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STEM students of color seek community on UW’s predominantly white campus By Tiffany Huang STAFF WRITER
Students of color sitting in a chemistry class might struggle not only with challenging coursework but with finding someone else who shares their identity. Students of color on a predominantly white campus reported struggling to find a sense of community, especially, experts say, in science, technology, engineering and math fields. UW-Madison’s student body is 73 percent white, which is relatively less diverse than other colleges across the nation. This lack of diversity may impact the learning and social experience of STEM students with different racial and ethnic backgrounds. “Research shows that underrepresented scholars in STEM can often struggle with a sense of belonging, STEM identity and selfefficacy,” said Director of the Office of STEM Initiatives at the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement Emilie Hofacker. According to the U.S.
Department of Commerce, seven out of 10 STEM field positions in the country are held by white, non-Latinx people. Black, Native American and Latinx workers are less likely to hold STEM positions compared to the overall workforce. And even though women make up half of the U.S. workforce, they earn, on average, 14 percent less than men and hold less than a quarter of positions across STEM fields. There are tangible challenges in learning experiences for underrepresented students, according to Dr. Gloria Mari-Beffa, associate dean for STEM fields in the College of Letters and Science, who has researched the topic. “You can see grade gaps in many entry-level classes, but we can’t just say it’s all because they are students of color,” MariBeffa said. “It is hard to say a reason, because we have to take into account for students’ work and their study habits, and that is very hard to measure.” Non-minority students per-
GRAPHIC BY MAX HOMSTAD
Students of color report feeling isolated in science, technology, engineering and math courses. ceive the climate of courses as more positive and less competitive than minority students, according to Mari-Beffa.
Furthermore, marginalized students experience more negative feelings while working with students of different races than
white students in class. “Most of the time I just feel like I
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State test scores suggest more to be done to close gaps, raise proficiencies By Will Husted SENIOR STAFF WRITER
GRAPHIC BY SAMANTHA NESOVANOVIC
Though turnout usually drops substantially in midterm years, new data shows campus enthusiasm.
Midterm voter registration on campus set to rival that of the last presidential election By Andy Goldstein STATE NEWS EDITOR
With election day on the horizon, young people in Madison are registering to vote at a rate that may shatter the norm in a non-presidential year. In 2016, 1,062 people between the ages of 18 to 25 on campus registered to vote in the month after the state primary in August. This year, during the same
period, just seven less people were registered, at 1,055. In a country that sees sharp declines in both registration and turnout in midterm elections, the uptick has not gone unnoticed. “There’s definitely more people paying attention to electoral politics and interested in voting than I’ve seen in the past,” said Beth Alleman, the voting chair of ASM. “I’d be remiss to mention these numbers without also
talking about how many people in the community have stepped up to help register other students to vote.” The data from the period after the primary does not account for registration since then, including large-scale efforts around last week’s National Voter Registration Day. According to those close
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Less than half of Wisconsin’s students in grades three through eight are performing proficient or better in English/language arts, math and science according to test results from the Wisconsin Student Assessment System. An average of 41.1 percent of students tested proficient in math, 40.6 percent in English/language arts (ELA) and 42.5 percent in science this spring. The results of the tests come from the Forward Exam. Now in its third year of use, the standardized test is beginning to illustrate trends in the state’s education system. Math scores are slowly improving with a steady 0.8 point increase from two years ago. The story is not the same with ELA and science results with scores decreasing by 0.9 and 1.4 points, respectively. The data shows a drop in scores in particular for third grade students of color. Black third grade
students dropped from a 15.1 percent proficiency rate in 2015-’16 to 12.7 percent this year. Meanwhile, third grade Hispanic students saw a drop from 26.5 percent to 22.3 percent in the same academic category and time frame.
The data shows a drop in scores in particular for third grade students of color.
The data also tracks ACT composite scores for high school students, which illustrates another gap between white students and students of color. Black students averaged five points lower on the ACT than white students. The Department of Public Instruction noted these results are relatively constant with those of recent years, even showing a small uptick in math performance.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”