The National Science Foundation has awarded $667,559 to the USC Rossier School of Education’s Center for Urban Education to conduct a study to determine practical ways of increasing Hispanics’ access to and success in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science.

The study will be conducted by USC Rossier School assistant professor Alicia C. Dowd and professor Estela Mara Bensimon, director of the Center for Urban Education and assisted by doctoral degree candidate Lindsey Malcom.

“Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. but have the lowest levels of college degree attainment,” Bensimon said. “The educational status of Hispanics is of particular concern because the economy and productivity of several states and cities will be affected by the educational preparation of Hispanics.”

The study will examine the role of community colleges as a pathway for students to obtain the Bachelor of Science degree in science and technology fields. The focus will be on community colleges as the entry point into the science pipeline because Hispanics, more than any other group, are likely to start their education in the two-year college sector.

In addition, Hispanics are highly concentrated in community colleges that are designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) by the U.S. Department of Education. Nearly 60 percent of Hispanics in the American higher education system are enrolled in a community college. Of these students, 56 percent attend Hispanic-serving community colleges. Nearly 44 percent of all bachelor degree holders in science and technology attend community college at some point in their career.

The study will investigate three research topics: the characteristics of Hispanic students who transfer from a community college as a route to the science and technology baccalaureate; the college financing strategies of Hispanic students and the effects of borrowing on graduate school enrollment; and the characteristics and culture of institutions that contribute relatively large shares of Hispanic bachelor’s recipients in the fields of science, technology and computer science.

The role of community colleges to diversify the nation’s science and technology talent pool largely has been overlooked by policy makers, educational researchers and practitioners, Dowd said. “Our study will provide new knowledge and information about the role of community colleges in providing access to minority science and technology majors.”

Hispanic Serving Institutions earn their designation as a result of demographic changes, but it is not clear whether those institutions are strongly oriented to serving Hispanic students in particular.

“I’m interested in understanding whether (the institutions) promote the status attainment of Hispanic students,” Malcom said, “particularly in science and technology fields where they are so greatly underrepresented.”