College and Career Readiness: Impact of STEM Endorsement on Texas Students' Secondary and Postsecondary Success

• In Event: Examining College Student Success Policies

Abstract

To promote students’ college and career readiness, in Fall 2014, the State of Texas implemented a new Foundation High School Program (FHSP) in public high schools, which offers five endorsements, or areas of study: STEM, Business & Industry, Public Services, Arts & Humanities, and Multidisciplinary Studies. This new policy has great potential to improve American youth’s college and career readiness and to meet the growing demand for STEM graduates. The purpose of this study is to explore how Texas high school students’ completion of a specific endorsement, especially in STEM, impacts their high school graduation, postsecondary enrollment, and major choice in college. We will use statewide, restrict data and conduct descriptive, comparative, and binary and multinomial logistic regression analyses.

Authors

• Yi Leaf Zhang, University of Texas at Arlington

• Maria Adamuti-Trache, The University of Texas - Arlington