Table 1.

Summary of recommendations to increase the diversity of undergraduate STEM disciplines

	Recommendations	Possible actions
1	Increase institutional accountability	Establish information systems across institutions that document 1) incoming student interest, 2) declared major, and 3) department/school/program graduation rates all (1–3) by student ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and first-generation status. Make this information publicly available and reported to funding institutions.
2	Create strategic partnerships with programs that create lift	Program directors can begin by identifying the type of program one directs or wishes to direct. Possible variables to consider: 1) duration of the program, 2) context (i.e., type of university), 3) student type (e.g., low-, medium-, or high-risk/achievement/potential; culture; socioeconomic status; first-generation status; motivation), and 4) purpose/goals of the program (short, medium, and long term). Search literature for publications regarding programs like the one you want to direct. Communicate with funders about their knowledge of successful programs. Funders can facilitate greatly by supporting collaborations between successful and new programs.
3	Unleash the power of the curriculum	The learning sciences provide many publications that articulate curriculum best practices. Educators can expand their knowledge about CUREs and other inquiry-based approaches by reading this brief article, “Inquiry-Based and Research-Based Laboratory Pedagogies in Undergraduate Science” (Weaver et al., 2008). Alternatively, Anderson et al. (2011) recommend seven institutional shifts that can support curriculum change in their article “Changing the Culture of Science Education at Research Universities.”
4	Address student resource disparities	The issue of resource disparity is not new and perhaps has the longest history of intervention. Creating access and support for students occurs through a variety of avenues, including institutional financial commitments to reduce disparity for low-income students, federal and private funding agencies providing support, and political actions to reduce economic disparity nationally, statewide, and in local communities.
5	Fire the creative juices	For URM students, firing creative juices can occur by linking the work done in their STEM fields to personal and culturally valued outcomes. Brief but powerful writing exercises can be introduced into classes to help facilitate this link (see work by Judith Harackiewicz [Harackiewicz et al., 2013] on utility value exercises). Faculty, departments, and institutions are encouraged to creatively find ways to better connect URM STEM students to community-based learning opportunities or to find ways to emphasize how classroom content relates to prosocial communal outcomes. Funding agencies are encouraged to support research in STEM fields that both advances the fields and explicitly benefits vulnerable communities.