Southeast Texas P-16 Council

Lamar University led the nation in the number of graduate degrees in education awarded to Hispanics during 2010.

The university graduated 342 Hispanics during the year, according to The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, a national magazine dedicated to exploring issues related to Hispanics in higher education.

“In the field of education, Lamar University in Texas led the pack, awarding the most master’s and doctoral degrees to Hispanics,” wrote Mary Ann Cooper, special projects editor for the magazine. Lamar was one of seven Texas schools on the Top 25 list of graduate degrees in education conferred.

“This is clearly good news for Lamar University because we have identified and captured a demographic slice of the state that previously has not been available to Lamar University,” said Kevin Smith, Lamar’s senior associate provost. “It is great news.”

Read more…

Significant numbers of today’s women and underrepresented minority chemists and chemical engineers (40 percent) say they were discouraged from pursuing a STEM career (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) at some point in their lives, according to a new Bayer Corporation survey.

U.S. colleges are cited by them as the leading place in the American education system where discouragement happens (60 percent) and college professors as the individuals most likely responsible for the discouragement (44 percent).

The U.S. K-12 education system falls short, too. On average, the survey respondents give it a “D” for the job it does to encourage minorities to study STEM subjects and a “D+” for girls. The Bayer Facts of Science Education XIV survey polled 1,226 female, African-American, Hispanic and American Indian chemists and chemical engineers about their childhood, academic and workplace experiences that play a role in attracting and retaining women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.
Read more…