A Head Start to College: Does Dual Enrollment Equalize Students' Academic and Labor Market Success in STEM? (Poster 5)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

This project focuses on dual credit programs as a potential strategy to improve and equalize college students’ academic and labor market success in STEM. Using large-scale longitudinal datasets with specific data on the number and subject areas of dual credits, I adopt an quasi-experimental approach to disaggregate the influence of dual credit course-taking on students’ college attendance and major choice in STEM, college persistence and completion in STEM, and employment outcomes in STEM. Anchoring on the premise that dual credit course-taking can particularly expand traditionally underrepresented students’ college and career opportunities in STEM, this project also focuses on the heterogeneous effects of dual credit course-taking on students that are women, racially minoritized, with low-income background, and first-generation. The preliminary findings indicate that college students with dual credit course-taking records were 1.387 times more likely to major in STEM fields when compared with college students without any dual credit courses. However, no statistically significant relationship was detected between dual credits in Math/Science and STEM major choice across award levels. Among students who have earned dual credits, the probability of majoring in STEM with fewer dual credits was not more or less sensitive to dual credits than those with more dual credits. The in-progress project continues to examine the relationship between dual credit and college persistence and completion and labor market outcomes in STEM, providing empirically robust evidence for both theoretical understanding and practical interventions to effectively equalize students’ STEM outcomes.

Author

• Xiaodan Hu, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author