Research On STEM Education Retention Initiatives Of American Ethnic Minority College Students

Under the background of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution,the United States has continuously accelerating the development of STEM education in order to maintain its position as the “leader” in international competition.In particular,the education of under-represented ethnic minority groups(African,Hispanic,Amerindian,Alaska Native,Hawaiian,and other Pacific Islander peoples)in the field of STEM.Meanwhile,a series of initiatives have been taking to recruit and retain more ethnic minority college students to enter the STEM field and successfully obtained a STEM degree and trained a large number of STEM talents for the United States.This research focuses on “how to recruit and retain ethnic minority college students in the field of STEM and to get a STEM degree in the United States”.In order to more specifically analyse the initiatives taken by the United States,a case study research approach was adopted.Firstly,based on the socialization theory of college students and the student retention model of Tinto,the STEM education retention model of ethnic minority college students is constructed.Then two typical cases of Ohio LSAMP project(undergraduate project)and Michigan AGEP project(postgraduate project)were selected.According to the construction model and specific cases,this paper analyzed the selected cases from several aspects,such as project development background,entrance link,retention process,export link,operation guarantee of the project and so on.Through the above research,the characteristics of the United States in the STEM education reservation process of ethnic minority college students are as follows: the retention process highlights “three-way” and “interdisciplinary”;the operation and management of the project“does each of its duties and does its best”in the retention process;the export link “teaching students according to their aptitude and doing their best”.At the same time,it also summarizes several shortcomings in the process of STEM education retention for minority ethnic college students in the United States.Combined with the present situation of science and engineering education for minority college students in China,this paper puts forward some enlightenments for the science and engineering education of minority college students from three levels: the state,the school level and the society.