Grade Disparities Associated with Student Demographics in Upper-Division Biology Courses Across Multiple Institutions

Disparate grade outcomes across various axes of student identities are prevalent in introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, including in the biological sciences, yet few studies have examined outcome disparities in upper-division courses. Those that have present mixed findings. Rooted in a critical approach to quantitative methods and a student asset/institutional-deficit perspective, we characterized grade disparities associated with minoritized demographic identities over 10 years of enrollments (N = 58,692 students) in two upper-division biology courses, Genetics and Cell Biology, at five institutions. We found strong evidence of grade disparities associated with women, PEER, first-generation, low socioeconomic, and transfer student identities while controlling for prior academic performance. Across all institutions, the number of privileged identities held by the students was positively correlated with averaged students' course grades. These grade disparities were larger in Genetics than in Cell Biology and the degree of disparities in both courses varied across institutions. Our results show that the systemic inequities observed in introductory courses also exist in upper-division biology courses and call for universities to implement policies and practices that move away from student-deficit explanations for these disparities, and instead adopt a curriculum and institution-deficit model that recognizes their role in mediating and perpetuating equity disparities in STEM.