Sunday, December 16, 2007

Race in my classes

I recently saw a report that listed the break-down, by race, of De Anza College students. Here's what it said:

Asian, Filipino, and Pacific Islander - 41%
Caucasian - 25%
Hispanic - 14%
African American - 5%
Other - 19%

Note that the totals add up to 104% - I have no explanation for that.

While giving my last final on Friday, the report on the desk, I looked at my class of 35 calculus students. Here is the break-down, by race, of my class. This was based on my observation, so I might be off:

Asian, Filipino, and Pacific Islander - 94.3% (33 out of 35 students)
Caucasian - 2.9% (1 student)
Hispanic - 0%
African American - 0%
Other - 2.9% (1 student)

After seeing the statistics, and seeing how off they were for my calculus class, I am going to pay more attention to who is enrolled in my classes. I'm sure my intermediate algebra class next quarter, will not look anything like my calculus class did.

Part of the time working on my master's degree was spent looking at the problems of getting underrepresented minorities into calculus, the gateway class for college students. Looking at my calculus class, I realize I'm not doing a very good job at helping fix those problems.

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