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Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity in the Effect of MESA on AP STEM Coursework and College STEM Major Aspirations

-MESA participation increases students’ odds of taking AP STEM courses in high school and their aspirations for declaring a STEM major in college.
– These effects are driven primarily by black and white students, respectively.
– Latino and Asian students remain largely unaffected by MESA partiipation.
– MESA may improve black students’ high school STEM engagement but may have little impact on black and Latino students’ STEM outcomes in college.

The effects of a high school curriculum reform on university enrollment and the choice of college major

– The results show that the reform increased university enrollment rates for both genders.
-The reform increased students’ willingness to enroll at university for males and females alike. The reform effect of university enrollment can be assessed as meaningful with 1.3 and 1.2 percentage points for females and males, respectively.
– With regard to choosing STEM as college major, the authors find a
robust positive effect of the high school curriculum reform on males.
– While the results for males indicate that the reform made them more like to choose a STEM major on a statistically significant level, this is not true for females.
– A likely mechanism for the gender difference in major choices is the underlying preferences of men and women.

Choice of Majors: Are Women Really Different from Men?

– High school academic preparation, faculty gender composition, and major returns have little effect on major switching behaviors, and women and men are equally likely to change their major in response to poor grades in major-related courses.
– Women in male-dominated majors do not exhibit different patterns of switching behaviors relative to their male colleagues.
– Women are more likely to switch out of male-dominated STEM majors in response to poor performance compared to men.
– It takes multiple signals of lack of fit into a major (low grades, gender composition of class, and external stereotyping signals) to impel female students to switch majors.

Can learning communities boost success of women and minorities in STEM? Evidence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

– Author finds no statistically significant effects on academic outcomes for ESG enrollees generally, but women who participate in the program have higher GPAs and complete more credits of coursework.
– Minority students are more likely to major in math, computer science, or electrical engineering after participating in the ESG program.
– Though quite noisy, the results are suggestive that women and minorities in STEM may benefit from learning communities.
– Author finds evidence that female instructors are particularly beneficial for female students at MIT. However, the magnitude of the estimates suggests that the gender-mix of ESG instructors cannot account for most of the academic effects the author observes for female students.

Characteristics of US Students That Pursued a STEM Major and Factors That Predicted Their Persistence in Degree Completion

1) What are the characteristics of students’ who declared a STEM major? 2)What are the characteristics of students who completed a STEM major? 3)What factors influence students who persisted to complete a STEM major?

Gender and Choosing a STEM Major in College: Femininity, Masculinity, Chilly Climate, and Occupational Values

This research seeks to address these issues and advance our understanding of gender inequalities in STEM careers by measuring masculine and feminine personality characteristics using the Bem sex-role inventory (BSRI)- a well-studied inventory of masculine and feminine personality traits- and using these measures to predict selection of a STEM major in college among a sample of students aged 19 and older at a major public university. In addition to testing the association between masculinity, femininity, and choosing a STEM major independent of gender identification, the authors also explore the possibility that the association between masculine and feminine personality characteristics and choosing a STEM major differs for males and females.

The concentration of Asian Americans in STEM and health-care occupations: an intergenerational comparison

This article examines the concentration of Asian Americans in the STEM and health-care fields of study and occupations by generation, ethnic group and gender, compared to white Americans.

Perceived Mathematical Ability under Challenge: A Longitudinal Perspective on Sex Segregation among STEM Degree Fields

1) To what degree do domain-specific and domain-general perceptions of ability under challenge differ by gender? 2) What is the relationship between perceived ability under challenge in mathematics and advanced high school science course enrollment? 3) To what extent does perceived ability under challenge in mathematics predict staying in a STEM field as intended before entering postsecondary education? How is this relationship moderated by gender? 4) What is the relationship between perceived ability under challenge in mathematics and selection of mathematics-intensive science majors (physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science(PEMC), and how is that relationship moderated by gender?

‘‘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?

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?

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?

Cohort changes in the relationship between adolescents' family attitudes, STEM intentions and attainment

1) Are family attitudes less likely to constrain young women’s STEM intentions and attainment in the 1990s, as compared to the 1970s? 2) Alternatively, did the effect of family attitudes become less gendered during this period, such that family attitudes constrained both women’s and men’s STEM intentions and attainment among the 1992 cohort?

Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Childhood Investments on Postsecondary Attainment and Degree Completion

Does having a small class size in K through 3rd have an impact on postsecondary outcomes?

Does Immigration Affect whether U.S. Natives Major in Science and Engineering?

Does the amount of immigrants have an impact on the amount of U.S. natives that major in STEM?

Modeling Entrance into STEM Fields of Study Among Students Beginning at Community Colleges and Four-Year Institutions

1) What factors contribute to students pursuing STEM degrees in community colleges and four-year colleges? 2) Are there different barriers that underrepresented groups in STEM face? 3) What is the relationship between STEM interests and math self-efficacy beliefs, high school exposure to math and science, and high school math achievement?

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same? Prior Achievement Fails to Explain Gender Inequality in Entry Into STEM College Majors Over Time

This study aims to provide a critical and thorough examination of the extent to which prior achievement can explain inequitable levels of gender representation in STEM fields of study.

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