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The Effects of Gender and Race Intersectionality on Student Learning Outcomes in Engineering

This study examines engineering students’ self-reported learning outcomes by their gender, race/ethnicity, and the intersections of gender and race/ethnicity. This study focuses on the relationship between students’ pre-college characteristics and their learning outcomes.

‘‘But I'm Not Good at Math'': The Changing Salience of Mathematical Self-Concept in Shaping Women's and Men's STEM Aspirations

1) How do women’s and men’s mathematical self-concepts compare across different STEM fields? 2) How has the gender gap in mathematical self-concept changed over the past 40 years within different STEM fields? 3) To what extent has the salience of math self-concept as a predictor of STEM major selection changed for women and men in recent decades?

Motivating Factors for Choosing Engineering as Reported by Racial and Ethnic Minority Students

The authors try to understand the factors that motivate minority students to enter engineering must be understood in order to find effective strategies to increase diversity in the field.

Parental Support and High School Students’ Motivation in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: Understanding Differences Among Latino and Caucasian Boys and Girls

The authors examine if a variety of parental behaviors predict students’ ability self-concepts in and value they place on biology, chemistry, and physics.

Disadvantage and the ‘Capacity to Aspire' to Medical School

This study was designed to elucidate
why students from backgrounds of
lower socio-economic status (SES) and who
may be first in their family (FIF) to enter
university continue to be under-represented in
medical schools.

Factors Influencing Black Males' Preparation for College and Success in STEM Majors: A Mixed Methods Study

1) What specific factors influence Black males’ preparation for college? 2) What specific factors influence Black males’ success in STEM fields?

The Role of Parental Values and Child-specific Expectations in the Science Motivation and Achievement of Adolescent Girls and Boys

– Student interest in science was most strongly associated with career aspirations.
– Parental values and expectations explained student interest, self-concept, achievement, and career aspirations.
– There were strong associations of parental expectations with a child’s career aspirations, moderate to strong associations with student motivation, and a moderate association with a student’s science achievement.
– Boys had a slightly higher interest in science and a higher self-concept than girls. Correspondingly, girls did not pursue careers in scientific fields as often as boys did.
– There was a significant difference between the self-concept of boys and girls in science only. When parents valued science as important in general, boys showed a significantly higher self-concept than girls did.
– Parental expectations were more strongly related to the interest, self-concept, and achievement of boys than it was to that of girls. In contrast, the high expectations of parents predicted career
aspirations in science equally well for boys and girls.
– In general, parents had higher expectations of their daughters than they did of their sons.
– With respect to the motivation of both boys and girls, parental expectations for a child’s career aspirations in science are more important than parental values are.

Increasing Persistence in Undergraduate Science Majors: A Model for Institutional Support of Underrepresented Students

Does the Program for Excellence in Education and Research in the Sciences (PEERS) program at UCLA help students to persist within STEM?

Pathway to a Baccalaureate in STEM Fields: Are Community Colleges a Viable Route and Does Early STEM Momentum Matter?

1) Does beginning at a community college affect students’ baccalaureate completion and persistence in STEM fields of study at 4-year institutions? 2) To what extent is STEM momentum related to baccalaureate completion and persistence in STEM fields of study at 4-year institutions? 3) To what extent does beginning at a community college influence STEM momentum?

Course-Taking Patterns of Community College Students Beginning in STEM: Using Data Mining Techniques to Reveal Viable STEM Transfer Pathways

This study examines the course-taking trajectories of beginning community college students, and the resulting transfer outcomes as related to STEM. The following question guides this research: What course-taking patterns are most contributive to upward transfer in STEM fields?

Belonging and Academic Engagement Among Undergraduate STEM Students: A Multi-institutional Study

1) Which levels of belonging are most consistently associated with behavioral engagement as well as emotional engagement after controlling for relevant factors such as self-efficacy? 2) What are the similarities and differences among the different types of institutions in terms of the relationships between belonging levels and engagement?

STEM Education

Review and discuss current research on STEM education in the United States, drawing on recent research in sociology and related fields.

Gender Differences in STEM Undergraduates' Vocational Interests: People-thing Orientation and Goal Affordances

This study addressed why women have greater representation in some STEM fields compared to others by linking two theoretical approaches, people-thing orientation and role congruity theory, which emphasizes occupation goal affordances associated with traditionally feminine and masculine roles. Research questions: 1) How do men and women in different majors compare on PO and TO? 2) How are college students’ gender and major choices related to interest in occupations that differ in people and thing characteristics? 3) How are communal and agentic goal affordances associated with occupations that vary in their involvement with people and things? 4) How do students’ PTO and perceptions of occupation goal affordances combine to predict interest in different occupations?

The downside of good peers: How classroom composition differentially affects men's and women's STEM persistence

The aim of this study is to understand the differential impact of the number of on-track students in a general chemistry lecture relative to late-track students on STEM completion for men and women.

Effects of Student Body Racial and Ethnic Demographics on Community College Student Persistence: A Correlational Inferential Study

1) What is the effect of racial and ethnic community college student body composition on student persistence? 2) Does the racial and ethnic composition of a community college’s student body have differential effects on the persistence of students from different racial and ethnic groups? 3) What is the effect of racial and ethnic student body composition on student academic and social engagement?

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Readiness: Ethno-Linguistic and Gender Differences in High-School Course Selection Patterns

1) What are the ethno-linguistic profiles of high school graduates that entered the ESL program in schools in British Columbia at different ages? 2) What are the determinants and correlates of Grade 12 course selecting patterns (CSP) with respect to student gender, ethno-linguistic group, academic history, grade level at entry and achievement history? 3) What student demographics increase the probability that students will choose classes that prepare them for a STEM major? 4) What are the probabilities of CSP by gender and ethnic group status?

Expectancy-Value Models of the STEM Persistence Plans of Ninth-Grade, High-Ability Students: A Comparison Between Black, Hispanic, and White Students

Examine the relationships of demographic and expectancy-value variables with STEM persistence status.

Results of a Large-Scale, Multi-Institutional Study of Undergraduate Retention in Computing

What factors are related to undergraduate retention in Computer Science?

Does it Matter Who Your Schoolmates Are? An Investigation of the Association between School Composition, School Processes and Mathematics Achievement in the Early Years of Primary Education

(1) What are the effects of school composition with regard to prior math achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on mathematics achievement at the end of the second grade? (2) Are there differential school composition effects? In other words: are all students affected equally by their school composition or are some specific subgroups more sensitive to their school composition than others? (3) Do certain school processes mediate the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of the second grade?

Foundations of Mathematics Achievement: Instructional Practices and Diverse Kindergarten Students

Do teachers’ instructional practices differentially affect the mathematics achievement of kindergarten students whose backgrounds differ in terms of their race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and mathematic academic readiness?

"What Comes to Mind When You Think of Science? The Perfumery!": Documenting Science-Related Cultural Learning Pathways Across Contexts and Timescales

How do everyday moments – experienced across settings, pursuits, social groups, and time – result in scientific learning, expertise development, and identification?

Latina/Latino Students Missing in STEM Education: A Case Study

To determine the role HSIs play in increasing the participation and completion rates of Latino students in STEM education. Additionally, the study served to compare the experiences of Latino students in STEM at HSIs versus PWIs.

Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education?

This article examines (a) how students’ public welfare beliefs change during their engineering education, (b) whether engineering programs emphasize engagement, and (c) whether these program emphases are related to students’
public welfare beliefs.

College Student Persistence in Scientific Disciplines: Cultural and Social Capital as Contributing Factors

The research questions guiding this study were:
1. What factors and experiences of women of color influence their persistence in science majors?
2. How do sources of capital (cultural and social) contribute to persistence efforts?

What Matters in College for Retaining Aspiring Scientists and Engineers from Underrepresented Racial Groups

Among students who started college with an interest in majoring in a STEM field, does a student’s race contribute significantly to the chances that he or she will follow through on these intentions? If so, are the effects of race moderated by high school academic preparation and/or key college experiences? If there are racial disparities in persistence rates after controlling for pre-college student characteristics, what are the college factors that contribute to the persistence of under represented racial minority (URM) students? What college experiences and institutional characteristics significantly predict the likelihood that a URM student will follow through on his or her intentions to pursue a degree in STEM?

Is Integration a Dream Deferred? Students of Color in Majority White Suburban Schools

How does students’ relationships with school adults impact their educational experiences and future college and career choices?

Intersectionality and STEM: The Role of Race and Gender in the Academic Pursuits of African American Women in STEM

What role do the intersection of race and gender play in the academic pursuits of African American women in the STEM field of computing sciences?

Student perceptions of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) content and careers

1) Are STEM dispositions of high school science and mathematics students more similar to those of their generational peers or those of STEM professionals? 2) Are STEM dispositions or career interests different for disaggregation attributes such as gender, year in the academy, size of school, or ethnicity? 3) What are the primary influences reported by academy students for their interest in STEM careers?

Choosing Selves: The Salience of Parental Identity in the School Choice Process

What motivates middle class parents to send their children to a racially and socioeconomically integrated urban school? What were the processes through which they came to that decision?

How did parents’ views of social class and, especially, race affect their decision-making?

Feeling the Threat: Stereotype Threat as a Contextual Barrier to Women's Science Career Choice Intentions

The goal of the current project was to examine the influence of a proximal contextual barrier, stereotype threat, as a predictor of STEM career outcomes for women within the SCCT framework.

Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes

– Author reports a randomized controlled trial that assigns repeated intergroup contact between members of different ethnic groups. The contact results in exclusionary attitudes toward the outgroup.
– This experiment demonstrates that even very minor demographic
change causes strong exclusionary reactions.
– Exclusionary attitudes can be stimulated by even very minor, noninvasive demographic change: in this case, the introduction of only two persons. Overtly threatening behavior by newcomers is not a necessary component for the stimulation of exclusionary attitudes.
– Developed nations and politically liberal subnational units are expected to experience a politically conservative shift as international migration brings increased intergroup contact.

Peer Effects in Urban Schools: Assessing the Impact of Classroom Composition on Student Achievement

This study evaluates the effects of classroom peers on standardized testing achievement for all third- and fourth-grade students in the Philadelphia School District over 6 school years.

Perceived Gender and Racial/Ethnic Barriers to STEM Success

Assess the variation in perceived STEM support by gender and race/ethnicity and its associations with STEM aspirations. Explore in-depth the participants’ perceptions of microaggressions and support for girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM.

Threat in Context: School Moderation of the Impact of Social Identity Threat on Racial/ Ethnic Achievement Gaps

1. Are the benefits of self-affirmation for black and Hispanic middle school students greater in potentially more threatening school contexts, characterized by the group presence and relative academic position of racially marginalized students?

2. What are the prospects of these interventions to close racial achievement gaps in more and less threatening school environments?

Characteristics of Schools Successful in STEM: Evidence from Two States' Longitudinal Data

This report estimates school effectiveness in science and mathematics to identify and describe both successful and un-successful schools in STEM fields.

Predicting Student Enrollment and Persistence in College STEM Fields Using an Expanded P-E Fit Framework: A Large-scale Multilevel Study

– Ability was found to moderate the effects of interest fit on the behavioral outcomes, thus expanding the P-E fit framework.
– Gender moderates the effects of these individual difference predictors, such that the effects are weaker for females than for males in predicting STEM choice.
– For STEM persistence, the opposite effect was found: The relationship between ability and persistence is stronger for females than it is for males.
– Results supported the hypothesized moderating effect of ability on the relationship between interest fit and STEM choice for both STEM Science (vs. non-STEM) and STEM Quantitative (vs. non-STEM) when ACT was used to represent the construct of academic ability but not when HSGPA was used for the purpose.
– Statistically significant findings were obtained for the interaction effects between gender and ability (with both ACT and HSGPA)
– There was a statistically significant effect between interest fit and gender for STEM Quantitative (vs. non-STEM) but not for STEM Science (vs. non-STEM).
– The moderating effect of selectivity was found to be moderately strong.

The High School Environment and the Gender Gap in Science and Engineering

Extend existing explanations for gender differences in plans of pursuing STEM degrees and examine the role of the high school context.

Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor’s Degrees for Men and Women

How would the gender gap in S/E degrees
change if women had the same orientation
toward and preparation for S/E in middle school
and at the end of high school?

Breaking it Down: Engineering Student STEM Confidence at the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender

This study examines social cognitive influences on engineering student STEM confidence, with a particular focus on women and underrepresented minorities.

Compositional Effects, Segregation and Test Scores: Evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress

How is the expected test score of an average student predicted by the economic and/or ethnic composition of her or his school?

How Do Academic Achievement and Gender Affect the Earnings of STEM Majors? A Propensity Score Matching Approach

This study examines how the earnings benefits of choosing a STEM major vary both by gender and across the distribution of academic achievement, accounting for the selection into college major using propensity score matching. The purpose of this study is to estimate the earnings gap between STEM and non-STEM majors both across gender and across the distribution of achievement test scores. These estimates improve our understanding of the relationship between STEM major choice and early labor-market earnings, and how this relationship varies across gender.

Inequality in Children's Contexts: Trends and Correlates of Economic Segregation Between School Districts, 1990-2010

How segregated are schools in the 100 largest metropolitan areas by income from the 1990s to the late 2000s? What are possible causes for segregation between the school districts?

Seeking a 'Critical Mass': Middle-Class Parents Collective Engagement in City Public Schooling

Is middle-class parents’ collective engagement in schooling particularly important in under-resourced urban contexts?

Persistence and Performance for Latino Community College Students in STEM Majors

1) Do coaching intervention models in STEM courses contribute to student semester-to-semester persistence for Latino community college students who participate in these courses, when compared to students who don’t participate? 2) Do Latino community college students who participate in college STEM courses with coaching intervention models perform better, as measured by final course GPA, when compared to students who do not participate?

Homeless Students and Academic Achievement: Evidence from a Large Urban Area

Is housing status a predictor of student achievement in a large urban district, even after controlling for common correlates like income and race? Is the homelessness effect mediated by attendance? What school-level factors predict homeless student achievement?

Predicting 9th Graders' Science Self-Efficacy and STEM Career Intent: A Multilevel Approach

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that predict 9th grade students’ science self-efficacy and STEM career intent.

Long-Term Consequences of School Segregation: The Impact of School SES, Racial Density and Racial Diversity on Future Earnings

What is the impact of school socioeconomic status (SES), school racial density, and school racial diversity on students’ future earnings?

School Segregation, Education Attainment and Crime. Evidence for the End of Busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg

What was the impact of the end of court ordered desegregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on students’ achievement test scores, criminal activity, and educational attainment? Unitary status and the end of busing in 2002 created conditions for a natural experiment that the study exploits.