ERIC Number: EJ1452942
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1931-7913
A Multi-Institutional Cluster Analysis to Identify Groups of Courses with Exemplary Opportunity Gaps for Undergraduate Students in the Biological Sciences
Kameryn Denaro; Marco Molinaro; Stefano Fiorini; Rebecca L. Matz; Chris Mead; Meryl Motika; Nita Tarchinski; Montserrat Valdivia Medinaceli; W. Carson Byrd; Benjamin Koester; Hye Rin Lee; Timothy McKay; Brian K. Sato
CBE - Life Sciences Education, v23 n4 Article 53 2024
Examining institutional data from seven cohorts of students intending to major in biology across five research-intensive institutions, this work analyzes opportunity gaps -- defined as the difference between the grade received by students from the dominant and nondominant sociodemographic groups in institutions of higher education -- at the course-section level across mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry disciplines. From this analysis, we find that the majority of course sections have large opportunity gaps between female and male students, students who are Black, Latino/a/e/x, or indigenous to the United States and its territories and students who are White or Asian, first-generation and non-first-generation students, and low-income and non-low-income students. This work provides a framework to analyze equity across institutions using robust methodology, including: using multiple approaches to measure grades, quantile regression rankscores which adjust for previous academic performance, and cluster analysis. Recommendations are provided for institutions to identify faculty who have equitable course sections, automate equity analyses, and compare results to other institutions to make a change toward more equitable outcomes.
Descriptors: College Students, First Generation College Students, Low Income Students, Minority Group Students, Equal Education, Alternative Assessment, Inclusion, Biology, Science Instruction, STEM Education, Research Universities, Educational Opportunities, Comparative Testing, Student Evaluation, Educational Discrimination, Course Evaluation
American Society for Cell Biology. 8120 Woodmont Avenue Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20814-2762. Tel: 301-347-9300; Fax: 301-347-9310; e-mail: ascbinfo@ascb.org; Website: https://www.lifescied.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A