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1. Physics GRE Requirements Create Uneven Playing Field for Graduate Applicants

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2020.pr.Owens  

   Owens, Lindsay M.; Zwickl, Benjamin M.; Franklin, Scott V.; Miller, Casey W. (August 2020, Physics Education Research Conference 2020)

   The use of the Physics GRE in graduate admissions has gained considerable attention in recent years. While studies have shown the problematic nature of the exam quantitatively, it is time that student experiences were also included in the discussion. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 69 current graduate physics and astronomy students about their process of deciding where to apply to graduate school. Physics GRE requirements played a substantial role in this decision, with 48 students mentioning the test as part of their process to narrow programs down to a personalized short-list. Participants discussed potential barriers (e.g., financial and travel) that affected some students, but not others, which created an unequal playing field for grad school applicants. Secondly, while the participants noticed a shift towards more departments having "optional'' GRE language, female student participants still felt the need to take and submit their Physics GRE scores, while male student participants truly saw "optional'' as optional. These results suggest that graduate programs requiring the Physics GRE are doing more than asking prospective graduate students to simply take a physics test, and that the use of 'optional' requirement language may be inadvertently disadvantaging the very students that they are trying to recruit. 

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2. Time to PhD completion is no different between men and women despite score gap on physics GRE

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2021.pr.Verostek  

   Verostek, Michael; Miller, Casey W.; Zwickl, Benjamin M. (October 2021, Physics Education Research Conference 2021v)

   Using analysis of variance on a sample consisting of 1,499 US students across 21 US PhD programs, we show that there is no significant difference in the time it takes US male and female physics PhD students to complete their degree programs. This result comes in spite of a statistically significant 18 percentile point gap in median GRE-P scores between genders. Additional analyses reveal that there is no statistical difference between US students reported as White, Black/Hispanic/Multiracial/Native American, and Asian. Expanding our sample to also include 1,143 Non-US students, we find a small but significant effect of citizenship status on time to PhD completion where the average time for Non-US students to complete a physics PhD is about two months less than their US student counterparts. These results show that in spite of known gaps in standardized admissions exams between genders, these differences are not reflected in subsequent graduate school performance. Our findings reinforce the need for graduate admissions committees to go beyond quantitative metrics and conduct a holistic assessment of an applicant's potential to perform research effectively and to earn a PhD. 

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3. The Price Does Not Appear the Same for Everyone: Racial Differences in Students' Perceptions of the Mathematics Graduate School Application Process

   McEldowney, T.; Townsend, E.; Maldonado, D.; Michaluk, L.; Deshler, J. (February 2024, Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education)

   Lack of racial diversity has been an ongoing issue in higher education. Recently, the Theory of Racialized Organizations has been used to help explain why, despite many calls for diversity, the demographics of higher education have not changed. Considering this framework, we seek to understand what aspects of the graduate school application process are viewed as barriers by minoritized students for applying. As part of a larger study of undergraduate student knowledge of the graduate school application process, we analyze 515 responses from undergraduate math majors using Mann-Whitney U tests to identify differences in what participants view as a barrier to apply to graduate school by race/ethnicity. We discuss two main results and recommend changes to graduate programs wishing to recruit more minoritized students. 

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4. Instructional Set Moderates the Effect of GRE on Faculty Appraisals of Applicant Competence: A Vignette Study With Implications for Holistic Review

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.749621  

   Hernández-Colón, Isabelle Rios; Caño, Annmarie; Wurm, Lee H.; Sanders, Gavin; Nava, Jennifer (October 2021, Frontiers in Psychology)

   While there is movement to create more equitable and holistic admission review processes, faculty continue to place strong emphasis on a single piece of information when making admissions decisions: standardized test scores. This study used an experimental design to test whether instructions provided to faculty prior to assessing doctoral applicants could support holistic review by reducing the weight of the general record examination (GRE) in faculty appraisals of competence and merit for graduate study. Tenured and/or tenure-track faculty ( N =271) were randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Control (no instruction), “Diamond in the Rough,” and “Weed Out.” In addition, faculty participants were randomly assigned to read one of two vignettes of a prospective first-generation student who either received high or average GRE scores. Faculty then rated the applicant’s competence using a three-item survey. As expected, faculty who read the vignette describing the candidate with the high GRE rated him as more competent than faculty who read the average GRE vignette. In addition, being instructed to seek out diamonds in the rough buffered the effect of the GRE score on competence. Faculty were also asked to indicate whether they would need additional information to make an admissions decision. They were more likely to ask about grades and research skills than about psychosocial factors that might contextualize the candidate’s performance and perceived competence. The results of this study have implications for creating more equitable doctoral admissions processes that center equity, diversity, and inclusion in decision making. 

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5. Examining obstacles to mathematics graduate students’ development as teachers. In S. Otten, A. G. Candela, Z. de Arauj., C. Haines, & C. Munter (Eds.), Proceedings of the forty-first annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 490-496). St Louis, MO: University of Missouri.

   Beisiegel, B. (October 2019, Proceedings of the forty-first annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   null (Ed.)

   As the field of professional development for mathematics graduate students evolves, there is a need for research studies that examine how mathematics graduate students develop as teachers. This study aims to fill this gap in the research by studying mathematics graduate students’ experiences with teaching as they progress through their graduate programs. Mathematics graduate students were recruited from a large university mathematics department. They were responded to surveys and were interviewed semi-annually for two or more years. We analyzed their responses using thematic analysis and a framework that captured their development as teachers. In this report, we describe a framework for teachers’ development and context and methods of the study. We present findings on how the framework elucidated mathematics graduate students’ development as teachers and illustrate obstacles to their development. 

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