Gender, Course Taking, and STEM Fields: Following Florida's Community College Students' Pathways to Computing and Engineering Baccalaureate Degrees

• In Event: Women in STEM Across Postsecondary Education Sectors

Abstract

This study examines community college students’ attainment of baccalaureate degrees in computing and related fields, with a focus on sex segregation in degree attainment. We study the extent to which high school and developmental math course taking patterns predict students’ degrees. We drew on Florida administrative data (n = 352,069) on community college students who completed their baccalaureate degrees, to investigate the effects of course taking on degree completion in computing and engineering fields. We find a positive interaction between the effect of gender and developmental mathematics course completion, such that women who completed a developmental mathematics course are more likely to earn computing degrees. The opposite is true for men. We discuss policy, practice, and research implications.

Authors

• Lara Perez-Felkner, Florida State University

• Jinjushang Chen, Florida State University – Tallahassee

• Kristen Erichsen, Florida State University

• Shouping Hu, Florida State University

• Teng Zhao, Hangzhou Dianzi University