Opportunity Matters: Investigating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the STEM Career Pipeline

新冠肺炎疫情从根本上改变了美国的教育格局，使学校不堪重负，高中生学习数学和科学内容的机会减少。尤其是来自历史上被边缘化群体的学生，包括生活贫困的学生、有色人种学生、残疾学生和主要语言不是英语的学生。学习数学和科学内容的机会减少，对从高中到大学，再到STEM职业生涯的管道产生了深远的影响，将范围缩小到只有拥有必要资源的学生，以确保继续获得学习机会。在之前研究的基础上，这项研究旨在探索新冠肺炎大流行期间高中数学和科学课程学习受到的干扰，重点关注美国历史上被边缘化群体的高中生。该项目利用学习理论的机会和文化资本的多维概念化，其中包括布尔迪厄的滞后概念和约索的社区文化财富理论。该项目旨在增进关于学生在新冠肺炎大流行之前、期间和之后的不同时间点获得和参与科学和数学课程的基础知识。来自国家民意研究中心的研究人员将与学生信息和学习管理系统的领先供应商无限校园合作，为研究人员提供访问全美180多万高中生数据的途径。大规模数据集将能够分析经常因为人口较少而被排除在研究之外的人群，以及具有多种社会身份的交叉群体。该项目团队将使用加权技术，以证明招生人数超过50人的公立高中的说法是正确的。数据将使用概念基础、潜在类别分析和交叉技术进行分析。这项研究的发现可能对学校和学区至关重要，因为它们致力于更公平地解决新冠肺炎疫情后学生成绩的差异。该项目得到了NSF的EDU核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the educational landscape of the United States, overwhelming schools and leaving high school students with fewer opportunities to learn math and science content. This was particularly true for students from historically marginalized groups including students living in poverty, students of color, students with disabilities, and students whose primary language is not English. Reduced opportunities to learn math and science content has profound implications for the pipeline from high school, through college, to STEM careers, narrowing it to only students with the necessary resources to ensure continued access to learning opportunities. Building on prior research, this study is designed to explore disruptions in math and science high school course taking during the COVID-19 Pandemic, focusing on high school students from historically marginalized groups in the United States. The project draws upon Opportunity to Learn theory and a multidimensional conceptualization of cultural capital which incorporating Bourdieu's concept of hysteresis and Yosso's theory of Community Cultural Wealth. The project is designed to advance foundational knowledge about students’ access to and engagement with science and math courses at different time points before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from the National Opinion Research Center will partner with Infinite Campus, a leading supplier of student information and learning management systems, providing researchers with access to data on over 1.8 million high school students across the United States. The large-scale data set will enable analyses of populations often excluded from research because of their small populations, as well as intersectional groups with multiple social identities. The project team will use weighting techniques designed to warrant claims about public high schools with enrollments larger than 50 students. Data will be analyzed using concept grounding, latent class analysis, and intersectional techniques. Findings from this study have the potential to be critical for schools and districts as they work to more equitably address disparities in student outcomes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.