Postsecondary Matriculation Patterns in Denver High Schools

• In Event: Pathways to STEM for Low-Income Underrepresented Minorities: High School Opportunity Structures, “Figured Worlds” of STEM, Postsecondary Matriculations, and Choice of Major in Two Cities Differentially Positioned in the Global Economy

Abstract

Shavit, Arum, and Gamoran (2007) argue that despite the expansion of postsecondary educational opportunities, higher education is still markedly stratified in the US, with those who are already advantaged gaining entrance to the most selective schools, despite the fact that greater numbers of disadvantaged students have access to college. Kerckhoff (1995) raises an important question regarding the extent to which where students are located in the structure of educational opportunities at each stage empirically limits their possible locations at the next stage. As he notes, we must “view these structural locations both as hierarchically ranked and as providing varied opportunities for later moves and access to various kinds and levels of attainment” (1995, p. 324). A focus on where students are located in the structure of educational opportunities and the extent to which location at one stage empirically limits their possible locations at the next stage (Kerckoff, 2001 p. 8), constitutes a critically important question, and one that has, to date, received remarkably little empirical attention in the scholarly literature. In point of fact, this question has received no attention with regard to pathways to STEM.
In this paper, we propose and employ a broad-based measure of the “absolute” and relative structural locations of the Denver’s focal students and their high schools, most particularly with respect to opportunities for STEM. This will be developed with reference to student course taking patterns in math and science (math/science pipeline), including AP/IB courses; percent of students who achieve “mastery” in state math and science tests; and ACT scores. We will then map selectivity of college (Barron’s, 2009; 2 versus 4 year; and high/middle/low competitiveness of 4 years) at which students in each sampled high school matriculate. “Authors” (2012) develop and employ a similar “map” using ELS and NCES-Barron’s databases. Data reported here will be considered in relation to analyses of national databases engaged by “Authors” (2011) and “Authors” (2012). This will enable us to further locate our students with regard to the structural location of their high schools and linked pathways to college.
As indicated above, one of the Denver schools serves more highly capitalized students, especially among its highest achievers, than the other three, allowing a comparison within the city as well as with Buffalo. As the data on student matriculation and initial college major is now coming in and will be finalized in September, 2013, we will be able to present exciting new data at AERA 2014 to test and further develop Kerckhoff’s important hypothesis. Once the matriculation data are available, we will then analyze them in light of the focal students’ figured worlds of schooling and STEM, thereby allowing an in-depth examination of the relationships between high school opportunity structures, figured worlds, and actual postsecondary matriculations.

Authors

• Margaret A. Eisenhart, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Sarah Ohle, University of Colorado - Boulder