2016 - STEM-Focused High Schools as a Strategy for Enhancing Readiness for Postsecondary STEM Programs

Attribution: Means, Barbara, Wang, Haiwen, Young, Viki, Peters, Vanessa L., & Lynch, Sharon J.
Researchers: Barbara MeansHaiwen WangSharon J. LynchVanessa L. PetersViki Young
University Affiliation: SRI Education; George Washington University
Email: barbara.means@sri.com
Research Question:
1) To what extent do students attending inclusive STEM high schools experience more advanced STEM courses, engaging STEM teaching, real-world STEM experiences, and supports for succeeding in STEM courses and applying to college than do students attending other high schools? 2) To what extent do ISHS students' STEM interests, activities, achievement, and expectations differ from those of demographically similar students attending high schools without a STEM focus? 3) How are the features promoted for inclusive STEM high schools related to student STEM outcomes?
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Journal Entry: Vol 53, No. 5, Pp. 709-736
Year: 2016
Findings:
  1. Attending an ISHS raises the likelihood that a student will complete pre-calculus or calculus and chemistry in high school, leads to increased involvement in STEM extracurricular and out-of-class activities, and enhances interest in science careers and aspirations to earn a master’s or higher degree.
  2. Students from groups underrepresented in STEM will be attracted to STEM-focused high schools if given the opportunity to attend. In other respects, the students attending ISHSs were very much like students in the comparison high schools, suggesting that ISHSs are not “creaming” the higher achieving or higher socioeconomic status students in their localities.
  3. The impact analyses controlling for a wealth of school- and student-level variables including prior achievement, race/ethnicity, and parent education level found positive effects on advanced course taking and weighted GPA but not on ACT scores.
  4. The impacts of ISHS attendance on measures of science interest and career aspirations were significantly positive.
  5. The ISHS students had outcomes either equivalent to or better than the outcomes for similar students in comparison schools on all of them after application of an extensive set of school- and student-level controls.
  6. ISHSs in North Carolina do not appear to have STEM teachers with better qualifications in terms of STEM degrees.
  7. Analyses of student outcome data from state administrative records revealed a positive impact of inclusive STEM high school attendance on grade point average (GPA) but not on ACT scores.
  8. Based on findings authors have some grounds for predicting that the ISHS graduates’ likelihood of entering the STEM pipeline in college would be higher than that for students of similar SES, ethnicity, and middle school achievement levels who attended non-STEM high schools.
Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: Academic AchievementEquityMathSchool ReformScienceSelf-EfficacySTEM EducationSTEM SchoolRegions: North CarolinaMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Quasi-ExperimentSecondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Descriptive StatisticsHierarchal Linear ModelingPropensity Score Matching Sampling Frame:High school students
Sampling Types: Non-Random - PurposiveAnalysis Units: SchoolStudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • This study draws on several sociocultural theoretical models that have been applied to explain the reasons why these groups have lower likelihoods of entering and of persevering within the “pipeline” to STEM careers, including social cognitive perspective, expectancy-value theory of Eccles (2009), and Tinto’s (1987) model of college attrition.
  • The logic underlying inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) posits that requiring all students to take advanced college preparatory STEM courses while providing student-centered, reform-oriented instruction, ample student supports, and real-world STEM experiences and role models will prepare and inspire students admitted on the basis of STEM interest rather than prior achievement for post-secondary STEM. This study tests that logic model by comparing the high school experiences and achievement of students in ISHSs and comparison schools in North Carolina.
  • Employs data elements from student and principal surveys in conjunction with data from the state longitudinal data system to compare students from 12 ISHS and 16 comparison schools in terms of STEM-related high school experiences and outcomes.
  • For each ISHS agreeing to participate, the authors then sought a matched comparison school servingsimilar students and not offering a STEM-focused program. Principals of the 18 ISHSs and 18 comparison schools were asked to complete a survey on school climate and practices and to administer student surveys to their senior class in the spring of 2013. Principals of 16 ISHSs and 14 comparison schools completed the Principal Survey in spring 2013. Twelve ISHSs and 16 comparison schools returned Grade 12 Student Survey, yielding 655 and 2,199 survey respondents from a total of 758 and 3,094 12th-grade students in ISHS and comparison schools, respectively.
  • The Grade 12 Student Survey was designed to collect data on students’ reports of high school experiences in their STEM courses and extracurricular activities related to STEM; overall academic and STEM orientation; academic and personal supports received through their high school; plans for the year following graduation; and interest in STEM majors and careers. The authors were then able to locate 96% of the 2,854 students in their Grade 12 Student Survey sample in the North Carolina Educational Research Data Center (NCERDC) database.
  • The authors included demographic variables: gender, race, economically disadvantaged, English proficiency, special education, if either parent received a Bachelor’s degree, if either parent were in STEM, and urbanicity.
  • The authors included variables for 8th grad academic achievement: science scale score, math scale score, reading scale score, completed Algebra 1 or higher, anticipated math grade, anticipated reading grade, gifted in math, gifted in read, teacher judgment math, and teacher judgement reading.
  • The authors included a set of school-level covariates for the HLM: ISHS indicator, Title I status, Title I program improvement status (controlling for accountability pressure), percent economically needy students, percent underrepresented minority students, large school indicator, average incoming 8th-grader’s math scale score, and average incoming 8th-grader’s science scale score.
  • The dependent variables were a set of high school outcomes: Advanced STEM course taking, STEM achievement (measured by ACT Math and Science scores, self-reported grades in math and science courses, and GPA), interest in STEM activities and identity (extra-curricular activities, out of school experiences, science identity, math identity), STEM self-efficacy and career aspirations (science efficacy, math efficacy, Bachelor degree expected, STEM career intent).
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:Factors Related to STEM Readiness
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts