– There were significant race by gender differences in students’ education and STEM occupational plans.
– Race and gender differences exsist in perceived cost utility and efficacy of education and occupation outcomes.
– Depending on the definition of STEM careers operationalized in the analysis, variation can be observed in the impact of gender, while the role of the expectancy-value constructs remains largely consistent across multiple definitions of STEM careers.
– While expectancy-value constructs such as utility, interest, and attainment value are significantly related to the STEM career plans of White students, fewer significant relationships between expectancy-value constructs and the STEM career plans of Black and Hispanic students were identified.
Current Selections
ClearSTEM Career Aspirations in Black, Hispanic, and White Ninth-grade Students
Threats and Supports to Female Students’ Math Beliefs and Achievement
– While controlling for prior achievement and race, gendered differential treatment was negatively associated with math beliefs and achievement, whereas relevant math instruction was positively associated with these outcomes.
– Gendered differential treatment by teachers in the 8th grade negatively related to student math importance and math grade within the same year.
– Gendered differential treatment by teachers in the 11th-grade was negatively related to 11th-grade SCMA.
– In 8th and 11th grade, relevant math instruction was positively related to students’ math importance and SCMA
– 8th-grade and 11th grade relevant math instruction had an indirect effect upon math importance via self-concept of math ability.
– Self-concept of math ability in the 8th grade partially mediated the relationship between 8th-grade relevant instruction and self-
concept of math ability in the 11th-grade.
– Maryland Math Achievement scores in the 9th grade partially mediated the relationship between 8th-grade gendered differential treatment and self-concept of math ability in the 11th grade.
Is There Systemic Meaningful Evidence of School Poverty Thresholds?
-The author review of the literature about the relationships among SES and educational outcomes revealed surprisingly few SES threshold studies relative to the enormous corpus of research on SES composition effects.
– With few exceptions, the very small number of U.S. studies that report thresholds effects typically were conducted by a school district’s internal staff using cross-sectional data (only one year) for a subpopulation of district’s students.
-Conclusions reached in these studies arguably apply only to the students in the district who took part in the study, in the year in which the data were collected.
-The studies described in this report are not an empirical foundation upon which general educational policy regarding SES thresholds can be reliably or validly based.
– Educational decision makers should focus on reducing concentrations of school-level poverty to as low a level as is feasible given the available demographic mix, and avoid policies based on the unsupported notion that there are poverty thresholds above and below which student achievement levels can be predicted.
– There is not yet a body of systematic, reliable, and valid evidence that school poverty thresholds exist, and that they influence student achievement outcomes.
Science Engagement and Science Achievement in the Context of Science Instruction: A Multilevel Analysis of U.S. Students and Schools
– All aspects of science engagement were statistically significantly and positively related to science achievement, and nearly all showed medium or large effect sizes.
– Each aspect was positively associated with one of the four practices (strategies) of science teaching.
– Focus on applications or models was positively related to the most aspects of science engagement (science self-concept, enjoyment of science, instrumental motivation for science, general value of science, and personal value of science).
– Hands-on activities were positively related to additional aspects of science engagement (science self-efficacy and general interest in learning science) and also showed a positive relationship with science achievement.
– School mean SES has a positive and significant effect on students’ future motivation in science and on science achievement.
Using an opportunity-propensity framework to estimate individual-, classroom-, and school-level predictors of middle school science achievement
When a more comprehensive set of opportunity and propensity variables are used in a SEM to predict eighth-grade science achievement, what are the relative magnitudes of the associations measured in the model, and which opportunity and propensity variables have the strongest relationships to the science achievement outcome?
The Role of Motivation and Cognitive Engagement in Science Achievement
– Elementary students tend to perceive science classes as important, useful, and interesting.
– Students are likely to use various cognitive strategies in science classes.
– The mean science achievement score of 7.36 out of 14 revealed that students have a moderate level of science achievement.
– Self-efficacy and task-value significantly predicted students’ science achievement; cognitive engagement did not.
– Self-efficacy provided the strongest contribution to explaining science achievement. Task value makes the second strongest contribution.
– All independent variables were positively correlated with each other – higher levels of self-efficacy and task value were associated with higher levels of cognitive engagement.
– Student motivation (i.e., self-efficacy and task value) significantly contributed to the prediction of students’ science achievement.
– Positive and significant correlations were found among self-efficacy, task-value and cognitive engagement.
– Cognitive engagement failed to significantly predict students’ science achievement.
The Role of STEM High Schools in Reducing Gaps in Science and Mathematics Coursetaking: Evidence from North Carolina
The authors examined whether underserved students in North Carolina STEM high schools have similar or higher rates of advanced science and mathematics course taking than students in neighboring traditional high schools.
Gender Ratios in High School Science Departments: The Effect of Percent Female Faculty on Multiple Dimensions of Students' Science Identities
1) How does the percentage of female science faculty affect high school students’ science perceptions, achievement, views, self-concept, and college major aspirations, which collectively define and reinforce their science identities? 2) Are the effects of percent female science faculty different for girls and boys?
Factors Associated With Mathematics Achievement and Participation in Advanced Mathematics Courses: An Examination of Gender Differences From an International Perspective
This paper reports results of an exploratory study examining factors that might be associated with achievement in mathematics and participation in advanced mathematics courses in Canada, Norway, and the United States of America (USA). These factors, which were not directly related to schooling accounted for large degrees of variability in mathematics achievement scores. Research questions: 1) How are the personal and environmental variables associated with achievement in mathematics for females and males in the three countries? 2) How are the personal and environmental variables associated with participation in advanced mathematics courses for females and males in the three countries?