New Series Of Federal Programs Aims At Attracting Minorities

As the U.S. approaches a shortage of trained personnel, the government seeks to broaden the ranks of scientists WASHINGTON -- The federal government is stepping up its efforts to draw more minority students into science. But administrators both inside and outside the government say it's too early to know whether the new programs will be any more effective than previous programs, which were built on a desire to eliminate discrimination and improve opportunities for minorities. The new measures being taken, officials say, are based in part on the nation's economic self-interest and the fact that insufficient numbers of white students are pursuing careers in science. Officials have known for at least 30 years that blacks, Hispanics, and native Americans are underrepresented in science and engineering. But efforts to correct this imbalance have been relatively few in number and small in scope. Of those programs operating long enough to produce results, only a couple have been rigorously and publicly evaluated. Analysts are uncertain what benefit the rest have had individually, but their lack of overall impact is all too obvious. "We see so few minority scientists and engineers that whatever we've been doing isn't giving us the desired results," said Joseph Danek, director of the division of research and improvement at the National Science Foundation. In 1988, for example, black, Hispanic, and native American men and women earned only 308, or scarcely more than 2 percent, of the 14,000-plus natural science and engineering doctorates awarded by U.S. institutions. What was once a handful of programs at a few agencies has turned into a flood of support for pumping more minority talent through the science and engineering pipeline (see box). Federal spending on science, math, and engineering education for underrepresented groups (minorities, women, and handicapped) is expected to increase by 30 percent in 1991, to $355 million. Several new programs are on the drawing boards, and there are plans to expand existing programs as well. Accompanying that growth is a new administrative structure to coordinate and focus the efforts within and among federal agencies. Federal efforts to lure minority talent into the science and engineering pipeline stretch back at least to 1962, when the Atomic Energy Commission launched a summer institute program for middle school and high school students. That program continues today under the auspices of the Department of Energy. In the 1970s other agencies jumped in, including NSF, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Defense. But programs aimed specifically at attracting and retaining more minority students were only a small portion of the federal effort until a few years ago. Many minority programs were meant to improve the ability of minority faculty and institutions to conduct research, says Danek, while others sought mainly to generate new knowledge. Despite their value to science as a whole, they did little to increase the number of minority students who received doctoral degrees in science and engineering. The early minority pipeline programs were dwarfed by the tremendous challenge they faced, says Alan Fechter, executive director of the Office of Science and Engineering Personnel at the National Research Council. "If you look back at the amounts of money that have been spent on this effort, it's clear that we haven't been putting enough money in." Here is a listing of programs aimed at increasing the participation of minorities in science at the 10 federal agencies that provide the bulk of support for research, along with their current or proposed budgets. For a complete listing, write to: Luther Williams, National Science Foundation, 1800 G St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20550. ALCOHOL, DRUG ABUSE, AND MENTAL HEALTH ADMINISTRATION Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC). Fiscal Year (F.Y.) '89: $1.3 million. Minority Fellowship Program (MFP). F.Y. '89: $1.7 million. Minority Institutions Research and Development Program (MIRDP). F.Y. '89: $950,000. For more information on these and other minority programs, contact Marion E. Primas, Minority Research Resources Branch, ADAMHA, 5600 Fisher's Lane, Room 18-101, Rockville, Md. 20857. (301) 443-3724. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE USDA/1890 Summer Intern Program. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $1.5 million. USDA/1890 Liaison Officer Program. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $2 million. USDA/1890 Capacity Building Grants Program. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $11 million. For these and other minority programs, contact: Central Employment Office, USDA Office of Personnel, 1080-S, Washington, D.C. 20250. (202) 447-5626. Note: 1890 refers to 17 historically black land-grant institutions created under an 1890 federal law. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (summer). Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions Program. These and other minority programs are funded by local institutions. For more information, first contact a nearby DOD laboratory or university. If further help is needed, contact the commander of one of the following three offices: Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, P.O. Box 12211, Durham, N.C. 27709. (919) 549-0641. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C. 20332. (202) 767-5017. Office of Naval Research, 800 N. Quincy St., Arlington, Va. 22203. (202) 696-4517. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Minority Science Improvement Program. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $5.6 million. Contact: Argelia Velez-Rodriguez, Division of Higher Education Programs, ROB-3, Room 3514, Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202. (202) 732-4396. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY High School Student Research Apprenticeship Program. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $400,000. Contact: Office of Energy Research, DOE, 1000 Independence Ave., S.W., Mail Station ER44, Washington, D.C. 20585. (202) 586-8949. Prefreshman Enrichment Program (PREP). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $1.4 million. Contact: same as above. Minority Honors Training and Industrial Assistance Program. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $431,000. Contact: National Minority Energy Information Clearinghouse, Office of Minority Economic Impact, DOE, Washington, D.C. 20585. (202) 586-1589. For other minority programs, contact any of the above offices. DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative (large science and engineering component) F.Y. '90-'92: $15 million. Contact: Office of HBCU Programs and Job Corps, Department of the Interior, Room 2759, Washington, D.C. 20240. (202) 343-2403. For other minority programs, contact: HBCU office, above. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Minority Research Grants. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $900,000. Contact: Virginia Broadway, EPA, RD-675, 401 M St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460. (202) 382-7883. Minority Fellowships. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $115,000. Contact: same as above. Minority Summer Internships. F.Y. '91 (proposed): $140,000. Contact: same as above. For other minority programs, contact: Clarice Gaylord, EPA, PM-224, 401 M St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460. (202) 382-4467. NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Summer High School Apprenticeship Program (SHARP). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $510,000. Contact: NASA Elementary and Secondary Program Branch, Educational Affairs Division, Mail Code XEE, Washington, D.C. 20546. (202) 453-1110. Undergraduate Student Researchers Program. F.Y. '90: $1 million. Contact: NASA Headquarters, Code U, Washington, D.C. 20546. (202) 453-2171. Graduate Student Researchers Program. F.Y. '90: $2.2 million. Contact: same as USRP, above. For other minority programs, contact: Harriett G. Jenkins, NASA, 400 Maryland Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20546. (202) 453-2667. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $32.3 million. Contact: Deputy Associate Director, Office of Program Activities, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH, Westwood Building, Room 955, Bethesda, Md. 20892. (301) 496-7063. Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $13.4 million. Contact: same as MBRS, above. Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $25.8 million. Contact: National Center for Research Resources, NIH, Westwood Building; Room 10A10, Bethesda, Md. 20892. (301) 496-6341. For other minority programs, contact individual institutes. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Career Access Opportunities in Science and Technology for Women, Minorities and the Disabled (ACCESS). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $15 million. Contact: Division of Undergraduate Science, Engineering and Mathematics Education, Room 639, NSF, Washington, D.C. 20550. (202) 357-7051. Alliances for Minority Participation (AMP). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $10 million. Contact: Division of Research Initiative and Improvement, Room 1225, NSF, Washington, D.C. 20550. (202) 357-5052. Research Careers for Minority Scholars (RCMS). F.Y. '91 (proposed): $8.8 million. Contact: same as AMP, above. One attempt that has received high marks is NIH's Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program. Begun in 1972 as a way to help minority faculty, it was broadened in 1977 to support honors students from their undergraduate years until they reach the end of the pipeline. An 1985 evaluation by the Institute of Medicine found that of 821 undergraduates to date, 76 percent went on to professional or graduate school in medicine or the life sciences. At the same time, analyses of other programs have been spotty or anecdotal. "I'm sure there's a wide range of quality," says Fechter, "and that some are highly successful and others are miserable failures." The problem, says Fechter, is that "most of the programs were done as kind of demonstrations and not long-term efforts, and they were put into place without evaluation components. So we really don't know the impact of these programs." But a lack of data isn't the only problem. Minority science and engineering programs of the 1970s often languished under the label of affirmative action for the disadvantaged. And that goal didn't include helping the U.S. stay ahead of the Japanese and Western Europe. "We were talking about issues of morality and fairness, that we needed to include these people because it was the right thing to do," says Shirley Malcom, head of the directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Since the mid-1980s, however, minority pipeline programs are being seen increasingly as an economic imperative, as an investment critical to the country's future. That goal stems from the demographic fact that fewer white males - the traditional pool for the scientific professions - are choosing research careers than in the past. Conversely, the number of blacks, Hispanics, and native Americans in the United States is growing, to the point where in 10 years they will exceed one quarter of the population. But that potentially rich source of talent historically has been excluded from science. "We will not have enough [scientists and engineers] unless we tap the talent that has been heretofore underrepresented," says Mary Harley Kruter, senior policy analyst for math and science education in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "Reaching minorities and pulling them into the pipeline and keeping them in the pipeline is a very, very important thing." Since 1987, federal agencies have established or expanded several programs to fill that pipeline. For example, NSF and NIH have each initiated a series of programs to support minority students in high school, undergraduate, and graduate work. In 1988 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established liaison officers at 17 historically black institutions to help recruit students into science careers. Since 1989, states receiving the Department of Education's Eisenhower Grants for science and mathematics education have been required to have programs aimed at minorities and other underrepresented groups. Also, DOE plans to quadruple its summer institute program, and NASA is designing an interagency program that hopes to produce 320 Ph.D.'s annually among minorities and other underrepresented groups by the year 2000. But simply increasing the number of programs won't be enough. What's needed, say federal administrators, is better interagency cooperation to ensure the most effective use of federal resources, "It's more than a lost opportunity," says Luther Williams, senior science adviser to the NSF director. "If three agencies in a given year spend x dollars and if the return is substantially less than what one would expect, then that's a negative [contribution]." The idea of cooperation is hardly new, of course. Representatives of federal science and engineering programs often talk as they bump into one another while visiting minority campuses. And cooperation was beginning to evolve as the programs matured and expanded, they say, even without the economic imperative of the 1980s. But formal collaboration at higher policy levels did not exist before Congress enacted the cross-agency federal Task Force on Women, Minorities, and the Handicapped in 1986. The task force recommended a formal slate of educational reforms in December 1989 and then, as called for in its charter, formally disbanded. But it left a legacy of similar coordinating committees, including at least two operating at the intraagency level at NSF and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as an informal interagency working group chaired by Williams at NSF. In addition, the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology has formed a committee, headed by Energy Secretary James Watkins, that is expected to carry on the coordinating work of the task force. And an independent cross-agency coordinating science and technology group was recently convened by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This flurry of activity and cooperation within and among federal agencies brings joy and hope to those who have labored to bring more minorities into the science and engineering pipeline. But they say that, even if highly coordinated, the current federal effort is still insufficient to deal with the problem. "Most of us think you need a massive intervention program in changing how science is taught at levels much below college in order to get the young people interested in science and prepared to do science," says Ruth Kirschstein, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. If students don't have a good background in math, reading, and writing, she says, then "all the good intentions in the world are not going to achieve the results we want." Specifically, say experts, the federal effort must enlist the cooperation of state and local agencies, which fund and direct education below the college level. And this vertical partnership will need to attract broad community support. "We believe that the formal education system alone is not going to be able to improve the situation," says AAAS's Malcom. "The effort will require high-level support from business and industry as well as grass-roots support among parents and community organizations. "We have to have that kind of energy in the community . . . to build up a climate that says science and math are important," Malcom says. "That's particularly important in minority communities." Even success at moving more minorities through the science and engineering pipeline, from kinder- garten to a Ph.D., is only one piece of a larger puzzle facing U.S. educators, say analysts. Students of all ethnic backgrounds have been turning away from science and engineering. And those at the precollege level have not been performing as well as they should in almost every subject. That stark fact adds another weight to the already heavy burden shouldered by minority science programs. While the country needs a broad national effort to help minorities, says NSF's Williams, the larger, long-term goal of most science educators is an overhaul of the entire system. But Williams and others are content for now to strive for that which has previously been unattainable. Reaching the short-term goal "would be an enormous achievement if it's pulled off," he says. "To address the problem is to move to a situation someday in which none of these programs is needed." Hugh McIntosh is a freelance science writer in Washington, D.C.

New Series Of Federal Programs Aims At Attracting Minorities

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