– 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.
Current Selections
ClearThe effects of a high school curriculum reform on university enrollment and the choice of college major
STEM Career Aspirations in Black, Hispanic, and White Ninth-grade Students
– There were significant race by gender differences in students’ education and STEM occupational plans.
– Race and gender differences exsist in perceived cost utility and efficacy of education and occupation outcomes.
– Depending on the definition of STEM careers operationalized in the analysis, variation can be observed in the impact of gender, while the role of the expectancy-value constructs remains largely consistent across multiple definitions of STEM careers.
– While expectancy-value constructs such as utility, interest, and attainment value are significantly related to the STEM career plans of White students, fewer significant relationships between expectancy-value constructs and the STEM career plans of Black and Hispanic students were identified.
School-based Teacher Hiring and Achievement Inequality: A Comparative Perspective
– School-based hiring is associated with a larger gap in the distribution of teacher quality between advantaged and disadvantaged schools.
– There is an association between school-based hiring and inequality of achievement based on socioeconomic status of students.
– School-based hiring may contribute to exacerbating inequality in learning opportunities and increasing family background’s positive effect on achievement.
– ESCS (a proxy of family SES) is positively associated with student performance in mathematics and science.
– School-based hiring is not associated with student performance on average, but school-based hiring is associated with the larger achievement gap between high- and low-SES students.
– More school autonomy in hiring was associated with a larger gap in the distribution of teacher quality across schools as well as larger socioeconomic achievement inequality.
– School-level mean SES has a positive and significant relationship with math and science achievement.
Developing a STEM Identity Among Young Women: A Social Identity Perspective
– The vast majority of the literature reviewed underlined how challenging it was for female students to identify with STEM because the social environment provided a variety of signals that women do not belong to STEM and do not embody STEM prototypes.
– Although boys tended to have higher STEM career interest overall, girls with higher STEM interest and who belonged to a mixed-gender group of friends had the highest STEM career interest scores among their female peers. In contrast, girls who belonged to primarily female friend groups and perceived their friend group to not be supportive of STEM had the lowest STEM career interest scores in the sample.
– Being in a class with more male peers who held these gendered biases negatively predicted intent to major in computer science and engineering. In contrast, being in a class with confident female peers positively predicted intent to major in computer science and engineering.
– Female students rated themselves as having lower abilities than their male counterparts.
– White female students were more likely to major in STEM in college if they felt competent in high school math.
– Young women are operating in an environment where parents, peers, and teachers think and say that they do not belong in STEM and their abilities are challenged even when they are academically successful.
– Young women experience challenges to their participation and inclusion when they are in STEM settings.
The Impact of College- and University-run High School Summer Programs on Students’ End of High School STEM Career Aspirations
Descriptive statistics:
– Students of color were more heavily represented among high school summer program participants, relative to their counterparts in the control group.
– There was no statistically significant difference in parents with four-year college degrees between participants and nonparticipants.
– Students who participated in a high school STEM summer program were significantly more likely to have STEM tutoring, compared with nonparticipants.
– On average, summer program participants reported significantly higher SAT mathematics scores and took more mathematics courses than nonparticipants.
– Students who participated in a high school STEM summer program were more likely to have STEM career aspirations at both the beginning and end of high school.
Logistic Regressions:
– Students who reported STEM career aspirations at the beginning of high school had much greater odds of reporting STEM aspirations at the end of high school relative to their peers who did not.
– Males had 2.2 times greater odds of reporting end of high school STEM career aspirations relative to their female counterparts.
– The number of mathematics courses a student completed in high school was also a significant predictor of end of high school STEM career aspirations. A one course increase was associated with 1.2 times greater odds of reporting end of high school STEM career aspirations.
– Students’ SAT math scores were also statistically significant. A 100 point increase in SAT mathematics score was associated with a 26% increase in the odds of reporting end of high school STEM career aspirations.
– Students who participated in a high school STEM summer program had 1.4 times the odds of indicating end of high school STEM career aspirations relative to those who did not participate in a summer program
– Students who participated in a high school summer program that showed them the real-life relevance of STEM had odds that were 1.8 times those of students who did not participate in a program.
– Students who indicated that they participated in a summer program that did not show them the real-life relevance of STEM were statistically no different from students who did not participate in a program at all in terms of their end of high school STEM aspirations.
– There were no statistically significant interaction terms.
The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Advanced STEM Coursework in Female Secondary Students
1: How do female students’ levels of self-efficacy correlate with their decision to enroll in advanced STEM coursework and STEM extracurricular activities? 2: How does the CoP in and surrounding a small rural high school contribute to
female secondary students’ enrollment in advanced STEM coursework?
Empowering Teachers to Raise Career Awareness in Computing: Lessons Learned
This study aims to provide activities to motivate teachers to use technology in their classrooms and encourage students to pursue a STEM related field, Computer Science in particular.
Academic Performance of African American High School Students Related to Socioeconomic Status and School Size
– There was a negative correlation between school level SES and reading at -.50, -.44 for mathematics, and -.35 for science performance.
– There was a positive correlation between school size and reading at .10, .01 for mathematics, and .07 for science performance.
– School level SES and school size had significant impact on school
performance in reading.
– School level SES had significant impact on school performance in mathematics.
– School level SES and school size had significant impact on school performance in science.
Why does teacher gender matter?
– High school math and science teacher gender affects student interest and self-efficacy in STEM. However, such effects become insignificant once teacher behaviors and attitudes are taken into account, thus pointing towards an omitted variables bias.
– Teacher beliefs about male and female ability in math and science – as well as how teachers treat boys and girls in the classroom – matter more than teacher’s own gender.
-Creating a positive learning environment and making math and science interesting are pivotal in engaging students in these subjects.
– Student interest and self-efficacy are substantially affected by teacher ability to make their subject interesting and to create a positive learning environment.
– Rather than hiring more female teachers or segregating students by gender, training teachers ( increasing empathy and reducing gender biases) could be more effective in increasing student self-efficacy and interest in STEM.
– What matters primarily in this context are not the role models played by teachers (or the stereotype threats), but the time and skills that instructors put in preparing their lectures and supporting their students.
Exploring the Foundations of the Future STEM Workforce: K-12 Indicators of Postsecondary STEM Success
- What K-12 indicators predict postsecondary STEM success?
- To what extent do K-12 indicators of postsecondary STEM success differ for Hispanic and non-Hispanic students?
Narrowing Pathways? Exploring the Spatial Dynamics of Postsecondary STEM Preparation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
What geographical factors are associated with the postsecondary STEM preparation of students from underrepresented groups in the School District of Philadelphia from middle to high school?
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.
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.
The Effect of High School Segregation on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in the United States
1) What is the extent of racial, socioeconomic, and linguistic segregation among U.S. high schools? 2) To what degree are student’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills due to school effects and to individual differences among students? 3) What are the relative magnitudes of the effects of socioeconomic, racial, and linguistic segregation on cognitive and non-cognitive skills compared with the effects of student socioeconomic status, ethnic background, and English language status? 4) To what degree does each of three school mechanisms (school inputs, peer influences, and school practices) mediate the effects of school segregation?
Only Here for the Day: The Social Integration of Minority Students at a Majority White High School
Seeks to understand how integration within the same school may be experienced differently by males and females, as this may potentially lead to gender variation in how students approach future integrated situations
Friendship Groups, Personal Motivation, and Gender in Relation to High School Students’ STEM Career Interest
Friendship group characteristics, motivation, and gender were investigated in relation to adolescents’ science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career interest. First, the authors investigated the extent to which personal motivation and friendship group STEM climate predicted adolescents’ STEM career interest after controlling for gender and other background factors. They hypothesized that the effects of these variables would be domain-specific, such that the friendship group’s STEM climate and students’ sci-ence motivation would predict STEM career interest after controlling for the friendship group’s English climate and students’ English motivation. Finally, they investigated possible moderation effects.
Stability and Volatility of STEM Career Interest in High School: A Gender Study
To gauge how stable versus volatile the reports of boys’ and girls’ STEM career interests are over the course of high school.
Live and Learn? Contradictions in Residential Patterns and School Demographics
To what degree do Atlanta-area racial and ethnic segregation patterns in public secondary schools reflect those in residential catchment areas?
The Role of Schools, Families, and Psychological Variables on Math Achievement of Black High School Students
- What is the impact of school-, family-, and person-level affective or social psychological variables on math achievement for a nationally representative sample of Black high school students?
Low-Income Students and the Socioeconomic Composition of Public High Schools
Potential problems suggested by the “frog pond” perspective about the effects of socioeconomic desegregation in nonachievement domains.
The Black-White-Other Test Score Gap: Academic Achievement Among Mixed Race Adolescents
Test theories of racial differences in achievement among mono-racial and multi-racial high school students.
Interracial Friendships in the Transition to College: Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together Once They Leave the Nest?
Examines formation of interracial friendships among college students by examining how friendship networks change during the transition from HS to college and explores racial composition of collegiate friendship networks for several racial groups.
Friendship Networks and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Academic Outcomes
What is the effect of racial and achievement composition on two peer group characteristics both at the school and at friendship network levels?
Texas Students' College Expectations: Does High School Racial Composition Matter?
The association between the racial composition of schools and Texas high school students’ educational expectations.
African-American Students' College Transition Trajectory: An Examination of the Effect of High School Composition and Expectations on Degree Attainment
What is the relationship between highschool composition and students’ degree expectations and their effect on degree attainment for African-Americans?
Evaluating the Role of Brown vs. Board of Education in School Equalization, Desegregation and the Income of African Americans
Discuss a framework for evaluating the effect of Brown on the welfare of African Americans in the labor market.
Trends of School Effects on Student Achievement: Evidence from NLS:72, HSB:82, and NELS:92
This study examines the impact of schools on student achievement (mathematics, reading, and science) over time using national probability samples of high school seniors. Our objective is to determine whether schools ‘‘make a difference.’’
Segregation and the SAT
Analyzes how organizational features of school racial composition and tracks influence student’s opportunities to learn material covered on the SAT.
Who Graduates in the South?
Who Graduates in the South?
Fifty Years after Brown: The Benefits and Tradeoffs for African American Educators and Students
Examines the benefits and tradeoffs for African American professional educators and students that resulted from Brown.
Tracking Trounces Test Scores
Benefits of de-tracking in U. S. high schools.
Tracking and Mixed-Ability Grouping in Secondary School Mathematics Classrooms: A Case Study
Trying to test if tracking produces systematic differences in provision of students.
Students' Precollege Preparation for Participation in a Diverse Democracy
How students’ precollege experiences predisposed them to 3 democratic outcomes.
Effects of High School Course-Taking and Other Variables on Choice of Science and Mathematics College Majors
To examine the effects of taking particular academically intensive science and mathematics high school courses on choice of science and mathematics majors, versus other majors, in college.
Course-Taking, Equity, and Mathematics Learning: Testing the Constrained Curriculum Hypothesis in U.S. Secondary Schools
How the organization of the mathematics curriculum in U.S. high schools affects how much students learn in that subject.
Matchmaking: The Dynamics of High School Tracking Decisions
Examines how educators frame tracking decisions.