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With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), through SRI International in Fall 2008, the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network conducted a series of eight regional outreach meetings designed to solicit feedback to the NSF’s Science Resources Statistics (SRS) Division on the “Impact of the Suppression of Small Data Cells” in the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) reports prepared by SRS. At the meetings, QEM sought input to SRS from doctoral degree-granting minority-serving institutions and STEM-focused professional organizations on ways to improve SED tables to address both issues of privacy/confidentiality and the data needs of users. A major concern was the suppression of small data cells regarding the number and field of study of doctoral degree recipients who are underrepresented minorities (American Indians, African Americans, Alaska Natives, and Hispanics) that would result in a significant loss of data because the number of doctoral degrees earned by these groups annually is small. Seventy (70) individuals attended the eight regional meetings, including five (5) meetings held on the campuses of doctoral degree-granting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs) and three (3) STEM professional society-focused meetings held in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Houston. Texas. Following the Fall 2008 outreach meetings, QEM prepared a summary report: A Report on the Series of Outreach Meetings on the Impact of the Suppression of Small Data Cells in the Survey of Earned Doctorate (SED) Reports. The Summary Report presented six (6) overarching recommendations to SRS drawn from input received at the meetings as well as written comments received. The report also contained recommendations from QEM for consideration by SRS. On February 20, 2009, QEM President Shirley McBay presented a summary of the report and its recommendations to the NSF Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) – a Congressionally mandated committee. Following her presentation, SRS staff responded with an announcement indicating SRS would pursue an alternate solution to address privacy and confidentiality issues that would better serve the needs of the user community by aggregating small fields rather than small cells. With this approach, data on doctoral degree earned by race, ethnicity, gender, and discipline would be available regardless of the small number of degrees awarded.
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