GSE/RES: Women in Science from High School to College: Evidence from New York City Public School Students

智力优势：这是一项研究的教育选择和成果的顺序，导致妇女和男子在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）科目的大学专业：高中STEM课程采取，学习和成绩和国家考试衡量的表现，并最终大学专业。研究问题集中在基于性别社会学理论的因素上，这些因素预计会影响学生在大学主修STEM领域的决定，并对女性和男性产生不同的影响，包括高中结构和文化，教师和同龄人的性别构成，课程，学校与大学的联系和规模。目标是确定增加女性在STEM领域主修的倾向的因素，这些因素如何因种族、语言能力、移民身份和贫困而变化，以及从高中到大学的过渡如何有助于改善性别不平等。关于大型和多样化的纽约市（NYC）公立高中学生群体和纽约（CUNY）的子集的几个队列的学生和学校层面的数据在其规模、多样性、可用变量的丰富性及其纵向性质方面是独特的，其纵向性质允许使用学生和高中作为单独的水平进行分层线性模型（HLM）分析。大样本量和访问性别，种族，移民和贫困的措施，在学生的水平，提供了足够的权力，实质性subgroup analysis.The方法超越单一的结果分析，包括考试成绩在几个科目考试，高中课程在几个科目和大学专业。HLM框架将这些联系在一起，并分析了对这些变量的各种个人和学校层面的影响。教育机构之间的相互作用和学生水平的异质性是一个焦点。而不是假设高中以同样的方式影响所有学生参与STEM，纽约市高中和学生的多样性被用来估计高中环境对各种学生亚组的相互作用。这种方法产生了一个更微妙的结果比以前可能使用的方法，假设一个单一的影响，所有亚组的妇女和男子。更广泛的影响：更广泛的影响集中在对理解高中改革如何促进更多女性参与STEM的贡献上。在STEM领域，尤其是那些进入公立大学的女性，对持不同政见的女性（她们在大型城市学校系统中的代表性往往过高）的研究不足，并将从政策改革中受益匪浅。尽管地理上的重点是纽约市，但在大型，多样化的学校系统中追求STEM的女性以及公立大学的工薪阶层和中产阶级学生正是政策改革预计受益最多的人群，由于缺乏数据，他们被研究不足。纽约市立大学拥有不同水平和要求的高级和社区学院，以及为从挣扎到天才的学生提供的课程，是学生在其他地方遇到的许多大学情况的代表。这项研究也将启发全国范围内的辩论，提高大学入学率和成功，通过社区大学。通过与纽约市教育部的合作以及广泛的宣传和沟通，这项研究？的研究结果将推动正在进行的关于地区如何影响STEM中的性别差距的讨论。

Intellectual Merit: This is a study of the sequence of educational choices and outcomes leading women and men to a college major in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subject: high school STEM courses taken, learning and performance measured by grades and state examinations, and eventual college major. Research questions center on factors that, based on sociology of gender theory, are expected to affect students' decisions to major in a STEM area in college, and to affect women and men differently, including high school structure and culture, the gender composition of teachers and peers, curriculum, school-college connections, and size.The objectives are to identify factors that increase women's propensity to major in STEM fields, how these factors vary by race, language ability, immigrant status, and poverty, and how the transition from high school to college may serve to ameliorate gender inequities. The student- and school-level data on several cohorts of the large and diverse New York City (NYC) public high school student population and the subset that goes to the City University of New York (CUNY) is unique by its size, diversity, the wealth of variables available, and its longitudinal nature that allows for a hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis using students and high schools as separate levels. Large sample sizes and access to gender, race, immigration, and poverty measures at the student level, provide ample power for substantive subgroup analyses.The methodology moves beyond single outcome analysis, including test scores on several subject examinations, high school course taking in several subjects and college majors. The HLM framework links these together and the various individual- and school-level influences on these variables are analyzed. The interaction of educational institutions and student-level heterogeneity are a focus. Rather than assume that high schools affect participation in STEM in the same way for all students, the diversity of NYC high schools and students is used to estimate interaction effects of high school environments on various student subgroups. This method produces a more nuanced set of results than was previously possible using methodologies that assumed a single effect for women and men of all subgroups. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts center on the contribution to understanding how high school reforms can foster greater female participation in STEM. Disadvantaged women (who tend to be overrepresented in large urban school systems) in STEM, especially those who make it into public colleges, are understudied and would greatly benefit from policy reform. Despite the geographic focus on NYC, women pursuing STEM in large, diverse school systems, and working and middle class students in public colleges are exactly the populations which policy reforms are expected to benefit the most, and they are understudied because of lack of data. CUNY, with senior and community colleges, of varying levels and requirements, and programs for students from the struggling to the gifted, is representative of many college situations that students encounter elsewhere. This research will also enlighten the nationwide debate on improving college access and success though community colleges. Through a partnership with the NYC Department of Education and wide outreach and communication, the study?s findings will advance the ongoing discussion about how districts might impact the gender gap in STEM.