Racially diverse educational pathways and STEM college outcomes

A quantitative analysis of students in North Carolina

Bibliographic Data

ID21392889
AuthorsMartha Cecilia Bottia (0000-0001-5150-520X, Institutional Research and Decision Support University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte North Carolina USA, corresponding author), Roslyn Arlin Mickelson (0000-0003-2578-0659, Department of Sociology University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte North Carolina USA), E Stearns (0000-0002-9678-2160, Department of Sociology University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte North Carolina USA)
Year2023
Volume107
Issue4
Pages964-998
Publication date2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21797
OpenAlexW4367054850
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited65

This article investigates whether attending a sequence of racially diverse schools predicts science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college outcomes. Such a relationship is important because of the increasingly diverse population of school‐aged children who are likely to attend racially segregated K‐12 schools and colleges, the benefits for individuals and society of STEM college graduates, and the projected shortage of people trained for future STEM workforce demands. We use a unique panel data set ( N = 14,980) of the University of North Carolina graduates. Our main analytical approach is multilevel modeling to examine the relationship between attending a sequence of racially diverse educational institutions and the odds of declaring and/or graduating with a STEM major. We find that students who attended a diverse sequence of schools are more likely to declare and graduate with STEM majors than those who did not. Framing our results with theories of cumulative advantage and intergroup contact theories, we offer science education policy reform recommendations

Career Pathways · Economic shortage · Framing (construction) · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Logistic regression · Mathematics education · Medical education · Odds · Political science · Population · Science education · Sociology · Underrepresented Minority · Workforce · Career Development and Diversity · Demography · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Higher Education Research Studies · Medicine · Psychology

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