CAREER: Understanding and Reducing Inequality in the Returns to K-12 STEM for College and Early Career Outcomes

这项职业研究将重点了解从K-12教育、高等教育到劳动力市场的STEM途径中的种族和性别差异。之前的研究调查了种族和性别差异在K-12的STEM课程学习和考试成绩方面的差异。这对高中毕业前接受STEM教育的机会不平等，对随后的教育和劳动力市场轨迹也有影响。相比之下，这项职业研究将采用不太常见的方法，描述黑人、西班牙裔、亚裔和白人女性和男性的大学和职业道路，这些女性和男性高中毕业，STEM课程和考试成绩相当。目标是调查在同等K-12 STEM机会和准备回报中潜在的种族和性别差异的程度和机制。这项研究将描述这些学生在获得STEM大学学位和在STEM行业工作的后续结果中潜在的种族和性别差异。这项研究将集中关注那些具有同等K-12 STEM准备的人在大学和职业道路上的种族和性别差异交叉的可能性。该项目有助于了解STEM教育的早期投资在什么情况下以及在什么情况下会获得经济回报。研究结果可以指出这种回报潜在差异背后的机制。在今天的知识经济中，STEM技能和证书对一个人的生活机会越来越重要，这些都是至关重要的见解。这项研究将借鉴德克萨斯州2008年至2013年高中毕业班的州级行政数据，这些学生随后进入高等教育和劳动力市场。K-12 STEM准备将以详细的课程记录和州标准化考试成绩来衡量。K-12 STEM准备的潜在不平等回报将通过三个结果进行评估，测量高中毕业后的十年：1)获得STEM大学学位的可能性，2)就业行业的STEM强度，以及3)年薪。该研究还将开发一个种族性别差异在K-12 STEM准备工资回报中的分解模型。该模型旨在帮助解释具有同等学历的学生在STEM学位和STEM密集型行业的选择和回报方面的差异。该项目将实施和评估一个在线课程插件，以帮助大学生强调他们的STEM技能，并将他们的学习课程与职业联系起来。这一努力是基于一个有效的假设和初步发现，这些假设和发现表明，相对大量的女性、黑人和西班牙裔学生在大学里选择了社会科学课程。因此，强调社会科学领域的科学严谨性，提高就业和工资回报，是挖掘历史上被边缘化的STEM人才潜在分布的一种方式。这是一个教师早期职业发展计划项目，响应国家科学基金会范围内的活动，提供最负盛名的奖项，以支持有潜力在研究和教育中成为学术榜样的早期职业教师。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EDU核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。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 CAREER study will focus on understanding the racial and gender disparities in STEM pathways spanning K-12 education, higher education, and the labor market. Prior research on this topic investigates racial and gender disparities in access to STEM course taking and test scores in K-12. This has implications for unequal access to STEM prior to the end of high school for subsequent educational and labor market trajectories. In contrast, this CAREER research will take the less common approach of describing the college and career pathways of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White women and men who graduate from high school with equivalent STEM course taking and test scores. The goal is to investigate the magnitude and mechanisms of potential racial and gender disparities in the returns to comparable K-12 STEM opportunity and preparation. The research study will describe potential racial and gender differences among such students across the subsequent outcomes of obtaining a STEM college degree and working in a STEM industry. The research will focus intensively on the potential for intersecting racial and gender differences in college and career pathways of those with equivalent K-12 STEM preparation. The project contributes to the understanding of for whom and under what circumstances early life investments in STEM education later pay off economically. Findings can point to mechanisms underlying potential disparities in such returns. These are crucial insights at a time when STEM skills and credentials are increasingly important for one’s life chances in today’s knowledge economy.The research will draw upon state-level administrative data from Texas covering the high school graduating classes of 2008-2013, with students followed into higher education and the labor market. K-12 STEM preparation will be measured with detailed course taking records and state standardized test scores. Potentially unequal returns to K-12 STEM preparation will be assessed across three outcomes, measured up to ten years after high school graduation: 1) probability of obtaining a STEM college degree, 2) STEM intensity of industry of employment, and 3) annual wages. The research will also develop a decomposition model of race-gender differences in the wage return to K-12 STEM preparation. The model intends to help explain differences in choice of and returns to STEM degrees and STEM-intensive industries among those with equivalent preparation. This project will implement and evaluate an online course plug-in to help college students emphasize their STEM skills and link their courses of study to careers. The effort is based on a working hypotheses and preliminary findings showing that a relatively large number of women and Black and Hispanic students with strong K-12 STEM preparation opt for social science courses of study in college. Therefore, emphasizing the scientific rigor of, and improving the employment and wage returns to, social science fields is a way to tap into an underlying distribution of historically marginalized STEM talent. This is a Faculty Early Career Development Program project responsive to a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers the most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.