STEM Pathways: Examining Persistence in Rigorous Math and Science Course Taking

Abstract

From 2006 to 2012, Florida Statute §1003.4156 required middle school students to complete electronic personal education planners (ePEPs) before promotion to ninth grade. The ePEP helped them identify programs of study and required high school coursework to accomplish their postsecondary education and career goals. During the same period Florida required completion of the ePEP, Florida's Career and Professional Education Act stimulated a rapid increase in the number of statewide high school career academies. Students with interests in STEM careers created STEM-focused ePEPs and may have enrolled in STEM career academies, which offered a unique opportunity to improve their preparedness for the STEM workforce through the integration of rigorous academic and career and technical education courses. This study examined persistence of STEM-interested (i.e., those with expressed interest in STEM careers) and STEM-capable (i.e., those who completed at least Algebra 1 in eighth grade) students (n = 11,248), including those enrolled in STEM career academies, in rigorous mathematics and science course taking in Florida public high schools in comparison with the national cohort of STEM-interested students to measure the influence of K-12 STEM education efforts in Florida. With the exception of multi-race students, we found that Florida's STEM-capable students had lower persistence in rigorous mathematics and science course taking than students in the national cohort from ninth to eleventh grade. We also found that participation in STEM career academies did not support persistence in rigorous mathematics and science courses, a prerequisite for success in postsecondary STEM education and careers.

Boosting the numbers of STEM majors? The role of high schools with a STEM program

“…PSM techniques have been used previously to purge bias from the estimates of the effect of attendance at certain type of school (Kieffer, ; Reardon, Cheadle, & Robinson, ), but rarely (see Gnagey and Lavertu () and Ashford, Lanehart, Kersaint, et al. () for exceptions), to assess the impact of high schools with STEM programs. In this study, we use multilevel PSM to adjust for a number of pretreatment predictors of students’ probability of joining a high school with a math and science–focused program and to conclude if the impact exists or not.…”

“…The other schools had negligible or, often, negative effects across both STEM and, particularly, non‐STEM subjects. Ashford, Lanehart, Kersaint, Lee, and Kromrey () using propensity score methods examined the impact of students’ participation in STEM career academies on their persistence in rigorous mathematics and science course‐taking patterns. Their study found that participation in STEM career academies did not support persistence in rigorous mathematics and science courses in either Florida or national samples of high school students.…”

“…(), and Ashford, Lanehart, Kersaint, et al. () quantitative studies by looking at the role that attending high schools with STEM programs has on students’ intention to major and actual enrollment in the STEM majors rather than focusing solely on students’ math and science–related academic outcomes prior to entering college. Although grades and participation in STEM‐related subjects are an important prerequisite for participation in STEM, it is not necessarily true that if a student has higher grades in STEM‐related courses, he/she will express an intent to major, actually major in and/or graduate with a STEM degree.…”

“…Given that issues of selection into "attendance at a high school with a STEM program" might lead to different baseline covariates and potential outcomes (Steiner & Cook, 2013), we utilize PSM techniques to more strictly evaluate the relationship between attendance at high schools with STEM programs and STEM-related college outcomes. PSM techniques have been used previously to purge bias from the estimates of the effect of attendance at certain type of school (Kieffer, 2013;Reardon, Cheadle, & Robinson, 2009), but rarely (see Gnagey and Lavertu (2016) and Ashford, Lanehart, Kersaint, et al (2016) for exceptions), to assess the impact of high schools with STEM programs. In this study, we use multilevel PSM to adjust for a number of pretreatment predictors of students' probability of joining a high school with a math and science-focused program and to conclude if the impact exists or not.…”

Identifying a typology of high schools based on their orientation toward STEM: A latent class analysis of HSLS:09

“…In their study, they developed foreign language, science, and mathematics course‐taking pipeline classifications. Other studies in STEM education have used these classification schemes (Ashford, Lanehart, Kersaint, Lee, & Kromrey, ; Tyson, Lee, Borman, & Hanson, ). We focused on the highest rigor of STEM courses offered on‐site at the schools.…”