ITEST Research: Effects of STEM/ICT Aspirants' High School Experiences on STEM and ICT Course-Taking

该项目是一项为期三年的纵向多方法研究，旨在解决高中生在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）或信息通信技术（ICT）方面的课程学习问题。特别是，它侧重于STEM/信通技术学院-专门研究这些科目的中学-的影响。该项目将大大有助于我们了解可能支持或阻碍学生对STEM/ICT课程的兴趣和坚持的因素。该项目也是及时的，因为人们越来越有兴趣了解STEM/ICT学院的影响，以及类似的构建学校的方式，以强调STEM内容主题-无论是作为职业为重点的学校还是作为主题学校。该项目将有一个非常强大的研究基础，其结论，利用完整的全州数据库以及丰富的学校案例研究。定量分析部分将检查来自佛罗里达教育部的数据，该部门提供了有关学生课程、人口统计和表现的数据，并与来自NCES高中研究的数据相匹配，该研究提供了有关学校和地区课程和课程的数据。定性数据将从有目的地选择的学校案例中收集和分析，以便更深入和丰富地理解定量研究的结果。

The proposed project is a three-year, longitudinal, multiple-method study that addresses questions about high school students' course-taking in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or information & communication technologies (ICT). In particular, it focuses on the effects of STEM/ICT academies--secondary schools that specialize in these subjects. The project will contribute greatly to our understanding of factors that may support or hinder students' interest and persistence in STEM/ICT courses. The project is also timely, in that there is growing interest in understanding the impacts of STEM/ICT academies and similar ways of structuring schools to emphasize STEM content topics--either as career-focused schools or as themed schools.This project will have a very robust research base for its conclusions, drawing on both complete state-wide databases as well as rich case studies of schools. The quantitative analysis portion will examine data drawn from the Florida Department of Education, which provides data on students' courses, demographics, and performance--matched with data from the NCES High School Study, which provides data on schools' and districts' courses and curriculum. Qualitative data will be collected from purposefully selected school cases and analyzed to provide more depth and richness in understanding the findings from the quantitative study.