The Path to College and Career: Exploring the Role of High School Engineering Courses for Students with Learning Disabilities

“该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。”随着对工程领域有能力的劳动力的需求持续增长，攻读工程领域的学生比例也出现了令人担忧的下降趋势。这种下降的部分原因是缺乏来自弱势背景的学生——比如那些有学习障碍的学生——在高中学习工程课程。因此，为了减少这些差异，必须坚持对工程课程的追求和坚持，这样所有的学生都有可能在这些高回报的领域取得成功。更重要的是，在高中学习和坚持工程课程方面的任何差异只会加强这个国家先前存在的教育分层。为了解决这个问题，我们建议工程职业和技术教育（E-CTE）可以作为一种潜在的教育途径，以更好地调整工程管道中的机会，特别是对于有学习障碍的学生。因此，了解E-CTE课程模式是否可以支持工程相关的追求，对于确定STEM和残疾政策至关重要，以改善工程领域的准入和成功。如果在E-CTE课程学习和长期E-CTE追求之间观察到积极的联系，这对学校实践也有影响——例如，学校的E-CTE课程，以及有学习障碍的学生获得E-CTE的机会。然而，在这项研究之前，这些政策结论仍然是推测性的——尽管有研究调查了传统STEM课程对有学习障碍的学生的大学和劳动力市场结果的重要性，但没有人研究过特定的E-CTE课程是否能成功地帮助有学习障碍的学生在从高中过渡到大学和职业生涯的过程中追求和坚持工程领域。目前，在学习E-CTE课程的管道效应方面，特别是对有学习障碍的学生，目前还没有足够的研究，无法在政策或实践方面得出任何明确的结论。因此，我们的项目将填补这一重要空白，并将成为第一个记录学习障碍学生在E-CTE和工程道路上的这些经历的景观。利用最新的、具有全国代表性的高中纵向研究数据，该项目将首次评估E-CTE课程的有效性，并了解这些课程如何与从高中到大学工程领域的过渡以及对有学习障碍的学生的潜在好处的职业抱负联系起来。具体而言，该项目将确定有学习障碍的学生正在学习哪些E-CTE课程，E-CTE课程如何鼓励他们在工程管道中坚持不懈（例如，STEM态度、大学入学、获得工程证书），以及E-CTE参与与工程相关的职业抱负之间的联系。使用多层次建模方法来识别个人和学校背景的影响，以及倾向得分匹配技术来解释E-CTE参与者的可观察到的差异，该项目将产生的结果将有助于政策制定者和教育工作者促进有学习障碍的学生接触和提高对工程的兴趣，努力为他们以后在这些工程领域的机会做好准备。考虑到E-CTE课程（以及一般的CTE课程）的动手和体验性质，我们预计E-CTE的参与将对有学习障碍的学生特别有益，这一群体传统上在工程领域被边缘化。最终，E-CTE课程可能是改善和减少有学习障碍的学生在STEM参与方面的不平等，并鼓励他们对工程领域的兴趣和坚持的一种途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

“This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2)” As demand for a capable workforce in engineering continues to grow, there is also a concerning pattern of decline in the proportion of students pursuing engineering fields. Part of this decline is attributed to a lack of students from under-represented backgrounds – such as those with learning disabilities – taking engineering courses in high school. Therefore, to reduce these disparities, pursuit and persistence in engineering courses must be sustained such that all students can have the potential to be set-up for success in these highly-rewarding fields. And more so, any disparity in the pursuit of and persistence in engineering courses in high school will only reinforce preexisting educational stratification in the nation. To address this, we propose that engineering career and technical education (E-CTE) may serve as one potential educational pathway to better align opportunities in the engineering pipeline and specifically for students with learning disabilities. Thus, understanding if E-CTE coursetaking patterns can support engineering-related pursuits is crucial to determining both STEM and disability policy in order to improve access to and success in engineering fields. And if positive links are observed between E-CTE coursetaking and long-term E-CTE pursuits, this has implications for schooling practice as well – e.g., schools’ E-CTE offerings, and access to E-CTE for students with learning disabilities. Yet, prior to this study, these policy conclusions remain speculative – although studies have examined the importance of traditional STEM courses for college and labor market outcomes of students with learning disabilities, none have looked at whether specific E-CTE coursework can be successful in preparing students with learning disabilities to pursue and persist in engineering fields as they transition from high school to college and careers. At present, there is currently not enough research in the area of the pipeline effects of taking E-CTE courses, particularly for students with learning disabilities, to come to any definite conclusions in regard to policy or practice.Hence, our project will fill this important void and will be the first to document the landscape of these experiences for students with learning disabilities in E-CTE and along the engineering pathway. Using the most recently available, nationally representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study, this project will be the first to evaluate the efficacy of E-CTE courses and to understand how these courses might link to the transition from high school into engineering fields in college as well as career aspirations with an emphasis on potential benefits for students with learning disabilities. Specifically, the project will identify which E-CTE courses students with learning disabilities are taking, how E-CTE coursework may encourage persistence along the engineering pipeline (e.g., STEM attitudes, college enrollment, earning an engineering credential), and the link between E-CTE participation and engineering-related career aspirations. Using multi-level modeling methods to identify both individual and school contextual influences, as well as propensity score matching techniques to account for observable differences in E-CTE participants, this project will produce results that will assist policymakers and educators in facilitating access to and promoting interest in engineering for students with learning disabilities in an effort to prepare them for later opportunities in these engineering fields. Given the hands-on, experiential nature of E-CTE coursework (and CTE coursework in general), we anticipate that E-CTE participation will be particularly beneficial for students with learning disabilities, a group that has traditionally been marginalized in engineering fields. Ultimately, E-CTE coursetaking may be one avenue to improve reduce the inequities in STEM participation for students with learning disabilities and encourage interest and persistence in engineering fields.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.