CAREER: Understanding and Reducing Inequality in the Returns to K-12 STEM for College and Early Career Outcomes

职业：了解并减少 K-12 STEM 大学和早期职业成果回报的不平等

• 批准号: 2338923
• 负责人: Jordan Conwell
• 金额: $ 131.42万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-08-01 至 2029-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2338923&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Understanding; Reducing; Inequality; Returns

This CAREER study will focus on understanding the racial and gender disparities in STEM pathways spanning K-12 education, higher education, and the labor market. Prior research on this topic investigates racial and gender disparities in access to STEM course taking and test scores in K-12. This has implications for unequal access to STEM prior to the end of high school for subsequent educational and labor market trajectories. In contrast, this CAREER research will take the less common approach of describing the college and career pathways of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White women and men who graduate from high school with equivalent STEM course taking and test scores. The goal is to investigate the magnitude and mechanisms of potential racial and gender disparities in the returns to comparable K-12 STEM opportunity and preparation. The research study will describe potential racial and gender differences among such students across the subsequent outcomes of obtaining a STEM college degree and working in a STEM industry. The research will focus intensively on the potential for intersecting racial and gender differences in college and career pathways of those with equivalent K-12 STEM preparation. The project contributes to the understanding of for whom and under what circumstances early life investments in STEM education later pay off economically. Findings can point to mechanisms underlying potential disparities in such returns. These are crucial insights at a time when STEM skills and credentials are increasingly important for one’s life chances in today’s knowledge economy.The research will draw upon state-level administrative data from Texas covering the high school graduating classes of 2008-2013, with students followed into higher education and the labor market. K-12 STEM preparation will be measured with detailed course taking records and state standardized test scores. Potentially unequal returns to K-12 STEM preparation will be assessed across three outcomes, measured up to ten years after high school graduation: 1) probability of obtaining a STEM college degree, 2) STEM intensity of industry of employment, and 3) annual wages. The research will also develop a decomposition model of race-gender differences in the wage return to K-12 STEM preparation. The model intends to help explain differences in choice of and returns to STEM degrees and STEM-intensive industries among those with equivalent preparation. This project will implement and evaluate an online course plug-in to help college students emphasize their STEM skills and link their courses of study to careers. The effort is based on a working hypotheses and preliminary findings showing that a relatively large number of women and Black and Hispanic students with strong K-12 STEM preparation opt for social science courses of study in college. Therefore, emphasizing the scientific rigor of, and improving the employment and wage returns to, social science fields is a way to tap into an underlying distribution of historically marginalized STEM talent. This is a Faculty Early Career Development Program project responsive to a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers the most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项职业研究将重点了解涵盖 K-12 教育、高等教育和劳动力市场的 STEM 途径中的种族和性别差异，之前的研究调查了 K 中 STEM 课程学习和考试成绩方面的种族和性别差异。 -12. 这对高中毕业之前获得 STEM 教育和劳动力市场轨迹的不平等产生影响。相比之下，这项职业研究将采用不太常见的方法来描述黑人的大学和职业道路。高中毕业并获得同等 STEM 课程和考试成绩的西班牙裔、亚裔和白人女性和男性 目标是调查可比较的 K-12 STEM 机会和准备回报中潜在种族和性别差异的程度和机制。该研究将描述这些学生在获得 STEM 大学学位和在 STEM 行业工作的后续结果中潜在的种族和性别差异。该研究将重点关注大学和职业道路上种族和性别差异交叉的可能性。具有同等 K-12 资格的人STEM 准备。该项目有助于了解 STEM 教育的早期投资在什么情况下能够为谁带来经济回报，这些研究结果可以指出这种回报的潜在差异的机制。在当今的知识经济中，证书对于一个人的人生机会越来越重要。该研究将利用德克萨斯州州级行政数据，涵盖 2008 年至 2013 年高中毕业班，并跟踪学生进入高等教育和劳动力市场。 K-12 STEM 准备将通过详细的课程记录和国家标准化考试成绩来衡量，K-12 STEM 准备的潜在不平等回报将通过三种结果进行评估，在高中毕业后十年内进行衡量：1）获得概率。 STEM 大学学位，2）就业行业的 STEM 强度，以及 3）年工资 该研究还将开发 K-12 STEM 准备的工资回报的种族性别差异分解模型。该项目将实施和评估在线课程插件，以帮助大学生强调他们的 STEM 技能并将他们的学习课程与职业努力联系起来。基于工作假设和初步调查结果表明，相对较多具有良好 K-12 STEM 准备的女性、黑人和西班牙裔学生选择在大学学习社会科学课程，因此，强调科学严谨性并提高社会科学课程的质量。就业和工资回报，这是一个教师早期职业发展计划项目，旨在响应国家科学基金会范围内的活动，为支持早期职业教师提供最负盛名的奖项。有潜力成为研究和教育领域的学术榜样。该项目由 NSF 的 EDU 核心研究 (ECR) 计划支持，该计划强调在关键领域产生基础知识的基础 STEM 教育研究。是必不可少的，广泛且持久：STEM 学习和 STEM 学习环境、扩大 STEM 参与以及 STEM 劳动力发展。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。