White Americans are more likely to have access to the Internet from home than Blacks or Hispanics have from any location. While this divide exists, a 1996 survey showed that 44 percent of Black students have taken chemistry compared to 58 percent of White students. And, less than 20 percent of Hispanic and Black students have taken physics, compared to 26 percent of White and 44 percent of Asian students. Likewise, there are significant gaps in the statistics for geometry and algebra. It requires exposure and acess, education and training, educational innovation in student learning and engagement of teachers, partnerships, valuing diversity and role models.
Businesses can sponsor job shadowing and mentoring programs.
Career fairs for students and their parents can help expose them to the variety of opportunities in technology. At the same time, we must encourage students to pursue higher education because the lure of lucrative information technology jobs can lead many to postpone or give up college plans. As the Commerce Department report says, when this happens, we are eating the seed corn of college graduates from whom we will need tomorrow's high-level skills. At RPI we work on the pipeline of minority youngsters who might enter the university by working with the community to expose students to careers in math and science. More than 900 local low-income students will receive advanced instruction in algebra, chemistry, physics, and trigonometry, beginning in seventh grade and continuing through high school.