2013 - STEM Club Participation and STEM Schooling Outcomes

Attribution: Gottfried, Michael A., & Williams, Darryl N.
Researchers: Darryl N. WilliamsMichael A. Gottfried
University Affiliation: Loyola Marymount University; Tufts University; University of California, Santa Barbara
Email: mgottfried@education.ucsb.edu
Research Question:
This study evaluates how math club participation influences math GPA and how science club participation influences science GPA. Additionally, this study evaluates how math or science club participation associates with the probability of selecting a STEM major in college.
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Education Policy Analysis Archives
Journal Entry: Vol 21. No. 79
Year: 2013
Findings:
  1. There is a STEM achievement gap in the success and persistence of students who do and do not participate in STEM-related extracurricular clubs.
  2. Controlling for all else, the achievement gap widened in math performance between two identical students in which one participated in an extracurricular in-school math club and one did not.
  3. The results indicated that science club participation was related to higher cumulative high school science GPA and there was evidence presented in this study of a domain-specific effect.
  4. The results identified positive, statistically significant relationships between math club participation and STEM major selection.
  5. The authors did not find any statistically significant relationships between science club participation and STEM major selection.
  6. While, for the most part, the results were not differentiated by gender or race/ethnicity per se, they were in fact distinguishable by poverty status and the interaction between race and poverty status.
  7. The authors found little association between STEM club participation and STEM outcomes for low SES students.
  8. Findings support prior research that suggest that students from low SES backgrounds are less likely to have high academic achievement regardless of ethnicity. On the other hand, students from more affluent backgrounds have many more support systems in place to ensure that they will succeed in school.
  9. There was a STEM achievement gap in the success and persistence of students who do and do not participate in STEM-related extracurricular clubs.
Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: Math ClubRaceScience ClubSESSTEMSTEM MajorRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Descriptive StatisticsLinear Regression ModelsPropensity Score Matching Sampling Frame:Middle and High school to College students
Sampling Types: Nationally RepresentativeAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health of 1994. Data was collected in three waves- 1994, 1996, and 2001-2002. Math or science club was determined by a survey question in Wave I, in which a student was asked to indicate school club participation from a list of possibilities. Of the possibilities, “math club” and “science club” were both options. The next sample was utilized to examine the effect of math or science club participation on math and science GPA or on the probability of choosing a STEM major in college. This final regression sample included a total of N = 3,223 students. Within this sample, 202 students participated in science or math clubs in school, and the remainder did not.
  • The first dependent variable was math and science high school GPAs. Researchers collected transcripts for 12,237 Add Health subjects based on the more than 1,200 schools they last attended. This investigation used students’ overall math and science GPAs.
  • The second dependent variable was having a STEM major in college. The variable employed here was binary: a 1 indicates if a student declared a STEM major in college, and a 0 indicates otherwise. Students could identify more than one major in college in the survey. Majors that fell into science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or a hybrid of these four disciplines were considered to be STEM majors.
  • Sixteen independent variables were employed in this analysis. Of these independent variables, this study employed a standard set of demographic variables that has been used to predict high school GPA when using Add Health data or STEM major selection- gender, minority status, middle school (versus high school) identifier, and household income.
  • The second set of variables fell into a category described as “preparation and motivation” for the pursuit and persistence in STEM. The first variable evaluated the highest course completed while in high school in math and science. Additional preparation in STEM is measured by individual scores on the Add Health Picture Vocabulary Test. Motivation for STEM persistence (and general schoolwork) in this study was measured in two ways. First is a scale indicating a student’s desire to attend college was defined by his or her Wave I response to the question of how much he or she wanted to attend college on scale of 1 to 5, with 1 = low and 5 = high. Second was a student’s interpretation of parental interest in his or her school life: a binary variable indicts if a student felt that a parent was interested in his or her academic grades.
  • Finally, the analysis included a set of school-level predictors. These included indicators for whether the school that a student attends was private, magnet, urban, or suburban. There were no statistically significant differences between the types of schools that participants in math or science clubs and non-participants attend.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:STEM Entrance and Majoring in STEM
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts