Socioeconomic Differences in Students’ Pathways into STEM

• In Event: 1260 - The Many Pathways to STEM

Abstract

College attendance and choice of college major are both strong influences in the maintenance of social stratification and limits on social mobility. Degree in most STEM fields offer higher chances of obtaining more lucrative jobs and possibilities for upward social mobility. In this study, we take a multi-method approach to understanding how socioeconomic status influences students’ choices regarding whether to pursue a STEM degree. We analyze North Carolina data on approximately 19,600 students who graduated public high school in 2004 and later joined any of the public college institutions in the state to identify the differences in students’ pathways into STEM based on their socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. We utilize multilevel binomial models with random effects by high school and college campus attended. We complement our quantitative analysis with qualitative analyses of interviews with low-SES STEM avoiders (students who were academically prepared to go into STEM but did not major in STEM fields). Results from quantitative analysis indicate that higher previous academic achievement and following a challenging academic curriculum in high school are especially important for low-SES students’ odds of following a STEM pathway. Additionally, our findings emphasize the differential relationship that high school characteristics have on students’ STEM pathways conditional on their socioeconomic background. The vast curricular differences that low-SES and high-SES students experience across high schools –and sometimes even within the same high schools- limits or enhances their pathways into STEM differentially. Analysis of interviews reveals that differences in time discount preference (short-term benefits vs. long-term benefits) also have an important role in deterring academically prepared low-SES students from going into STEM fields. In a nation that that is confronting increasingly limited prospects for upward mobility, these findings about the role that socioeconomic differences in educational options play in reinforcing limits on mobility are troubling.

Authors

• Martha Cecilia Bottia, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Cayce Jamil, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Elizabeth Stearns, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

• Roslyn A. Mickelson, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

• Stephanie Moller, University of North Carolina-Charlotte