage parents and teachers to nurture that curiosity, to help teachers learn to tap into a child's curiosity, talents, and interests. And hopefully, we can encourage their interest in science and technology."

Darleane Hoffman urged that "we have to start introducing science at the kindergarten level." She suggested, "we can study things like buoyancy. We can teach our children in the bathtub, showing them how things float and what their densities are, and so forth." She urged teachers and parents to develop simple activities using a graded approach. More important, "we should take the view that not everybody is going to be a Ph.D. scientist, nor should they be, any more than all of us should be musicians or artists or sports personalities." Hoffman urged that we should appeal to children at all levels, and show them how science impacts their daily lives. Hoffman believes that eventually, those children who really want to pursue science as a career will come, and that those youngsters who have other primary interests can still find something which will lead them to the scientific method of thinking. Hoffman has become very convinced that "we have to start very early, that we have to take a graded approach, and that we need the teacher training. I hope that in the next 15 years we can make more progress than we have in the last 15."

In the area of bilingual education, John Alderete recommended that we must explore critical areas of new research on the language learning skills of all children. He warned that we need more research to determine if bilingual education is working, and if it is the best way to approach the education of Hispanic children. Alderete also called for more investment in bilingual instruction and curriculum development to give children in under-served groups greater access to basic math and science skills using their native language, so they can eventually make the crossover to higher technical learning using English. He argued that learning the fundamentals of math and science is difficult enough without having to overcome the additional barriers of language and access to feedback. Alderete challenged, "Scientists must provide the data, so policies can be altered."

Fred Begay cited a critical problem faced by Native Americans is the absence of sustained Federal funding for education. Begay recommended that the National Science and Technology Council devise some strategy to support K-12 science and math education on a long-term basis, especially in the tribal communities. Begay acknowledged that "NSF will come in and support us for a few years, and then they are gone."
 
 

Race and the Role of Standardized Tests

The role of standardized tests was identified by Tapia, Adams, and Percy Pierre as a high barrier to increased minority participation in science and engineering. Adams cited standardized tests as "the gatekeepers to graduate school," and that graduate admissions officials are making their admissions decisions "like a man wearing suspenders and a belt, because he really has no faith in either one of them." Tapia argued that "the misuse of the standardized test is the underrepresented minority's absolute worst enemy." Tapia has to work in a very creative way to deal with standardized tests like the SATs and GREs, and to get more minority talent into mainstream science in America and inside major universities. Tapia states that "we have to re-evaluate the evaluation criteria." Lydia Villa-Komaroff urged that the National Research Council simply eliminate standardized tests as a measure of their assessment of the quality of Research I institutions.

On the issue of race and the role of standardized tests - we must identify effective indicators and predictors of academic success among minorities. Pierre warned that "scientists have to stand up and say, statistically, if what we are trying to do is predict who is going to succeed academically and who is not, then this is not the way to do it." He further suggested that we need more longitudinal studies like the NCAA Proposition 48 study to help us determine how to ascertain potential in science and technology, and to determine what indicators of academic potential are more valid than the standardized tests. Pierre described his research efforts in understanding standardized tests, particularly as they were used by the NCAA in establishing new criteria for eligibility of student-athletes. He further suggested that "we have to recognize the inadequacies of SATs as a predictor of undergraduate student graduation. Perhaps in determining who is going to do well in calculus I, SATs are a pretty good predictor. However, as a predictor of who is going to win the Nobel Prize, SATs are second-rate. I suggest rather than only focusing on re-evaluating the evaluation criteria, we should give some thought to more preparatory programs that bring disadvantaged youths up to the rigorous standards - empowering them like the Army does."
 

John Gibbons concluded the discussion by advocating that "a commitment to building a diversified science and technology community is to be valued in its own right. I don't think that requires quotas; neither does it require eliminating all of our science and engineering recruitment efforts for underrepresented minorities." Gibbons posed a challenge for us all to create a more supportive set of learning communities where government, university, industry and, most of all, individuals share the responsibility for attracting and nurturing diverse people into science and technology. David Hamburg stated that "this is not simply a meeting here. It is part of an ongoing process, and we will do everything in our power to see to it that the President continues to be oriented toward these issues...there is no substitute for Presidential leadership to stimulate the private sector, as well as the public sector. I think we have the opportunity to help the President do that. We can provide the leadership that could make a difference and to clearly make a diverse scientific and technological workforce part of a major thrust of the national agenda. It has got to be. I just want to emphasize that there is going to be a continuing effort flowing from this discussion."
 
 

On June 14, 1997, President Clinton launched a year-long initiative, "One America in the 21^st Century – The President’s Initiative on Race," to examine the current state of race relations, look at the laws and policies that can help to ensure that we remain One America, and enlist individuals, communities, businesses and government at all levels to understand our differences while appreciating the values that unite us.

The President's Initiative on Race is an effort to move the country closer to a stronger, more just, and unified America, one that offers opportunity and fairness for all Americans. It is a chance for every citizen in our country to be a part of a great national conversation about America's racial diversity and about the strength it brings our nation. As Americans, our shared values unite us, but we can do more to be One America. The President is asking all Americans to join him in this effort which combines thoughtful study, constructive dialogue, and positive action to address the continuing challenge of how to live and work more productively as One America in the 21st century.

In announcing his Initiative, President Clinton stated, "Over the coming year, I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented conversation about race...What do I really hope we will achieve as a country? If we do nothing more than talk, it will be interesting, but it won't be enough. If we do nothing more than propose disconnected acts of policy, it would be helpful, but it won't be enough. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that this year of honest dialogue and concerted action helped lift the heavy burden of race from our children's future, we will have given a precious gift to America."

The initiative will combine dialogue, study, and action. Its five central goals are:

1. To articulate the President’s vision of racial reconciliation and a just, unified America.
2. To help educate the Nation about the facts surrounding the issue of race.
3. To promote a constructive dialogue, to confront and work through the difficult and controversial issues surrounding race.
4. To recruit and encourage leadership at all levels to help bridge racial divides.
5. To find, develop and implement solutions in critical areas such as education, economic opportunity, housing, health care, crime and the administration of justice – for individuals, communities, corporations and government at all levels.

Panelist's Name

Street Address

City, State

Dear Panelist:

President Clinton has requested that I engage the scientific community in a dialogue on race as part of the President’s Initiative on Race. In response, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) are co-sponsoring a panel session at the AAAS 150^th Anniversary Meeting entitled, Meeting America’s Needs for the Scientific and Technological Challenges of the Twenty-First Century. The session will focus on (1) the need to diversify the science and technology community; and (2) how to deal with the challenges to targeted minority recruitment programs in science and engineering. I invite you to serve on this panel to share your advice and expertise on these issues.

The panel session will be held on Friday, February 13, 1998, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. I anticipate approximately 15-20 prominent scientists and industrial leaders to participate in the panel session that I will chair. Names of other invited panelists are attached. Also attached is a three-page document describing the broad outlines of the President’s Initiative on Race and a summary of the Initiative’s major events and accomplishments. OSTP staff contacts are included on the attachment.

Earlier in the day, President Clinton will address the AAAS gathering to set forth his science and technology vision for the 21^st century. The President’s address is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel (adjacent to the Convention Center). As a panelist, you are invited to attend. However, you must let us know by Friday, February 6, if you plan to do so.

I do hope you can join us, and I look forward to hearing from you.
 
 

2:00 p.m.- Opening Remarks and Introduction of Panelist

2:15 p.m. John H. Gibbons

Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, & Director of

2:20 p.m. David Hamburg

President Emeritus, Carnegie Corporation of New York

2:15 p.m.- Panel Discussion

4:15 p.m. Speaker: Shirley Malcom

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Speaker: Julian M. Earls

NASA Lewis Research Center

Speaker: Carlos Castillo-Chavez

Cornell University

Speaker: James Comer

Yale University

Rice University Speaker: Percy Pierre

Michigan State University
 
 
 
 

2:20 p.m.- Panel Discussion (cont)

4:15 p.m. Speaker: Samuel Massie

Speaker: Lydia Villa-Komaroff

Northwestern University

Speaker: John Alderete University of Texas Health Science Center

Speaker: Darleane Hoffman

Speaker: Howard G. Adams

Georgia Institute of Technology

Speaker: Satya N. Atluri

University of California, Los Angeles

Speaker: Fred Begay

Assistant to the President of the Navajo Government

Procter & Gamble

Speaker: Herbert Z. Wong

Herbert Z. Wong & Associates 4:15 p.m.- Closing Remarks

4:30 p.m. John H. Gibbons

Assistant to the President for Science & Technology

David Hamburg

President Emeritus, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Invited Contributors

George Campbell, Jr.

President and CEO, NACME, Inc.

William H. Gray, III

President, United Negro College Fund

Charles M. Vest

President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 
 

Dr. Howard G. Adams directs the National Institute for Mentoring at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and he is the former Director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science. He is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.

Dr. John F. Alderete is the current President of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

Dr. Satya Atluri is an Institute Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and he directs the FAA Center for Aerospace Research & Education at UCLA.

Ms. Cathleen Barton is the Director of Education and Workforce Strategy for the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Dr. Fred Begay is the Assistant to the President of the Navajo Government for Science & Technology.

Mr. O. LaVelle Bond is Vice-President of Diversity for Procter & Gamble Worldwide.

Dr. Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a Professor of Biometrics at Cornell University, and is a

recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, and a National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award.

Dr. James Comer is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale University.

Dr. Julian M. Earls is Deputy Director for Operations at the NASA Lewis Research Center.

Dr. Darleane Hoffman is the Charter Director of the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Hoffman is a 1997 recipient of the National Medal of Science for her distinguished work in Nuclear Chemistry.

Dr. Shirley Malcom heads the Directorate for Education & Human Resources Programs for AAAS and is a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, and has recently rotated off the National Science Board.

Dr. Samuel Massie is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the US Naval Academy. Dr. Massie holds an Honoree Chair of Excellence with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Dr. Percy Pierre is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Michigan State University.

Dr. Richard Tapia directs the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University, and he is a member of the National Science Board. He is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.

Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff is Vice-President of Research at Northwestern University.

Dr. Herbert Z. Wong is a nationally recognized consultant of workforce diversity for Herbert Z. Wong & Associates.
 
 
 
 

Dr. George Campbell, Jr. is the President and CEO of NACME, Inc., and a member of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, Socioeconomic and Workforce Panel.

Dr. William H. Gray, III is President of the United Negro College Fund and former Majority Whip of the United States House of Representatives.

Dr. Charles M. Vest is President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I am in science today because of two social movements, the "Space Race" and the Civil Rights Movement. The emphasis on the sciences was spurred by the launch of Sputnik by the then Soviet Union. At that time there was more attention to the science by the media, more opportunities for professional development in science and mathematics for our teachers, more resources directed to science and mathematics by government and a greater sense of "promise" in our segregated, resource-poor schools in Birmingham, Alabama.

Birmingham was also "ground zero" of the Civil Rights Movement. I still remember the turmoil of those times - the marches, the bombings, the attacks, living under curfew and martial law - and the resolve that we had as high school seniors in 1963 to go out and make something of ourselves.

Opportunities for African Americans had been so limited up until the mid-1960's and the possibilities so meager that even small cracks in the opportunity structure seemed like wide-open doors! Legislation and executive orders regarding equal opportunity and affirmative action represented promissory notes - now we would finally have an equal chance to achieve and succeed.

In Birmingham issues of differences were couched in terms of Black and White. Going to college took me to other parts of this vast country and expanded my view of the diversity of America. But, I was puzzled by the lack of diversity in my science courses - few women of any group, few African Americans, Latinos, or American Indians. In high school, every student in my chemistry, physics, and mathematics classes looked like me. In college, there were many occasions where I was "the only." At each succeeding degree level this became more the case.

Earlier this year my colleagues and I at AAAS received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study both the current and recent changes in policies and practices of research universities with respect to graduate admission and graduate financial aid for underrepresented minorities pursuing science and engineering Ph.D.'s in research universities. The effect on professional school enrollment had been described for institutions in California and Texas, but less was known about effects on graduate programs. We surveyed 91 Research I universities - top recipients of federal R&D support that also enrolled and graduated significant numbers of underrepresented minority students at the graduate level. To augment our findings, site visits were made to a select group of institutions (ten), including those in states under legislative or judicial restrictions regarding the use of race as a factor in admissions or financial aid practices.

Our survey revealed that in many institutions no clear trend in enrollment yet existed for entering graduate students in science, mathematics and engineering. But the other clear signal was that many more institutions are experiencing decreases in minority graduate enrollment in science, mathematics, and engineering fields than are experiencing increases, and this among the top degree producing institutions. This finding does not bode well for the future production of minority Master's and Doctoral level scientists and engineers.

Perhaps more disturbing than the demographics is the climate that many students encounter: the isolation; the fact of being "the only one" in their departments or their classes; the search for a supportive learning community (as the social and the learning community and networks go hand-in-hand); the surprise of the faculty to see them; the different and lower expectations for their scholarly success. How much their stories sounded like my own story, 30 years out-of-phase!

But, we also found the isolated faculty member and department where diverse student groups were thriving. Our challenge is to create more supportive learning communities: where faculty share responsibility for attracting and nurturing a diverse group of students; where incentives are provided to do this; and, where the development of Latino, American Indian and African American scholars in science, mathematics and engineering fields is part of what it means to advance science and engineering.

Shirley M. Malcom is head of the Directorate of Education and Human Resources of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
 
 

Key Points

Technology is the most important enabling industry in the world today. Technology represents about 50% of the growth of the US - including growth of the industry itself and cost savings from use of technology. It is the most important enabling industry in the world today. The shortage of technologically skilled workers is a fundamental threat to economic growth of the US; it hurts not only "high tech" companies, but the ability of the entire economy to grow by missing the productivity increases available with latest technology products.

Education for all, is a business, economic and workforce development imperative. The availability of quality education for all can no longer be viewed as a social and moral issue. It is imperative that education for all be recognized as crucial if individuals, communities, states and the country are to participate in economic growth, security, flexibility and prosperity. Women will continue to make up half of the workforce as we move into the 21st century; minorities are expected to increase to almost one third. Quality education for women and minorities is not a "nice thing" to talk about, or even do. It is a necessity. As we make preparation for the 21st century, we must all know that we will all be impacted if any one of us does not have a good education.

A global economy and marketplace. The best products for a global market will come from a diverse workforce representing the markets and communities in which we do business. In order to remain competitive in a rapidly changing global marketplace we must continue to attract and retain the most talented individuals in the world. The wide ranging experiences and perspectives of a varied population are crucial to continued success of our companies and our industry.

Awareness, ability and access. Prospective students must be aware of technology, the role it plays in our lives today, and the role it will continue to play. They must have the opportunity to be excited about it and challenged by it. They must have access to education and role models that will help them develop the abilities necessary and the resulting confidence to select post secondary education in the areas of math, science, engineering and technology.

Teacher preparation. Teachers cannot teach what they do no know. They must be prepared, beginning with pre-service training, to effectively teach math and science. They must understand how to effectively use technology in their teaching. And they must have an understanding of the application of math, science, engineering and technology and opportunities in career choices. They should then be measured, recognized and rewarded in part on how well their students learn. Teachers are obviously role models as well. Increasing the number and retention of minority educators at all levels and all disciplines, and the number of women from middle school through post-secondary, engineering and technology related fields.

Post secondary education increases outreach, changes learning environments. At the post secondary level, increasing outreach programs for women and minorities continues to be a necessary and highly leveraged strategy in coordination with focused minority recruiting. Additionally, it is incumbent on institutions to continue to hire women and minorities for faculty and staff positions. Finally, work must continue to create a environment where all students can be successful and achieve their fullest potential.

Partnering for workforce development: A model for increasing the supply of skilled workers. As the world becomes more technologically advanced, and few, if any industries, won’t require some "high tech" workers, the U.S. semiconductor industry expects to be in competition with many of those industries for an insufficient supply of educated and skilled workers. Shortages for various types of technicians and engineers already exist in critical areas. Based on the input from its member companies, SEMATECH, a not-for-profit semiconductor manufacturing research and development consortia, agreed to sponsor a program that would address the projected shortage of skilled operators and manufacturing and equipment technicians. The program was initiated in June of 1996.
 
 

Program Goals

The main program objective is to increase the supply of skilled workers, operators and technicians for the semiconductor industry. The main goals are to increase the capacity to train skilled workers, focusing on the community and technical colleges as primary suppliers, and, to increase the enrollment and graduation rates for students in semiconductor manufacturing and electronics related programs.

The following is a more detailed explanation of the four project thrusts:

• Capacity Expansion: Increase the number and capacity of schools offering semiconductor manufacturing and electronics related programs at the post secondary level.

• Marketing Awareness: Increase the number of students enrolled in semiconductor manufacturing and related programs by increasing the awareness of the semiconductor industry and semiconductor manufacturing as a career choice.

• Alternative Sourcing: Leverage the military discharge population and develop sources in addition to the traditional technician recruits. Alternative sources for re-training and re-careering, including a plan to identify "early exiters" from four year colleges and universities.

• K-12 School-to-Work: Includes efforts at local, state and national levels to support strong mathematics, science and technology curriculums, and develop career and industry awareness opportunities for teachers, parents, and students.

Strong partnerships with community and technical colleges is generally consistent with corporate strategies to support the communities in which we work and do business. This education is broadly available and accessible to students and allows companies to develop and hire from a local pipeline.

In addition to a wide array of marketing materials developed for use by colleges and universities in recruiting students, many companies offer educational scholarships and frequently target them to help promote the entrance of women and minorities into high technology careers. Industry education partnerships at the colleges also focus on student retention. Some best practices currently utilized in this area include dedicated counselors, student study groups, co-op and internship opportunities and face-to-face and on-line mentoring activities. Work on "inclusive curriculum" and approaches is just beginning.

Results to Date

From June 1997 through September 1997, we:

• Increased by 50% the number of colleges offering semiconductor manufacturing programs from a total of 34 to 52.

• Increased enrollment in semiconductor manufacturing programs by 110% from a total of 2100 to over 4500.

Cathleen Barton is director of Education and Workforce Strategy for the Semiconductor Industry Association.
 
 

A group of black professionals in science and technology created an initiative to support black students pursuing degrees in technical career fields. The Development Fund for Black Students in Science and Technology (DFBSST) was established in 1983 by a group of concerned black professionals. The founders were: Dr. Julian M. Earls (NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH) and Ms. Hattie Carwell (Department of Energy, Oakland, CA). In addition to these two, the initial members of the Board of Directors and their affiliations at that time were: Mr. James C. Jones, Jones Builders, Inc.; Mr. James Hicks, The Information Systems Corporation; Mr. Lee Browne, California Institute of Technology; Mr. Wayne Knox, Knox Consultants; and Mr. Knox Tull, Jackson and Tull Chartered Engineers. Members of the DFBSST believe it is essential for black professional scientists and technologists to provide financial assistance to talented black students who choose to enroll at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The HBCUs traditionally have the highest retention and graduation rates for black students in technical disciplines. In addition, the greatest percentage of blacks earning doctoral degrees earned their undergraduate degrees from HBCUs. Therefore, our objective is to provide scholarships to black students pursuing technical undergraduate degrees full-time at these colleges and universities.

The DFBSST is a permanent endowment fund established in 1983. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization incorporated in Washington, DC, and is solely devoted to providing financial support for targeted students. Deserving students are selected for support through the science and engineering departments at HBCUs. This support is increasingly important today when one considers the numerous challenges to scholarship programs targeted for people of color.

DFBSST members commit to minimum $1,000 annual contributions for life. Annual contributions less than $1,000 are accepted, but in contributor status rather than member status. This level of commitment is intended to demonstrate that black professionals are willing and able to help their own people and institutions. Black scientists and technologists of today owe those who preceded them a debt for the sacrifices and contributions, which opened doors to current opportunities. One way to repay those pioneers is to help open doors for students of today and the future. Therefore, members are required to make personal contributions towards the goal of an endowment of $1 million for scholarships.

Eligible students must be U.S. citizens who intend to pursue at least a 4-year course of study in science, engineering, or other courses in technology at an HBCU. There are 88 HBCUs, distributed throughout 22 states, that offer undergraduate degrees in science and mathematics. Eight of these also offer degrees in engineering. Many of the other HBCUs are partners in dual-degree programs with other universities. Currently, the DFBSST solicits scholars at the eight engineering schools and seven other HBCUs with strong mathematics and science curricula.

Prior to 1989, the sole source of student candidates for scholarships was the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) and its National Achievement Program for Outstanding Negro Students. Since 1989, to expand the student candidate pool, the DFBSST initiated an additional independent selection process, with the assistance of college professors of engineering and science. In both processes applicants are evaluated by criteria that include academic achievements, recommendations from teachers and counselors, self-expression as demonstrated by a written essay, and financial need. Of course the students must certify their intent to enroll at an HBCU or must currently be enrolled there and majoring in a field of science or technology. Financial need is used as a tie-breaker when applicants are considered to be equal based upon all other criteria.

Currently, the DFBSST is supporting 12 students. To date, the DFBSST has supported 48 students, 31 of whom have graduated. Students have continued through graduate school and have earned doctoral degrees.
 

Julian M. Earls is Deputy Director for Operations at the NASA Lewis Research Center.
 
 

Youth media has proved to be a strong determinant of youth behavior and cultures. It has been used to foster racial stereotypes with movies like "Gone With the Wind," "West Side Story," and "White Men Can't Jump." Unfortunately, youth media, the most powerful approach for systemic change in education, has stimulated disinterest in science while keeping alive racial and gender stereotypes. No presidential program directed at diversifying the science and technological community will have a significant impact without the systematic cooperation and systematic participation of the media.

One of the saddest problems with this country is the state of public education, which is wildly inconsistent, even within schools. Clinton's program of "Getting Good Teachers Into Underserved Areas" is a step in the right direction, as good teachers are very badly needed. But why were they missing in the first place? At the heart of our educational differences is a public education system based on the "richness" of the local property tax base. Wealthy communities may spend as much as $14,000 per student while poor communities may not even spend a tenth of this amount. Economic inequities in the public school system foster sustained disadvantages among individuals and naturally affect people of color in a more dramatic way. A Clinton plan without a systemic approach to the resolution of economic inequities in a property-tax driven public school system will have no substantial impact on the nation's efforts to diversify the scientific and technological communities. Furthermore, a lack of a systemic economic initiative in the way we fund public school systems combined with future racial demographic changes will create a two-class society that will rip our society apart. The president and congress must commit the time and resources needed to reform education. The president and congress must foster broad and constructive dialog on the impact of economic inequities on the scientific and economic fate of our nation. A leadership program that engages the country in the search for solutions for the nation's racial problems and its impact on the scientific enterprise is fundamental. This leadership program, however, must continuously inspire all the nation's citizens to act on their own to create an America where equal opportunity is not measured by a SAT score, but by the ability of students to get a first-rate education from K-16 and beyond. Business, academic, and religious leaders must be critically involved in every single national and local effort that fosters diversity in the workplace. Leadership must come from the President, John Gibbons, and Congress.

Institutions of higher education have always been involved in the promotion of change at the national level from the time of sputnik. The national interest would be shortchanged without the significant and systematic participation of grade and high schools, technical schools, colleges, and universities in the development and implementation of the ideas, programs, and policies needed to help establish a diverse scientific and technological community. Systemic efforts such as those led by Luther Williams at the National Science Foundation (NSF) must not only continue but must also become an integral part of the portfolio of ideas and programs outlined on the President's Initiative on Race. Efforts to support individual scientists and mathematicians like Richard Tapia (Rice University) and Uri Treisman (University of Texas-Austin) who have developed and maintained research and educational programs that have dramatically improved the training and recruitment of underrepresented minorities into the sciences at the graduate and undergraduate level must be maintained. Efforts to reward within the scientific community and within various university cultures, the work that all faculty carries on the recruitment and training of minorities must be established in a systematic way. University administrators and faculty must be educated on the importance to the national interest of making sure that all our citizens have a clear opportunity to develop their scientific and technical talents.

At the moment most faculty, including most of our first-rate scientist and mentors, will not devote a sustained effort in the education, training, and recruitment of underrepresented minorities. Why can't our students have access to the best researchers and mentors in the world? Simply because these types of activities are not valued by individual departments and by university administrators. NSF, NIH, and federal agencies like NASA or DOD, and private foundations like the Sloan Foundation which have systematically provided funds for summer research experiences and fellowships for a diverse population have been fundamental to the few successes that have increased diversity in our community of researchers. The sustained efforts of these federal agencies have resulted in the creation of high impact research programs for undergraduates that have already made a difference. The policies and initiatives of these federal agencies and the President's Initiative on Race must make it clear to university administrators and its faculty that support for these programs is fundamental to the nation's future.

Models of support and involvement by federal agencies must also be encouraged and rewarded. The systemic efforts of NSF's Luther Williams - MIE programs, for example - represent an extraordinary model of the role that NSF can play particularly when its director, Neal Lane, in this case, believes and supports the development of a diverse scientific and technological community. The individual effort of Jim Schatz at NASA provides a clear example of the impact that a single individual at a Federal agency may have on the nation's scientific infrastructure. Jim Schatz has devoted considerable amount of time in identifying and supporting programs at Berkeley, Cornell, and Rice that have become extremely successful. However, we must find ways of implementing successful individually driven programs, which often depend on successful and highly committed scientists into a broader community.

Programs like those supported by the Division of Mathematical Sciences at NSF and by the Division of Human Resources at NSF must have the resources to reach a significant number of students if they are going to make a difference nationwide. The creation of institutes that foster undergraduate research during the summer based on existing successful models is fundamental. Institutes must not only support research activities and mentor students, they must develop the expertise needed to implement them in diverse environments.

The establishment of institutes that bring the best faculty and the best institutional resources to students from all comers of the nation is urgently needed. To generate systemic change programs must be developed everywhere that include a significant number of the pool of eligible students. In order to generate systemic change, programs must not depend on the charisma or energy of extraordinary individuals who have taken upon themselves to address the issues of representation in academia. In other words, the essentials of programs that provide opportunities to a diverse community of students must be transferable to universities and local environments.

Faculty of all races will learn and implement successful models only if the value of recruiting, mentoring, and educating a diverse group of students is highly recognized and valued within each university and within each community. We are blessed with the most impressive scientific community in the world and yet most college students (of all races) have no significant opportunities to work with and be mentored by this invaluable resource.
 

Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a professor of Biometrics at Cornell University.
 
 

In accordance with the session guidelines, I would like to make some comments directed at the following two concerns: (1) The need to diversify the science and technology community; and (2) How to deal with the challenges to targeted minority recruitment programs in science and engineering.

I begin with concern (1). The naive optimist states that the supply of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and the health of the science and engineering professions will be maintained by turning to the nation's underrepresented groups. However, the health of the science, engineering, and mathematics professions will be maintained by turning to foreigners. It is our history, we are quite good at importing solutions. We did it in World War II, when we had no scientists. We did in the 1960's when we had no mathematics faculty. We did it in the 1970's and 1980's when we had no graduate students. While this has been the standard avenue for academia, today we see this approach practiced in a greatly increasing fashion by United States industry. The net effect is that underrepresented groups are becoming more and more of an underclass. So one asks - why worry about under-representation, the health of the scientific professions is being maintained? The answer is quite fundamental and addresses a national crisis situation - "No first world nation can maintain its economic health when such a large part of its population is outside mainstream activity including all technological, scientific, and computational activity."

My message to the nation is that under-representation endangers the health of the nation and not the health of the various professions. Improved representation will improve the health of the community and the nation.

Recently, I was discussing many of these issues with my friend and fellow National Science Board member, Eve Menger. She made a statement that states the case that I am attempting to present in a powerful and concise manner: "The greatest internal threat to this country is the formation of a permanent underclass. Good, public education is our best hope at prevention."

We have failed; and we will continue to fail if we don't increase our emphasis on the bottom-end of the pipeline. This means that we must deal effectively with society and the K-12 community. Today's minority youth picks up its values from the various segments of street and entertainment society, and not from parents and teachers.

I would like to now address concern (2). The recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the Hopwood suit against the University of Texas has had a devastating effect concerning the implementation of outreach programs directed at underrepresented minorities in the state of Texas. Anti-affirmative action backlash has been formally documented in California and Texas and will not remain restricted to these two states. It will take on a national posture. The Hopwood decision challenges us to learn how to continue outreach successes in a climate of anti-affirmative action sentiment and legal decisions. I view the position that we have been put in as a target of opportunity. I propose that the new flavor of affirmative action be what I have always interpreted it to be; an assessment and evaluation of the various evaluation criteria.

The use, perhaps better said, the misuse, of the standardized test at selective and even not so selective institutions is the underrepresented minority's worst enemy. My considered opinion is that this misuse is depriving the nation from tapping into a large part of its natural resources in terms of creativity and leadership. As such we are significantly retarding the process of moving along directions of change and reform that have been accepted as critical to maintaining our national health. For decades now, we have let the traditional beliefs of the ruling class dictate the policy for change and reform, and consequently we have ended up with an obvious lack of change and reform. It is imperative that we collect data, evaluate and assess, and use these findings as the impetus for change and reform. While we often allude to such studies, they are invariably incomplete, anecdotal, or nonrigorous. Hence, there can be no effective dissemination or buy-in on the part of our colleagues, administrators, and national educational policy makers.

I firmly believe that members of underrepresented groups, by the very nature of being a member of such a group, have learned skills and have developed sensitivities and understandings that would allow them to be more effective in various activities that we traditionally have valued and continue to value, and other activities that traditionally we have not valued, but have now realized that we must value. For example, in research university environments we talk about the needs for nurturing, mentoring, more effective teaching, a better understanding of the whole student, and outreach to broader communities. Members of our so-called underrepresented groups are well positioned and prepared to contribute in these directions. However, to a very large extent, these individuals do not have an opportunity to actualize or demonstrate this creativity and leadership skill because of traditional barriers. These barriers are not outright discrimination; no, they are much more subtle. They, on the surface, look like reasonable measurements of necessary prerequisites or skills. However, they are strongly biased towards the precocious attainment of various pieces of information and knowledge. Potentials for success, creativity, the ability to guide and lead, the ability to adapt to a new environment and bring needed understanding from another environment, are not measured. This is too hard, we do not know how to do this. Moreover, our basic leadership is not totally unhappy with the process; since, after all, their careers were spawned by the process in place, so there must be some real good in this current traditional version. While I am basically criticizing the use of standardized tests in undergraduate and graduate admission processes, it is a straightforward matter to extend

my criticism to hiring policies, promotion policies, and selection procedures for prestigious fellowships, grants, and other professional rewards. We are in danger of locally restricting participation that would globally be of value to our national agenda. Local values and global values are usually at odds; indeed, often without being aware of this conflict.

It is time that we evaluate the evaluation criteria, its use, and its implementation.
 
 

Richard Tapia directs the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University, and he is a member of the National Science Board, and is a recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
 
 

General: The focus of the session is on (1) the need to diversify the science and technology community, and (2) how to deal with challenges to targeted minority recruitment programs in science and engineering. My comments will apply specifically to the engineering community and are colored by my twenty-five years of experience in creating programs to address issues of diversity in engineering. There are important differences between engineering and science that will affect how we address the problem of diversity. For example, in engineering, diversity concerns must include women. Nonetheless, I believe most of my comments are applicable to many of the sciences.

The Need To Diversify The S&T Community: There are compelling moral, ethical, commercial, political and legal reasons to diversity the S&T community. The reasons which seems to garner the broadest support is the need for skilled personnel to meet national economic and defense needs. In most fields of engineering, shortages occur on a regular basis. In the past, we have met that need with international students who have come here and stayed and often became citizens. Increasingly today, global technological companies are going off shore to buy engineering services from engineers often trained in the United States. Modern telecommunications and internet technology has made it possible for US engineers to team efficiently and effectively with engineers anywhere in the world.

More than one half of all engineering doctoral degrees granted in this country are granted to international students. With the engineering talent of the world available to US industry, it can be argued that there is no need to worry about US talents in these fields. I don't believe that it is good public policy to be too reliant on international sources when we have talent here to meet most of these needs. Minorities and women constitute two thirds of the US college-age population, yet only twenty percent of engineering doctorates granted to US citizens are granted to minorities and women. We need to do a better job. We particularly need more US minorities and women for faculty positions to help educate the engineers of the future.

Challenges To Targeted Minority Programs: Over the last twenty five years, I have helped create many educational programs designed to increase the number of minority engineers. While much remains to be done, these programs have been remarkably successful. Many believe that they have been the most successful set of minority programs in all of higher education. The recent challenges to affirmative action in higher education are a threat to many of these programs. While most of these programs can be improved and modified to accommodate current concerns, to abandon these programs would be a tremendous loss to the country.

The challenges to targeted minority programs are complex and the motives behind the challenges are many. Yet a recurring theme of the opposition is that scarce opportunities for education in selective programs should be granted on the basis of merit. Almost everyone agrees with that. It is the American way. Most also agree that those students most likely to excel in selective programs should be given preference. The problem is determining who is most likely to excel. A larger question is, can we have excellence with diversity?

This problem of achieving excellence with diversity is not peculiar to higher education in American society. The most competitive technological companies in the world make merit decisions everyday. Many do it while maintaining an increasingly diverse and global workforce. The US military has found a way to make merit decisions that keep it the best in the world while sustaining the most racially diverse leadership of any organization in American society. The biggest difference between the way these organizations determine merit and the way higher education determines merit is that higher education depends strongly on standardized test scores. Most American organizations employ more complex methods, which are both fairer and more effective.

The legal challenges to affirmative action in education are almost always posed in the following way. A majority student, who has been denied admission to a program, claims to be more qualified than a minority student, who was admitted, because the majority student has a higher test score than the minority student. This is a scientifically untenable claim. Standardized test scores are useful, but they should not be determining factor in deciding merit. The makers of most of these tests agree with this. The experts on test taking recognize that a two hour test is a very poor predictor of eventual success in a rigorous educational program. Success is usually dominated by other factors.

There is no better demonstration of the weakness of test scores as a predictor of success than the results of the NCAA longitudinal study of athletes from the early nineteen eighties. The NCAA Proposition 48 rule improperly used cutoff scores on standardized tests to help predict graduation of freshmen athletes. It was accurate in only 57 percent of the cases. This is little better than flipping a coin. Even worse, its failures were more frequent with white students than with black students. Forty percent of whites who made the score failed to graduate while only fifteen percent of the blacks who made the score failed to graduate. Fourteen percent of blacks who failed to make the score did graduate, while only six percent of whites who failed to make the score graduated. (see NCAA Report 93-08). Because of its inaccurate predictions, Proposition 48 unfairly favored white students. This fact is well known by experts, but they have failed to educate the general public, which still believes that using cutoff scores on standardized tests is fair.

Excellence with diversity is achievable, but it will require a more complex selection process than universities are accustomed to using or that the public understands. It will require the education of the public to the inadequacies of test scores in predicting educational success. Much can be learned from other American organizations that do achieve excellence with diversity. We need to assist universities in finding ways of doing this better.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy can help. First of all, it should encourage more longitudinal studies like the NCAA study to generate better predictors of success in science and engineering education. Secondly, it should encourage demonstration programs at all levels of education which would experiment with different means of selection that are designed to achieve both excellence and diversity. Race should be one of many variables in this process.

Race and Standardized Tests in Admission Criteria: Universities that have had to remove race as a consideration in admission have sought alternative admission criteria that would meet their particular needs. In California, state universities have removed race as a factor in admission but are uncomfortable with the resulting criteria which give inordinate weight to test scores. Nonetheless, the Governor of California insists that test scores continue to be the major factor in admissions. In Texas, the State Legislature has mandated that all students in the top ten percent of their high school graduating classes be admitted to state universities. This was an obvious circumvention of test scores which might pose a barrier to many students from high schools with low average test scores.

The University of Michigan continues to us race as one factor in admission even though this has been challenged in court and by many state legislators. Many private graduate and professional schools have discontinued the use of standardized tests scores in favor of better predictors of success in their programs. Most still use race as a factor.

The central issue in the challenge to affirmative action programs in higher education is whether, and to what extent race and standardized tests scores should be used in admission criteria. This issue is often decided in a political context without solid scientific information on how best to use these factors to identify the best-qualified students.

There have been lots of statistical analyses done on standardized tests to determine their short term and long term reliability as predictors of academic success. These results all show that tests alone are weak predictors of ultimate educational success and that other factors dominate. In fact, the then President of the Educational Testing Service, which develops and publishes the SAT, strongly objected to how the NCAA planned to use SAT results in their athletic eligibility criteria. Yet athletic officials, politicians, lawyers and the public in general continue to put more reliance on test results than is merited by their statistical significance as predictors of educational success. Many do not trust educators to make admission decisions based on less quantifiable factors.

What is needed are studies that evaluate admission criteria, that will be credible to the experts as well as the general public. These studies should follow cohorts of students over long periods of time. They should test complex admission strategies involving many variables such as tests scores, grade point averages, letters of recommendations, personal interviews, curriculum evaluations, patterns of performance, various measures of student tenacity, race, and other factors. Most graduate programs are flexible and offer students different paths to the same result. A student may be more qualified for one path than another at the same institution. Admission criteria suitable to flexible programs should also be tested.

The design of these studies should call upon the best minds of statisticians, educators, and other experts in measuring human potential. A simple model would be to identify two cohorts of students admissible under two different sets of admission criteria and to follow them to determine their relative success in the same program or similar programs. This is what was done in the NCAA study. I'm sure there are better and more sophisticated ways of studying this issue. The kind of longitudinal study proposed here is seldom done because it is usually expensive to track students over long periods of time and the results are a long time in coming. That is why the federal government needs to be the supporter of this effort. These studies should be organized with broad user oversight in order to gain acceptance from educational policy makers and the public. The results can contribute to good public policy as well as better educational results.

The issue of the use of tests in admission is a broad educational issue. It is different at the undergraduate level and the graduate level. At the graduate level, each discipline usually sets its own admissions criteria. Here, I am especially interested in science and engineering. A few well designed longitudinal studies of admission criteria at the graduate level in science and engineering would make a significant contribution to the broader issues. I would hope that OSTP would initiate appropriate programs in this area.
 
 

NCAA Research Report, 93-08, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Overland Park, Kansas, July 1994.

New Directions in Assessment for Higher Education: Fairness, Access, Multiculturalism, and Equity, The GRE, FAME Report Series (Vol. 1), Graduate Record Examinations, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey.
 
 

At the time of publication of this document, a new decision in the courts recently surfaced regarding race and the role of standardized tests. On March 8, 1999, a Federal District Court in Philadelphia discarded the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (N.C.A.A.'s) minimum test score requirement for athletic scholarships, throwing into disarray a long-accepted criterion for establishing eligibility for student-athletes. The court held that the N.C.A.A.'s S.A.T. and A.C.T. minimum test score requirement, as outlined in Proposition 16, "has an unjustified disparate impact against African-Americans." In reaching its ruling, the court cited the N.C.A.A.'s own research showing that the practice harmed African-American students' chances of being declared academically eligible, and that the organization's goal of improving graduation rates -- the reason it instituted Proposition 16 in the first place -- could be achieved by other available methods. The court agreed with a Washington-based trial lawyers advocacy group representing the plantiffs in the class-action suit that the minimum test requirement was a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and that the N.C.A.A. could be sued under that act , which prohibits race discrimination by educational institutions that receive Federal funds.
 
 

Percy Pierre is formerly Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Michigan State University.
 
 

The need to diversify the science and technology community and methods of meeting the challenges to targeted minority recruitment programs in science and engineering are two to the problems which the engineering profession, through its AMIE Committee, has been discussing for many years. The AMIE Committee, a coalition of representative and engineering professionals from Fortune 250 companies, nine Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs and one Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) was created in 1992 to provide a proactive approach to cultivating diversity in engineering as an essential business strategy along with other related objectives. The name AMIE is taken from the first letters of the purpose of the organization, Advancing Minorities Interest in Engineering.

Because the objectives in both the AMIE studies and the AAAS panel are similar, I wish to make some comments, which apply to both areas, based on my position as Honoree Chair, but I state firmly that some of my recommendations may have other original authorship.

Discussion I. THE NEED TO DIVERSIFY THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES

• Projected demographic populations indicate that an increasing proportion of our available employment force will be minorities and women, individuals, who normally are not included in our projected work population. Attracting, educating, recruiting and promoting diverse, high-performance teams of unique individuals - each with valuable talents and strengths - is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage as we approach the 21st century. As a nation, we can no longer afford to overlook this valuable national resource.

• Diversification does not always mean different races, sexes or cultures - it may mean different and new ideas and successful adaptation of them. Many of the jobs now needed were unknown ten years ago. It is likely that ten years from now our job needs will be for jobs that are presently unknown.

• The information age is greatly changing our social and technical needs, just as the industrial age created new employment needs in the 20th century.

• Present day technical education must contain two related factors - a combination of technical depth and social breadth.

• Before we can consider methods it may be wise to consider some of the challenges. The May 1997 ACME Research Letter points out four special problems: (1) The number of minority freshmen enrolling in engineering programs and science in the United States has dropped in the past three years. (2) Scholarship funds are becoming less available to minority students, especially with recent judicial statements. (3) Changes in financial aid packages are forcing minorities to incur increased debt, and with limited promises of upward mobility payment of debt is perceived as uncertain. (4) Newly emerging firms are not diversifying their staffs and certain medium to large size corporations which traditionally offered the highest starting salaries, have downsized their operations.

• Diversity is often confused with affirmative action. Prejudice is often defined as being down on something you are not up on.

• The promised federal assistance to community colleges and technical education may be very useful!

Samuel P. Massie is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the US Naval Academy. Recently, he was honored with the Dr. Samuel P. Massie Professorships of Engineering Excellence in the Environmental Disciplines at nine Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and one Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), sponsored by the US Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management.
 
 

To increase the number of underrepresented minorities in science, there are three areas that must be addressed: getting children through high school with the expectation of going to college, retaining in science those who enter college with an interest, and increased entry into graduate and professional training. I will comment only on two of these areas.

Early Childhood. In early childhood, we need to maintain the interest that every child has in science. Particularly with underrepresented individuals, we must allow our children to envision a future beyond that of their immediate circumstances. I have never met a child who was not intensely interested in the way the world works. However, most of the time, this interest is lost by junior high. In addition, children seem to conclude very early that there are some professions that are not open to them. Our children need to see images of people they can identify with as scientists. We must give them a sense of possibility and the belief that they belong in the mainstream world.

There are a number of experiments that have been tried and are successful, but they must be expanded. One such program is "Mothers and Daughters," a program based in El Paso, Texas and conceived of and led by Josephina Tinajero, a professor in the school of education at the University of Texas, El Paso. There are four keys to this program: first, getting the kids and parents involved when the children are very young, second, heavily involving at least one parent, third, providing experiences that provide the child with the feeling that they are both capable of and entitled to a college education, and finally, providing adult role models.

Professor Tinajero, herself a child of a Texas barrio, looked at the high levels of teen pregnancy, the low high school graduation rates, and the essentially nonexistent rates of college enrollment that occurred in children who grew up in the poor neighborhoods of El Paso. In these families, English was spoken poorly if at all, there was no family history of higher education, and very low expectations.

Professor Tinajero decided that any intervention needed to occur before the children entered adolescence, when peer pressure and hormonal changes make outside influence difficult, so she decided to focus on fifth graders. In acknowledgment of the importance of family, she also decided that the mothers must also be involved in any program. So she choose families, often recent immigrants, where no family member had gone to college. The parents spoke little or no English. The daughters and mothers then entered a one-year program where they would visit the University of Texas campus several times, at least once for an overnight visit in a dorm. They met and talked to students. They had visits and were able to ask questions of Mexican American women in a variety of professions - policewomen, lawyers, judges, accountants, scientists, writers, airline pilots, for example. At the end of the year, there is a ceremony where the mothers and daughters make pledges to each other. The daughters pledge to finish high school, to not get pregnant until after marriage, etc. The mothers pledge to help the daughters find a place to do homework, to support their daughters ambitions. The pledges are written by the participants on heavy paper provided by the program. These often are framed and placed prominently in the homes. The program can maintain only minor contact with the students after the one year. The remarkable thing is the results - the program, when I heard about it in 1995, had 300 girls go through the program and get to age 18 - all had completed high school, only 3 had become pregnant, a large fraction had enrolled in college and were acting as "big sisters" for new 5th graders entering the program. At least equally remarkable, the mothers also were affected by the experience, a number returned to school and entered the workforce.

Retention. The only other area I will address is the need to expand the number of minority students who graduate from college and who enter graduate programs. There is substantial documentation that students who graduate with degrees in science, math or engineering entered college with that interest. Furthermore, many students who began college with an interest in science, math or engineering leave the fields before graduation. Essentially no students are recruited into science majors in college.

One of the barriers to minority participation is the heavy reliance on test scores for entry into undergraduate and graduate programs. This use continues even though it has been documented for some time that, above a certain threshold, these scores are not good predictors of success. I believe that there are two factors that have made it difficult to loosen the reliance of schools on these scores. The first is that these tests are universally available and appear to be a single measure that can be used to rank a large number of students. Although it is clear that test scores are not good predictors of success, it is not clear what factors are more predictive. A better use of these scores would be to set a threshold score. All students above that threshold would then be judged on other criteria like class rank, high school or college grades, references, written essays, etc. This approach has been used with good success at Rice.

The second factor is that the average score of admitted students is one of the measures used to rank undergraduate institutions and graduate programs. I believe that institutions would be more willing to use other criteria if their own standings were not so heavily dependent on them. I propose that the National Research Council stop using average scores as a measure of graduate programs and that US News and World Report do likewise.
 
 

Lydia Villa-Komaroff is Vice-President of Research at Northwestern University.
 
 

Must we continue to remind ourselves about the under-representation in the entire science enterprise of our country of African Americans, Hispanic-surnamed Americans (Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans), and American Indians? The complexity of this issue that America is faced with the under-representation of minorities in science makes it one of the most challenging facing our country today. What can America expect if it does not correct this exclusion of a large proportion of its citizens in all research fields?

Consider the demographics of Hispanic citizens in the United States, keeping in mind the other two prominent underrepresented groups, African Americans and American Indians. Today according to US Census data, one of every five of the nation's eighth-graders is Hispanic, and most have at-risk attributes (from a single-parent home, low parental education, limited English proficiency, low family income, no role models because siblings are dropouts, and spending more than three hours each day alone). Only 53 percent of these Hispanic students will finish high school. According to data from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, only one in nine of those who finish high school will attend a four-year university, and it will take that student 12 years to finish four, mostly because of poverty!

It is appreciated that minority professionals make a difference in the health of our country's minorities. Yet, out of 15,365 M.D.'s who graduated in 1992, only 632 (4 percent) were Hispanic-surnamed. Consider that Hispanics will soon surpass African Americans as the largest U.S. minority group and will approach 100 million in number in the U.S. in less than 50 years. Things must change - and soon - or our country may experience unforeseen events, such as the L.A. riots and decreased support from minority taxpayers for research universities and government agencies, with its minority groups on the fringes, unempowered, disenfranchised, and undereducated.

The equation that accounts for the absence of minorities in research is exceedingly complex, as evidenced by examining variables that impact negatively on minorities:

1. The latest annual report on world hunger by Bread of the World, a citizen's lobby group on hunger issues, estimates that 4 million American children under the age of 12 are hungry and 9.6 million more are at risk of hunger. The National Center for Children in Poverty (Columbia School of Public Health Report, 1994) indicates that one of every three minority children in the U.S. is poor, and there are pockets throughout our country, such as South Texas, where one-half of minority children less than five years of age are poor. Poverty, woven into the fabric of minorities' lives, contributes to multiple factors that place them at risk. Poverty contributes to overall poor living conditions, sub-optimal health, lack of health insurance, poor nutrition, inaccessibility of adequate health care, and lack of transportation to health care facilities. Chronic hunger, accompanied with weight loss, headaches, fatigue and loss of concentration, undermines the ability of poor children to learn.
2. Minorities are disproportionately affected by disease because of where they live. A 1993 report from the UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health shows that, in Los Angeles, 50 percent of all Latinos live in industrial areas with the most polluted air. Blood lead levels of minority children exceed normal levels. Children of farm workers have exceedingly higher rates of cancer and birth defects than the national average, for example, presumably owing to pesticide exposure. Eighty-five percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases in U.S. cities occur in African American and Latina women (Dateline: NIAID, September 1996). Smoking, alcohol, substance abuse, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, and infectious diseases are, in many cases, higher among minorities (CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1995).
3. Among the criteria for admission into research universities is an over-reliance on standardized test scores. Moreover, few research-intensive institutions have targeted efforts to recruit minorities, and there appears to be a lack of mentoring of minority students. Many institutions recruit in foreign countries but never set foot in minority-serving institutions. Articles in two recent issues of The Chronicle of Higher Education (B.J. Fraser, October 31, 1997, page A58; G. Masien, November 28, 1997, page A48) described the increased recruitment in Latin America by U.S. colleges and the need for universities to develop new strategies to compete for students from Asia, respectively.
4. There is a negative impact on the numbers of minorities applying for and accepted to all professional schools caused by accepted anti-affirmative action rhetoric that is inflamed. Further, recent court rulings, such as the Hopwood Decision of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the anti-minority sentiments that are being expressed openly in some universities have the net effect of further distancing graduate programs from qualified minorities.