Although recent research has reported equity gains in the university-level physics classroom, there remains evidence of significant inequities by race. We conducted a series of multiple linear regressions to examine the magnitude of these inequities in introductory mechanics final exam scores. When we followed a common method of grouping students by underrepresented minority (URM) status in our statistical analysis, we found that when controlling for prior knowledge, based on ACT math and physics placement test scores, there was no evidence of racial inequities. However, when we performed the same analysis but replaced URM status with separate groups for each race or ethnicity reported to the university, we found that African American and Asian American students, and to a lesser extent, Hispanic students, underperformed in their physics course relative to their non-Hispanic White American peers, even when controlling for prior knowledge. We conclude that grouping students by URM status may not be sufficient to detect patterns of academic difficulties experienced by specific racial and ethnic groups of students. Furthermore, these results lead us to believe that there is still work to be done at the university level to provide a learning environment supportive of students of all backgrounds.

中文翻译：

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粗略分类对统计结果的影响：少数民族代表人数不足会如何掩盖亚裔和非裔美国学生的挣扎

尽管最近的研究报道了大学一级物理课堂的公平性增长，但仍有证据表明种族之间存在严重的不平等。我们进行了一系列多元线性回归，以检验入门级力学考试成绩中这些不等式的严重程度。当我们在统计分析中采用一种按代表性不足的少数族裔（URM）身份对学生进行分组的通用方法时，我们发现在控制先验知识时，基于ACT数学和物理位置测试成绩，没有种族不平等的迹象。但是，当我们执行相同的分析，但向大学报告的每个种族或种族将URM身份替换为单独的组时，我们发现非裔美国人和亚裔学生，以及程度较小的西班牙裔学生，即使在控制先验知识的情况下，他们在物理课程中的表现也要比非西班牙裔美国人好。我们得出的结论是，按URM身份对学生进行分组可能不足以检测特定种族和族裔学生所经历的学习困难的模式。此外，这些结果使我们相信，在大学层次上仍有工作要做，以提供一个支持所有背景的学生的学习环境。