Collaborative Research: Education Policy Studies - Empirical Research: Urban High School Opportunity Structures, Figured Worlds of STEM, and Choice of Major and College Destination

这项纵向的、实证的、合作的研究旨在确定高中数学和科学准备中扩大的“机会结构”对非特权高中生选择大学目的地和他们选择STEM专业的影响。这项纵向研究的学生最初将是两个地理位置不同的城市环境中的二年级学生——纽约州布法罗和科罗拉多州丹佛市。样本中的学生数学成绩在班级中排名前20%，但社会、经济和文化资本有限（例如，父母的教育很少或没有上过大学）。因为之前的研究发现，在比较似乎来自同等高中的学生时，好大学的入学和STEM专业的选择在社会经济地位方面存在很大差异，这项研究将增加我们对潜在因素的理解。此外，美国公立高中在AP、IB、磁石学校、课后项目、科学竞赛和其他丰富活动方面的广泛投资表明，提高对这些投资影响的理解可能对许多学区有价值。先前的研究表明，扩大科学和数学领域的机会结构有助于提高大学入学率，包括进入精英大学。但是，对于哪种类型的学生受益于这种结构，以及这种结构如何影响学生对专业的选择，目前还没有足够的研究。本研究建立在广泛的先前研究的基础上，包括那些利用人类学和社会学调查的指标，这些指标会影响个人对学生在社会中的角色的看法和随后的决定。本研究的理论基础是布迪厄的《社会实践理论》（1977）和阿鲁姆、加莫兰和沙维特的《教育扩展和分化理论》（2007）。指导本研究的研究问题的答案有望促进对学校结构对扩大非社会和非文化资本化学生在科学和数学方面的教育机会的影响的理解。pi假设，当这些教育扩展机会得到实施时，它们应该有助于减少与STEM追求和结果相关的不平等。

This longitudinal, empirical, collaborative research study seeks to identify the influence of expanded "opportunity structures" in high school for preparation in mathematics and science on choice of college destinations by non-privileged high school students and their selection of STEM majors. Students studied in this longitudinal study will initially be sophomores in two geographically different urban settings - Buffalo, NY and Denver, CO. The students in the sample have math grades that place in them in the top 20% of their class but have limited social, economic, and cultural capital (for example, parents whose education ended with little or no-college attendance). Because prior work has found that matriculation in good colleges and selection of STEM majors has varied widely in comparing students who seem to come from comparable high schools in terms of socioeconomic status, this study will add to our understanding of underlying factors. Also, the extensive investment across US Public high schools in AP, IB, magnet schools, after-school programs, science competitions, and other enrichment activities indicates that improved understanding of the impact of these investments would be likely to be valuable to many school districts.Prior research has shown that expanded opportunity structures in science and math facilitate greater college attendance, including at elite colleges. But there is not sufficient research on which types of students are helped by this and on how such structures influence student choice of academic major. This study builds upon extensive prior research including those that employed anthropological and sociological investigations of indicators that influence personal perceptions and subsequent decisions regarding students' roles in society. This study is grounded by theoretical support from Bourdieu's Theory of Social Practice (1977) and Arum, Gamoran, and Shavit's Theory of Educational Expansion and Differentiation (2007). Answers to the research questions guiding this study are expected to advance understanding of the impact of school structures to expand educational opportunities in science and math to non-socially and non-culturally capitalized students. The PIs hypothesize that when such opportunities for educational expansion are implemented they should contribute to the reduction of inequalities associated with STEM pursuits and outcomes.