The Role of Academic Achievement and Social Inclusion in Broadening STEM Participation: Intended and Actual Attainment at the Intersection of Gender and Race/Ethnicity

这项研究作出了重大贡献的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育的差距的文献，通过提供新的信息STEM轨迹的男孩和女孩从中学到大学结束的各种种族/民族亚组。使用五个全面，大规模和纵向数据集，来自德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的研究人员将研究亚组之间在预期和实际STEM成就方面的差异，并研究学术成就和社会包容模式如何促成这些差异。五个数据集中有三个是全国代表性的样本，而另外两个是在德克萨斯州收集的，包括西班牙裔学生的大样本人群。这五个数据集分别提供了检查学术成就和社会包容性的某些独特措施的机会;它们共同提供了从六年级到大学毕业调查种族/民族和性别交叉点STEM轨迹的机会。本研究将特别关注少数民族女童/妇女和少数民族男童/男子的经历，以更全面和更有对比性地了解当代不平等的模式。分析的重点是两个研究目标：1）研究学业成绩和社会包容如何导致初中和高中期间按性别和种族/族裔分组的STEM目标差异;以及2）研究学术成就和社会包容性如何影响性别和种族/民族亚组在大学期间实际STEM成绩的差异。统计分析包括使用逻辑和多项逻辑回归模型和多层次模型来检查学校或课堂水平的影响。预期STEM成就是通过回答关于理想职业的各种调查问题并比较与非STEM职业的相对偏好来衡量的。学业成绩是通过成绩、考试成绩和课程学习来衡量的。社会包容性是衡量使用的问题，感知同伴和教师的支持和感知公平待遇的答案。这项研究的框架以交叉性理论为基础，侧重于性别和种族/族裔的交叉，以及当一个人是两个地位相对较低的不同群体的成员时可能适用的多重危险。这一分析使用大规模数据来明确处理不同群体的经验，并揭示可能确认这种危险的模式，或确定学生在教育环境中取得成功时的弹性实例。该项目的最终目标是通过提供有关促进或阻碍妇女和少数民族青年在STEM领域的保留和成就的因素的新知识，扩大STEM参与。研究结果将在学术和政策相关会议上介绍，在教育和社会学领域的顶级同行评审期刊上发表，并通过新闻稿分发给地方和国家媒体，以接触广大公众。研究小组还将利用他们与国家教师专业发展计划的现有关系，将研究结果传达给全国中小学教师的主要受众。此外，该项目正在努力通过招聘和培训STEM教育和社会学领域的妇女和少数民族博士生来扩大参与。这些学生的不同观点，再加上他们将接受严格的分析培训，对于培养未来几代学术研究人员研究STEM平等至关重要。

This study makes a major contribution to the literature on disparities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by providing new information about the STEM trajectories of boys and girls from various racial/ethnic subgroups from middle school through the end of college. Using five comprehensive, large-scale and longitudinal datasets, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin will examine differences between subgroups in intended as well as actual STEM attainment and investigate how patterns of academic achievement and social inclusion contribute to those differences. Three of the five datasets are nationally representative samples while the other two were collected in Texas and include large sample populations of Hispanic students. Separately the five datasets provide the opportunity to examine certain unique measures of academic achievement and social inclusion; collectively they provide the chance to investigate STEM trajectories at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender from the 6th grade to the end of college. Special attention will be paid to the experiences of minority girls/women and minority boys/men to gain a more comprehensive and comparative picture of contemporary patterns of inequality.The analysis focuses on two research aims: 1) to examine how academic achievement and social inclusion contribute to differences in intended STEM attainment during middle and high school by gender and racial/ethnic subgroup; and 2) to examine how academic achievement and social inclusion contribute to differences in actual STEM attainment during college by gender and racial/ethnic subgroup. Statistical analyses include models using logistic and multinomial logistic regression and multi-level models to examine school or classroom level effects. Intended STEM attainment is measured using the answers to various survey questions about desired occupation and comparing the relative preferences with non-STEM occupations. Academic achievement is measured using grades, test scores and course-taking. Social inclusion is measured using answers to questions about perceived peer and teacher support and perceived equitable treatment. The framework of the study is grounded in theories of intersectionality that focus on the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity and the multiple jeopardy that may apply when one is a member of two different groups with relatively lower status. This analysis uses large-scale data to explicitly address the experiences of different groups and to uncover patterns that may affirm this jeopardy or identify instances of resiliency when students succeed in educational environments.The ultimate goal of the project is to broaden STEM participation by contributing new knowledge about the factors that promote or impede the retention and attainment of women and minority youth in STEM fields. Findings will be presented at academic and policy-related conferences, published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals in education and sociology, and distributed through press releases to local and national media outlets to reach a broad public audience. The research team will also use their extant relationships with national teacher professional development programs to communicate research findings to key audiences of primary and secondary teachers across the country. Additionally, the project is working to broaden participation through the recruitment and training of women and minority doctoral students in the fields of STEM education and sociology. The diverse perspectives of these students, coupled with the rigorous analytical training they will receive, are critical for preparing future generations of academic researchers to study STEM equality.