A new study by Casey George-Jackson, an adjunct faculty member in the College of Education, suggests that the U.S. may not be falling as far behind its industrialized peers in educating future generations of scientists as previously thought. Significantly more female and minority college students are majoring in and obtaining degrees in science, technology, engineering and math fields than reports have indicated if these disciplines, known by the acronym STEM, are viewed broadly. The data that George-Jackson used in the study were collected by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its Public University Database project, which examined trends at U.S. colleges and universities. Public research universities educate about 7.2 million students, or 30 percent of the undergraduate population and confer two-thirds of the degrees awarded in STEM fields. George-Jackson tracked more than 16,000 freshmen that matriculated to five land-grant universities in fall 1999 and completed bachelor’s degrees within six years, the rates at which students declared STEM majors and their persistence in those disciplines. Read more...

Listen to an interview with George-Jackson on WBBM, News Radio 780, Chicago CBS.