– Underrepresented minorities have different engagement patterns, but these engagement behaviors do not contribute significantly to staying in the STEM fields.
– Black STEM students are more likely to switch out of STEM fields and to leave school two years post initial enrollment than are white STEM students.
– Black students in the science/math STEM subfields are significantly more likely to have higher academic engagement index scores.
– Neither increased nor decreased academic nor social engagement improves the likelihood of underrepresented minority students in persisting in the STEM fields.