Report Finds Strong Aptitude But Low Interest for STEM Careers Among Black Students

YouScience, a technology provider for solving skill gaps in students and employers, in partnership with the nonprofit organization Black Girls Do STEM, have released the 2024 Black Students and STEM Report, which outlines Black students’ aptitude towards STEM careers compared to their interest in STEM fields. To conduct their study, the researchers reviewed data from 328,000 Black middle and high school students who had taken a career aptitude test from YouScience between 2019 and 2023. The results were conflicting; despite showing a strong aptitude towards STEM fields, Black students showed little interest in pursuing a career in STEM. The research team believes this disconnect is a result of the current underrepresentation of Black people in STEM, which has created a career exposure gap for Black students. The report defines a career exposure gap as the difference between a student’s aptitudes and interests, which can point towards what careers the student may not be exposed to and what careers may be a good fit for them. The report analyzed five different STEM fields and found large exposure gaps for Black students among all five categories. The report found a 75 percent exposure gap in advanced manufacturing, 57 percent in health science,...