Losing the precious few : how America fails to educate its minorities in science and engineering / Richard Tapia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tapia, Richard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Engineering--Vocational guidance.

Engineering.

Minorities in engineering.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

How America fails to educate its minorities in science and engineering

Place of Publication:

Houston, Texas : Arte Público Press, [2022]

Summary:

"A professor for almost 50 years in Rice University's Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, nationally acclaimed scholar Richard Tapia is struck by the number of Chinese students in the hallways and wonders how the United States can remain globally competitive. Tapia asserts it is critical to the nation's health and well-being to improve the representation of "the precious few," or domestic minority groups, in STEM education and careers. African Americans and Latinos alone make up 31% of the population, and he writes the country cannot maintain its economic and scientific health when such a large part of the population is left out of science and engineering. In addition, he contends the United States will not have racial justice without educational justice. Underrepresented groups must have equal access to higher education. This thought-provoking book examines issues that contribute to the lack of minorities in graduate STEM programs, including a dependence on standardized tests, deficiencies in K-12 education and historic and ongoing racism. As a long-time mentor, he has seen first-hand that professors have lower expectations of these students. In a survey of Rice University faculty, only 6% agreed that underrepresented minorities have talent in the field of study. Unfortunately, professors often interpret poor performance for lack of ability, despite the undoubtable fact that most of these students have not had the same quality education as their Anglo peers and are therefore not as well prepared. Providing a road map to increase the representation of domestic minority learners in academia and STEM fields, this is a must-read for university administrators and professors who want to attract and retain a diverse student body. In addition, Tapia includes advice for students, their parents and teachers, who will also benefit from his wisdom and years of experience serving as a mentor to those from diverse backgrounds. Richard Tapia is the Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering, a professor in computational and applied mathematics and director of the Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity, all at Rice University. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Science, the US government's highest honor bestowed on scientists, and the National Science Board's Vannevar Bush Award. He served on the National Science Board from 1996-2002, and two professional conferences have been named in his honor: the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Mathematics Conference. He lives in Houston, Texas"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction "made in America"

The world of the precious few

The precious few contend with evolving racism

How will the precious few face the racism of today and tomorrow?

Immigration

The effect of pre-college education, minority and urban youth cultures on the precious few

Identifying the precious few : college admissions and affirmative action

Are the precious few good enough?

The undergraduate experience of the precious few

Do we really want to hire the precious few as university faculty?

Mistaking immigrants for the precious few

Promoting the precious few faculty

Promoting the precious few to national STEM leadership

The rice-tapia model of supporting the precious few

My advice to the precious few, their parents and their teachers.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781518507151

1518507158

9781518507137

1518507131

OCLC:

1356004279