Barriers to women's education and employment in Europe and the United States in the 19th century made it unlikely that any women would be among the few physicists whose ideas are taught in high school and college courses. This paper explores the social settings in which three influential physicists worked--James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Millikan, and…

Why has the large income gap between blacks and whites persisted for decades after the passage of civil rights legislation? More specifically, why do African Americans remain substantially underrepresented in the highest-paying professions, such as science, engineering, information technology, and finance? A sophisticated study of racial…

What are employer needs for staff trained in the natural sciences at the master's degree level? How do master's level professionals in the natural sciences contribute in the workplace? How do master's programs meet or support educational and career goals? "Science Professionals: Master's Education for a Competitive World" examines the answers to…

A study evaluated the effects of a required ambulatory care clerkship on students' (n=776) knowledge of primary care medicine and subsequent career choices. Results suggest that exposure to outpatient medicine during medical school facilitates student knowledge of primary care medicine and influences career choice. (Author/MSE)

The founder of "Teach for America," a nonprofit organization to recruit capable but undirected college seniors for a two-year commitment to teaching, has successfully brought in a corps of graduates with a high level of commitment, academic excellence, varied skills, and a better minority representation to teach in difficult-to-staff…

Examination of college faculty salaries across disciplines suggests that the traditional academic wage scale is increasingly stressed by academic labor market forces. This trend has implications for faculty morale and commitment, turnover, faculty encouragement of students to pursue academic careers, and the relationship of the reward system to…

This report summarizes the findings of an exploratory study of the short-term impact of the National Science Foundation's Young Scholars Program (YSP). The program awards grants on a competitive basis to projects located at higher education or advanced research facilities that can provide students with an intellectually stimulating research…