– The posited Latina/o community college STEM-VC model was successful in its ability to predict a Latina/o student’s vocational choice in STEM field.
– The exogenous factor/construct of Self-Efficacy, although not a significant predictor of STEM choice, is a critical factor for Latina/o community college students and must be attended to.
– The exogenous factor/construct of Student Validation although not a significant predictor of STEM choice in this study, is a critical factor for Latina/o students and must be attended to.
– The exogenous factor/construct of Transfer Capital is a significant predictor of STEM vocational choice.
– The exogenous factors of Social Capital and Academic Achievement did not emerge as relevant for this specific study.
– Variables associated with an exogenous construct of vocational interests are predictive of STEM vocational choice.
– This study confirmed a model predictive of community college Latina/o student vocational choice in STEM at community colleges. This is noteworthy, as community colleges are critical as educational pathways for Latina/o students working toward STEM degrees
2013 - Predictors of Latina/o community college student vocational choice of STEM fields: Testing of the STEM-vocational choice mode
The Longitudinal file created included data from four datasets. The student-level administrative data covers from 1993 to 2009; foundation skills assessment numeracy; grade 4 (1999-2993) and grade 7 (2001-2005); grade 10 provincially examinable courses (2004-2008): math and science; grade 12 selected subjects (2004-2008) math, biology, physics and chemistry. The research sample contains 44,356 students representing 64% of youth born in 1990 whoever attended BC K-12 schools.
Variables and constructs employed in the analysis are: student socio-demographic characteristics (gender and ethno-linguistic groups), academic history (grade level at entry, number of years in BC schools and percentage of years in ESL programs), achievement (early numeracy, Grade 10 math and science and high-school GPA) and student outcomes- high-school CSP (Non-science, Math, Life sciences and Physical sciences).
The dependent variable is course selecting patterns (math, life science, physical science, or non-science).
The independent variables are ethno-linguistic group, gender, percentage of years in ESL programs, previous achievement, number of years in BC schools, grade level at entry, early numeracy, and Grade 10 math and science and high-school GPA.
The authors acknowledge the limitation of the K-12 database that does not include information on students’ place of birth. Although the combined information on language most often spoken at home, late entry into the provincial school system and ESL enrollment could be a proxy for immigrant status, the authors avoid making this assumption because ethnic students may move between provinces. Having information on ethnicity alone ignores the adjustment period that is necessary for the successful integration of immigrant children in schools. Both types of information would be useful because immigrant status requires disaggregation usually by ethnicity or region of origin in order to be meaningful in social analyses. However, since cultural values present in families and ethnic communities exert considerable influence on the school efforts and accomplishments of children and youth, a comparative study based on ethno-linguistic groups is still relevant to education policy and practice.