Long-Term Impact of Teacher Professional Development on Black Female Students' Engagement in STEM

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that teacher professional development programs focused on inquiry-based learning increase students' likelihood of selecting STEM majors. Long-term student data was collected accessing the University of Houston's Educational Research Center database for each student whose teacher participated in the Applied Mathematics Program! (AMP!) professional development between the years 2014 and 2019. Using propensity scoring to create a matched comparison group, we conducted a logistic regression to model the likelihood of students choosing a STEM major in college if they had a teacher who participated in AMP! versus students who did not have a teacher who participated in the AMP!. Our analyses indicate that when teachers participate in AMP!, their students are more likely to select a STEM major in college. Additionally, female students had much larger effect sizes, particularly Black female students, whose likelihood of selecting a STEM major doubled when their teachers participated in AMP!.