The Efficacy of Project Lead the Way: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a non-profit organization offering project-based STEM education curricula for K-12 students. As of 2015, PLTW was by far the largest pre-engineering program implemented throughout the United States with a presence in over 6500 schools. Since its conception in 1997, PLTW rapidly expanded and today covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The PLTW Engineering curriculum offers a sequence of courses that students may take over the course of high school, and many university programs allow students who complete this sequence the opportunity to earn college credit. The PLTW Gateway curriculum targets students in Grades 6-8 and the PLTW Launch curriculum targets K-5 students. See the PLTW website for current program titles. They now simply use PLTW Engineering, PLTW Gateway, and PLTW Launch.This study investigates the efficacy of PLTW efforts through a systematic literature review process. Specifically, we explored the following research questions:• After an initial data collection and literature reduction processes, we synthesized 31 articles that collected and analyzed empirical data related to PLTW. Our gathered literature included 16 journal articles, 11 dissertations, and 4 theses. Using an emergent coding process, we found that primary strengths of PLTW curricula include facilitating student interest in STEM (namely, engineering), motivating students to pursue STEM degrees, and providing teachers with effective professional development opportunities and support. However, weaknesses of PLTW include minimal evidence supporting PLTW participation as improving students' mathematics and science abilities, scheduling and space issues, and moderate financial costs for schools to participate in PLTW. Altogether, the literature collected varied widely and, as a result, each of these strengths and weaknesses requires further investigation. This study concludes with an identification of gaps in PLTW literature that scholars might utilize to focus future PLTWrelated investigations, which will in turn improve future PLTW and PLTW-related interventions.

Developing an understanding of the implementation and impacts of high school pre-engineering programs: Making the case for a benefit-cost analysis

“…Despite this, the integration of costs and benefits/outcomes tend to be neglected in research on PLTW. In virtually every study explored by Hess, Sorge, and Feldhaus [10], the impact of cost factors was never modelled in any direct way. While some authors noted the challenges of PLTW implementation due to high costs [19], our future work aspires to ascertain the extent to which programs, costs, and fidelity of implementation are associated with the outcomes cultivated by PLTW and other pre-engineering curricula.…”

“…For example, in a review of the PLTW literature, Hess, Sorge, and Feldhaus [10] found a great deal of variation across the research techniques, lenses, contexts, and participants involved as scholars explored the efficacy of PLTW. In an attempt to synthesize this disparate literature, they identified a few apparent strengths and weaknesses of PLTW.…”

Effect of Project Lead the Way Participation on Retention in Engineering Degree Programs

“…Grimsley found (as cited in Taylor, Foster, & Ratcliff, 2006) that engineering majors who participated in PLTW programs during high school were more likely to indicate that they planned to complete their engineering degrees than those who did not participate in PLTW. Contrasting Grimsley's work, Hess, Sorge, and Feldhaus (2016) examined 31 publications from the research literature and analyzed empirical data related to PLTW. Their analyses indicated that strengths of PLTW included generating student interest in STEM (with an emphasis on engineering), inspiring students to pursue STEM degrees, and providing teachers with professional development and support.…”

Board 125: Work in Progress: Development of a Project-based, Differentiated Engineering Curriculum (DEC) for High School Students

“…However, taking four-year engineering electives makes it difficult for high school students to enroll in advanced math and science courses [7]. Studies show that some of these programs do not significantly improve students' math and science abilities [8,9]. In addition, only 19 % of tenth grade students retain interest in engineering after the second ICE-HS program course, raising concerns about efficacy [10].…”