I do think we need diversity in STEM fields but how one achieves that is difficult. As a female in STEM I might not be what you are thinking of as a minority but I have a unique view on this subject. I did my undergraduate degree at an engineering school where the male to female ratio was ~3:1. In an effort to become more balanced, the school encouraged women to apply and actually lowered the bar for entry if you had two x chromosomes. This might have made sense originally but it does a couple of unexpected things.

1) Even as a female, when I knew no one in a class but was told to get in a group, I would subconsciously pick a group with no females. I knew that it was easier to get in as a female and my experience was that females could get away with doing less so I never wanted to work with them. I was making sexist decisions (based on experience but sexist none-the-less) against my own gender.

2) As a female, I do not know if I would have gotten into my undergraduate institution without the help of my X chromosomes. That doubt bleeds over into other parts of life. Now I am at a competitive graduate program and I am doing well but when things are hard and I get those doubts that all graduate students face, I have a nagging voice that says, "Well, you got into school based on your gender to start and things have snowballed from there. Maybe you really are not smart enough to cut it."

I know this is just anecdotal but it is something to think about. I do feel we need to increase diversity but I don't know how to do it without potentially having adverse effects.

Thanks for your reply Steph. I think the first thing we need to do is to improve our K-12 education system. We need to motivate students to pursue careers in science, not by making it "easier" for them to get into a STEM field but by stimulating their curiosity and by promoting the development of their scientific thinking. I strongly believe that we need to have a serious national dialog on this issue as this is a matter of national economic interest.

I completely agree, Luis.

Of course more under-represented minorities need to achieve in STEM. The data show that in a heterogeneous culture such as in the USA, not every student comes with the same set of philosophical axioms/assumptions about the world in which we all live. Under-represented minorities often differ from generic western white students in many ways. This difference shows up in the compromised exam scores. It is the teaching that is at fault for not recognizing student diversity and building on it appropriately. It is certainly not a good idea to lower the achievement bar for the these students. But more effective teaching methods that take students' diverse ideas and beliefs into account are needed. See for example, argumentation teaching, teaching for conceptual change, place-based teaching, conceptual bridging, or learner-centered teaching. I agree, it is a matter of national economic interest and also justice.

We need to have more minorities and non-minorities in STEM fields. We need to encourage those students, including minority students, who have the genuine interest in STEM careers. At present, we tend to market STEM fields to a large group of students and many of those students are not interested in science and math (generally due to subpar and uninspired teaching methods [teachers]). Our hope is that if we market to STEM careers to a larger group of students, we will produce a larger number of STEM professionals, which may be true. However, we need new STEM professionals who actually enjoy these types of careers and who will stay in these fields for an entire career. When we notice minority students who have the skills and interest in STEM areas, we need to work with them individually to nurture them and launch them onto a successful career pathway.