– Harmony Public Schools class of 2019 9th graders who responded to the survey were more than twice as likely to declare interest in a STEM-related field major than the average of students (a) across the state of Texas, and (b)across the USA.
-Correlational analyses among all the independent variables revealed low to moderate
correlations among the variables of interest that eliminated the multicollinearity issue for
logistic regressions.
– 9th graders contemplation of choosing a STEM major was significantly different by gender with males being 1.9 times more likely to consider STEM majors in college.
– Students whose parents held a degree from a US college were about 1.8 more likely to consider STEM track after high school.
– One unit increase in the number of STEM SOS project completion was associated with about 1.3 more likelihood for STEM choice.
– Summer camp attendance was associated with 2.4 more likelihood for STEM choice.
– Students with one standard deviation higher GPA were 1.8 times more likely to consider choosing STEM majors after high school graduation.
– Among all the interaction terms (gender and ethnicity [Hispanic, Black, and White] by all school and out-of-school variables) only GPA and gender interaction came out significant favoring females.
2017 - Collective Effects of Individual, Behavioral, and Contextual Factors on High School Students’ Future STEM Career Plans
-Harmony Public Schools (HPS) in Texas serves students over 31,000 where 60% of students receive free or reduced price lunch and 70% are underrepresented minorities.
– For this study, 23 high schools were selected, of which 20 agreed to participate. From those schools were invited to participate in the study. Parental consent was obtained and the survey was administered for a total of 1,520 9th graders.
The online survey consisted of 23 questions to request information about four categories of variables: (a) student demographics, (b) family context, (c) school and out-of-school-related activities, and (d) Pygmalion effect variables.
DV: STEM Choice (1=considering a major in a STEM-related area, 0=not considering STEM majors)
IV: School and out-of-school-related activities (an interdisciplinary, standards-focused, and engaging STEM teaching approach that is teacher-facilitated, student-centered, and directed through sets of projects- and inquiry-based (P&IBL) projects), students’ expectation about their educational attainment, parents and STEM teachers’ expectations, students’ math and science efficacy
Controls: Gender, ethnicity, parents’ education level, parents’ college degree, and household income