NEW DIRECTIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH, no. 148, Winter 2010 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/ir.363 7 Lessons from High-Achieving Students of Color in Physics Sharon L. Fries-Britt, Toyia K. Younger, Wendell D. Hall Several national reports highlight a growing concern about the erosion of science and technology education in the United States (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, 2008; National Academy of Sci- ences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, 2007). For example, Rising Above the Gathering Storm (National Academy of Sci- ences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, 2007) emphasizes the social and economic impact this decline may have on indi- viduals who intend to compete for high-quality jobs in science, technol- ogy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and the negative effect this can have on the ability of the United States to compete in a global sci- entific environment. This focus on STEM fields has resulted in a call for colleges and universities, as well as national organizations (for example, the National Science Foundation), to address several challenges, including attrition among undergraduate students who, on admission to their insti- tutions, had aspired to pursue careers in STEM fields. Despite changing demographics in the United States, students of color have remained woefully underrepresented in STEM fields. While African American, Native Americans, and Latinos make up over 30 per- cent of the undergraduate student population in this country, less than 12 percent of baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields are awarded to persons This chapter is based on a multiyear study of 110 physics majors at colleges and universities across the United States. Its focus was on understanding their interactions with faculty and peers, experiences in their respective physics programs, and the extent to which they were motivated by race to succeed as scientists. 75 This study was supported by the National Society of Black Physicists and partial fund- ing from the Sloan Foundation.