– School-based hiring is associated with a larger gap in the distribution of teacher quality between advantaged and disadvantaged schools.
– There is an association between school-based hiring and inequality of achievement based on socioeconomic status of students.
– School-based hiring may contribute to exacerbating inequality in learning opportunities and increasing family background’s positive effect on achievement.
– ESCS (a proxy of family SES) is positively associated with student performance in mathematics and science.
– School-based hiring is not associated with student performance on average, but school-based hiring is associated with the larger achievement gap between high- and low-SES students.
– More school autonomy in hiring was associated with a larger gap in the distribution of teacher quality across schools as well as larger socioeconomic achievement inequality.
– School-level mean SES has a positive and significant relationship with math and science achievement.
Current Selections
ClearSchool-based Teacher Hiring and Achievement Inequality: A Comparative Perspective
Discovery Orientation, Cognitive Schemas, and Disparities in Science Identity in Early Adolescence
– Gender and race/ethnicity are associated with science identity but not with discovery orientation.
– The positive association between discovery orientation and science identity is mediated by science interest, importance, and reflected appraisal.
– There are statistically significant differences in science interest between groups. Science interest is higher among white boys than for minority girls. Overall, science importance, perceived science ability, and science reflected appraisal means are also fairly high, particularly compared with science other-ID and science self-ID.
– Science importance is higher among white and minority boys than for white and minority girls. Perceived science ability is higher among white than minority students. White boys and girls have higher scores than minority boys and girls on the questions about parents and teachers, giving them positive messages about their science performance (reflected appraisal).
– White boys have significantly higher science other-ID than all other groups, while only white boys and minority girls differ significantly on science self-ID.
The "Exceptional" Physics Girl: A Sociological Analysis of Multimethod Data from Young Women Aged 10-16 to Explore Gendered Patterns of Post-16 Participation
This article applies Bourdieusian and Butlerian conceptual lenses to qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study of students’ science and career aspirations age 10-16.
Stratifying science: A Bourdieusian analysis of student views and experiences of school selective practices in relation to ‘Triple Science’ at KS4 in England
How do young people experience and construct their ‘choice’ (or not) of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) science route? And what are the identity and other implications (for social justice and widening participation in science) associated with participation on Double or Triple award routes for different groups of students?
Student and School SES, Gender, Strategy Use, and Achievement
– Schools, as opposed to families, may be the primary vehicle for developing effective strategy use practices for students and thus,
targeted interventions may be particularly useful for male students
attending low SES schools.
– One learning strategy (i.e., control strategies) was found to relate significantly and positively to achievement.
– These strategies were used more by females and students attending higher SES schools.
– Males and students attending lower SES schools tended to use a greater number of learning strategies that did not relate to achievement, including memorization and elaboration.
– Strategies that did not relate to achievement were used more
frequently by students from higher SES families.
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?
Public Understanding of Science and K-12 STEM Education Outcomes: Effects of Idaho Parents' Orientation Toward Science on Students' Attitudes Toward Science
The authors focus on the potential effects of parents’ attitudes toward science on their children’s STEM learning outcomes.
Academic Performance of African American High School Students Related to Socioeconomic Status and School Size
– There was a negative correlation between school level SES and reading at -.50, -.44 for mathematics, and -.35 for science performance.
– There was a positive correlation between school size and reading at .10, .01 for mathematics, and .07 for science performance.
– School level SES and school size had significant impact on school
performance in reading.
– School level SES had significant impact on school performance in mathematics.
– School level SES and school size had significant impact on school performance in science.
Expectancy-Value and Children’s Science Achievement: Parents Matter
– Teachers’ expectancy for children’s success in science did not significantly predict students’ fifth grade science achievement.
– Parents’ expectancy did predict students’ fifth grade science achievement.
– Children’s science self-efficacy significantly influenced science achievement scores. This was a weaker influence than the direct effect of parents’ expectancy of children’s success in science.
– None of the dependent variables showed significant difference between genders.
– The influence of parent expectancy on child self-efficacy for science and science achievement is equally strong for both boys and girls.
Cracking the Code: Girls' and Women's Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
The report is intended to stimulate debate and inform STEM policies and programmes at global, regional and national levels. Specifically, it aims to: i) document the status of girls’ and women’s participation, learning achievement, and progression in STEM education; ii) ‘crack the code’, i.e., decipher the factors that contribute to girls’ and women’s participation, achievement and progression in STEM education; and, iii) identify interventions that promote girls’ and women’s interest in and engagement with STEM studies.
Macrosystem Analysis of Programs and Strategies to Increase Underrepresented Populations in the Geosciences
– Key approaches identified in the literature to advance participation of underrepresented populations in the geosciences include: mentoring, peer support networks and community building, bridge programs, pedagogies, undergraduate research experiences, institutional climate and culture, specific geoscience education programs.
– In mentorship of underrepresented students, interactions of minority students with their research mentor can result in increased likelihood of graduate school pursuit and in choosing a career in scientific research.
– A faculty member’s commitment to fostering the student’s academic success results in positive mentor relationship outcomes regardless of the racial similarity between mentor and mentee.
– As it pertains to the geosciences in particular, positive student outcomes of mentoring have been demonstrated in geoscience-specific programs.
– Macrosystem perspectives of peer support networks and community building efforts play an important role in fostering student engagement and retention in STEM majors and positive student outcomes.
– Many positive student outcomes are associated with bridge programs, including increased interest in the geosciences, relationship building between student and faculty members, development of research skills, knowledge gained regarding careers in STEM and the geosciences, knowledge gained about the college application process, and increased self-efficacy.
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.
Gender Streaming and Prior Achievement in High School Science and Mathematics
– Gendered choices they make remain largely intact after conditioning on prior test scores, indicating that these choices are not driven by differences in perceived mathematical ability, or by boys’ comparative advantage in mathematics.
– Girls who choose matriculation electives in physics and computer science score higher than boys, on average.
– Girls and boys react differently to early signals of mathematical and verbal ability.
– Girls are less adversely affected by socioeconomic disadvantage.
– Girls score higher in all four subjects, with a greater advantage in
language arts than in mathematics and science, implying that boys have a comparative advantage in mathematics and science.
– There is a strong pattern of gender streaming in the choice of electives in science and mathematics. The share of boys choosing advanced physics or computer science is more than twice that of girls; the share of boys choosing advanced mathematics is about 20% higher; while the share of girls choosing advanced biology is about 60% higher than boys and their share in advanced chemistry is 40% higher.
– For physics or computer science and for advanced mathematics, accounting for the observed gender difference in the distribution of prior mathematics achievement widens the gender gap very slightly.
– For biology and chemistry, accounting for differences in prior
achievement reduces the gap favoring girls by 0.6 percentage points.
– In the regression, as girls do slightly better than boys in eighth-
grade mathematics, controlling for prior achievement in mathematics increases the gender gap favoring boys in physics or computer science and in advanced mathematics, by 1.0 and 1.2 percentage points respectively while reducing the gender gap favoring girls in biology or chemistry by 0.8 of a percentage point.
– The largest effect is in advanced mathematics and the smallest in biology or chemistry, in line with the relevance of mathematical ability for each subject.
– All prior scores exhibit a statistically significant, positive (and in most cases convex) relationship with the probability of choosing a science or mathematics elective.
– An interaction term, the product of the mathematics and Hebrew scores, also has a significant positive effect.
– Boys’ and girls’ different propensities to choose science and mathematics electives are partly a reflection of their different responses to prior signals of ability. A signal of strong mathematical ability has a positive effect on both boys and girls for all three categories, but the effect is stronger for boys with regard to choosing advanced mathematics and physics or computer science, and stronger for girls with respect to choosing biology or chemistry; and a similar pattern applies to prior achievement in science.
– Selection of science and mathematics electives increases in parents’ education. The rate of increase is more moderate in biology or chemistry; and the share of girls declines with parents’ education in all electives. These findings are a further indication that boys benefit from a strong family background more than girls.
– The size of the gender gap increases in parental education for all electives, and more steeply in the male-dominated subjects, mathematics and physics or computer science, showing again that boys benefit more from a strong family background.
– Of the three groups, coeducational religious schools serve a population of students from markedly lower income groups, and achieve the lowest GEMS scores in all subjects for both male and female students in these schools. Coeducational non-religious schools and single-sex religious schools have more similar student populations.
– In non-religious schools, girls outperform boys, whereas boys outperform girls in religious schools.
– Single-sex religious schools have the highest matriculation rates, followed by coeducational non-religious schools.
The Role of Mothers’ Communication in Promoting Motivation for Math and Science Course-Taking in High School
– There was a significant effect of the experimental intervention on course-taking, such that adolescents whose parents received the intervention took more MS in 12th grade, compared with controls.
– There was an indirect effect of personal connections on STEM course-taking through adolescent’s interest.- More years of mother’s education were associated with higher perceptions of adolescents’ math ability.
– Neither mothers’ years of education nor mothers’ perception of adolescents’ math ability predicted number of conversations between mothers and adolescents or personal connections articulated in the interviews.
– Mothers with more years of education generated more elaborated responses in their interview.
– There was a significant interaction between number of conversations and elaboration, such that the highest level of interest occurred with high elaboration and few conversations.
– Adolescents whose parents received the intervention reported more UV in 10th grade than those whose parents were in the control group.
– Higher levels of interest in 10th grade predicted more STEM courses taken in 12th grade.
– There was a significant interaction between elaboration and number of conversations such that the highest levels of course-taking were achieved either with the combination of high elaboration and fewer conversations, or less elaboration but more conversations.
Science Achievement Gaps Begin Very Early, Persist, and Are Largely Explained by Modifiable Factors
- How large are general knowledge gaps occurring in kindergarten, and to what extent do these continue to occur by the end of first grade?
- As children move from third to eighth grade, what is their typical initial level (i.e., intercept) and rate of achievement growth (i.e., slope) in science?
- Are these gaps consistent with stable, cumulative (i.e., gap increasing), or compensatory (i.e., gap decreasing) achievement growth trajectories? How do these initial third-grade science achievement levels and third- to eighth-grade growth trajectories vary by children’s race, ethnicity, language, and family SES status? How are a more general set of child- and family-level characteristics, including parenting quality, related to typical levels of third-grade science achievement in the United States as well as to achievement growth from third to eighth grade?
- To what extent are the third-grade science achievement gaps, as well as third- to eighth-grade science achievement growth, explained by such modifiable factors as general knowledge, reading and mathematics achievement, and behavioral self-regulation? How much of children’s later science achievement can be predicted by their first-grade achievement-related knowledge, skills, and behaviors?
- With the aforementioned first-grade predictive factors accounted for, how important are the modifiable factors of children’s subsequent reading and mathematics achievement, and behavioral self-regulation at each of third, fifth, and eighth grades to their science achievement during these grades?
- To what extent does a school’s academic climate and racial, ethnic, and economic composition explain children’s science achievement, over and above the afore- mentioned child- and family-level factors?
Who Aspires to a Science Career? A Comparison of Survey Responses from Primary and Secondary School Students
1) Who holds science aspirations? 2) What factors seem to be connected to aspirations? 3) Are these patterns similar or different at different time points (in primary and secondary school)?
"What Comes to Mind When You Think of Science? The Perfumery!": Documenting Science-Related Cultural Learning Pathways Across Contexts and Timescales
How do everyday moments – experienced across settings, pursuits, social groups, and time – result in scientific learning, expertise development, and identification?
Perceived Gender and Racial/Ethnic Barriers to STEM Success
Assess the variation in perceived STEM support by gender and race/ethnicity and its associations with STEM aspirations. Explore in-depth the participants’ perceptions of microaggressions and support for girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM.
Science Identity Trajectories of Latecomers to Science in College
- What trends in science identity trajectories are latecomers to science able to construct during their first year in a college science program?
- How are latecomers’ identity trajectories constrained by or improvised with the cultural models and associated resources available in the figured world of a college science program?
The Effects of Single-Sex Compared With Coeducational Schooling on Mathematics and Science Achievement: Data From Korea
– Results for eighth graders indicated no differences between students in single-sex and coeducational schools in mathematics and science achievement.
– Results from the 2003 TIMSS data replicated the finding: students’ mathematics and science achievement was unrelated to the gender composition of their school.
– For both the 2007 and the 2003 data sets, students’ performance was consistently significantly predicted by factors related to socioeconomic status; students (both boys and girls) performed better on the mathematics and science exams when their fathers had more education, their families had more resources, and a lower proportion of their schoolmates came from economically disadvantaged families.
– Both boys’ and girls’ mathematics performance was predicted by the amount of time spent on homework; students do worse when they spend relatively more time on mathematics homework (or students spend more time on homework when they are performing poorly).
Longitudinal Analysis of the Relations Between Opportunities to Learn About Science and the Development of Interests Related to Science
The authors hypothesize that children’s developing interest in science emerges over time through coregulation between children’s interest and the informal science opportunities parents provide. Second, they suggest that this coregulation cycle may differ for boys and girls and this may ultimately account for some of the gender differences in science interest.
Bourdieu's Notion of Cultural Capital and Its Implications for the Science Curriculum
To examine the specific contributions that science education makes to a student’s cultural capital: in particular, how that capital is acquired in the science classroom (or not), and how that cultural capital will be relevant to their future cultural, academic, and professional lives.
Teacher Effects on Minority and Disadvantaged Students' Grade Four Achievement
Examines the differential effects of teachers on female, minority, and low-socioeconomic status (SES) students’ achievement in Grade 4.
Who Wants to Have a Career in Science or Math? Exploring Adolescents' Future Aspirations by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
The authors investigate how different racial/ethnic and gender subgroups compare to White males in terms of adolescent career aspirations in science and math, further considering the role that achievement and attitudes may play in shaping disparities at this early point in occupational trajectories.
"Doing" Science Versus "Being" a Scientist: Examining 10/11-Year-Old School Children's Constructions of Science Through the Lens of Identity
In this study, the authors attempt to (a) understand what are the formative influences on student career aspirations between the ages of 10 and 14 and (b) attempt to foster and maximize the interest of this cohort of young people, particularly girls, in STEM-related careers.
Equity in Mathematics and Science Outcomes: Characteristics Associated with High and Low Achievement on PISA 2006 in Ireland
Examines student and school background characteristics associated with low and high achievement in mathematics and science on the Programme for International Student Assessment.
School Composition and Context Factors that Moderate and Predict 10th-Grade Science Proficiency
Examine the relationship between 10th grade science proficiency and school context factors related to school environment, courses, and teachers.
Student and School Predictors of High-Stakes Assessment in Science
This study examined both student and school predictors of science achievement as measured by a high-stakes state test.
The Role of Peers and Grades in Determining Major Persistence in the Sciences
This paper examines the determinants of entering and then persisting in physical and life science majors. Also, it investigates the impact of one’s peers on major persistence.
Does the SES of the School Matter? An Examination of Socioeconomic Status and Student Achievement Using PISA 2003
The relationship between school SES and student outcomes.
School Composition and Contextual Effects on Student Outcomes
Examine the relationships among school composition, several aspects of school and classroom context, and students’ literacy skills in science.
Profiles of Urban, Low SES, African American Girls' Attitudes Toward Science: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Study
What are the urban, low SES, African American girls’ attitudes toward science and science
learning? What aspects of their experiences and understandings contribute to differences in attitudes?
Low-Income Students and the Socioeconomic Composition of Public High Schools
Potential problems suggested by the “frog pond” perspective about the effects of socioeconomic desegregation in nonachievement domains.
ESL Placement and Schools: Effects on Immigrant Achievement
Investigates the effect of placement in ESL on academic progress and how it varies across school contexts.
Friendship Networks and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Academic Outcomes
What is the effect of racial and achievement composition on two peer group characteristics both at the school and at friendship network levels?