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Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are commonly required in applications to graduate school in mathematics. We examine undergraduate mathematics majors’ knowledge of the GRE and their perceptions of the GRE as a barrier to applying to these programs as part of a larger project studying student knowledge of the graduate school application process and how it contributes to lack of diversity in graduate mathematics programs. We found that there was an association by gender, and that women were less likely to report that they had heard of the GRE General and Subject Tests. Similarly, women were more likely to report that the GRE tests were a potential barrier to their decision to apply to graduate mathematics programs. 

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. 

In this study, two universities created and implemented a student-centered graduate student instructor observation protocol (GSIOP) and a post-observational Red-Yellow-Green feedback structure (RYG feedback). The GSIOP and RYG feedback was used with novice mathematics graduate student instructors (GSIs) by experienced GSIs through a peer-mentorship program. Ten trained mentor GSIs observed novice GSIs, completed a GSIOP, and provided RYG feedback as part of an observation-feedback cycle. This generated 50 semester-long data sets of three observation-feedback cycles of novice GSIs. Analyzing these 50 semester-long data sets helped identify how certain feedback influenced GSIOP scores. 

In this study, two universities created and implemented a student-centered graduate student instructor observation protocol (GSIOP) and a post-observational Red-Yellow-Green feedback structure (RYG feedback). The GSIOP and RYG feedback was used with novice graduate student instructors (GSIs) by experienced GSIs through a peer-mentorship program. Ten trained mentor GSIs completed 50 sets of three observations of novice GSIs. Analyzing 151 GSIOPs and 151 RYG feedback meetings longitudinally provided insight to identify what types of feedback informed and influenced GSIOP scores. After qualitatively coding feedback along multiple dimensions, we found certain forms of feedback were more influential for GSI development than others with respect to change in GSIOP score. Our results indicate contextually-specific feedback leads to more observed changes and improvement across multiple observations than decontextualized feedback.