Black STEM Students and the Opportunity Structure

  1. Students that are more engaged in the university are more likely to utilize supplemental instruction (SI).
  2. Students’ pre-college preparation, achievement, and experiences were the most predictive of the frequency with which Black students participated in supplemental instruction.
  3. Black students who came from families with high-middle incomes tend to receive greater levels of support and mentoring from faculty than their peers whose family’s annual income falls in the middle-income bracket.
  4. Black students who had a higher sense of belonging at their institution and experience more frequent positive cross-racial interactions, tended to receive more frequent mentoring and support from faculty.
  5. College GPA is positively linked with the extent to which Black STEM aspirants receive faculty mentorship.
  6. Students that attend HBCUs compared to non HBCUs more frequently received mentoring from faculty.
  7. Black students attending institutions with a higher proportion of White students in the student body tended to receive faculty support and mentoring more often.
  8. White students that had more frequent cross-racial interactions that are of a positive nature tend to more frequently engage in supplemental instruction.
  9. White students that had more frequent cross racial interactions that are of a positive nature and who scored higher on the construct measuring sense of belonging tend to have more frequent mentoring and support from faculty.
  10. Institutional size, designation as an HBCU (versus a non-HBCU), and the structural composition of the student body (i.e. the proportion of White students and proportion of STEM students) influenced Black students participation in one of the two components of the opportunity structure.
  11. A students’ pre-college preparation, achievement, and experiences are most predictive of the frequency with which Black students participate in SI whereas campus climate is most predictive of the frequency with which Black students receive faculty mentoring and support. Relatedly there are no overlapping predictive variables between the likelihood that Black students participate in SI and the frequency with which they receive faculty mentorship and support. This suggests that the frequency with which students participate in the opportunity structure depends on the activity in question, which is then predicted by different dimensions of the campus environment and different student behaviors.
  12. Pre-college achievement and campus environments impact Black students opportunity in college.