The Role of Neighborhood Institutional Resources in Mexican-origin Children’s STEM Achievement

• In Event: New Approaches for Understanding Neighborhood Effects in the Developmental Sciences

Abstract

With Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industries at the frontline of current economic growth, students’ STEM achievement will affect not only the future U.S. workforce, but also their own social mobility within it (National Academies of Sciences, 2011). Children from Mexican-origin families, a substantial share of U.S. students, are underrepresented in the STEM educational pathway (Lopez & Radford, 2017). The math gap between Mexican-origin children and their peers from other racial/ethnic groups starts at kindergarten (Reardon & Galindo, 2009) and persists and grows throughout secondary and then high school (Crosnoe et al., 2004). Despite the challenges that Mexican-origin children face, informalized learning settings, such as community organizations and institutions, may reduce these math disparities and promote their STEM persistence. Accordingly, this paper seeks to identify whether the availability of neighborhood institutional resources (non-profits, libraries, and museums) supports Mexican-origin children’s STEM achievement in middle school and how these resources may play a role at critical points during elementary school in setting these children up to succeed in STEM.

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten (ECLS-K): 1998/1999, we analyzed a sample of Mexican-origin (N ~ 980) children. The STEM outcomes were assessed by standardized math and science test scores and teacher academic rating at Grade 8 (G8). The number of non-profit organizations, libraries, and museums was extracted from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and the Institute of Museum and Library Services and was combined with ECLS-K at the zip code level. Critical points were tested via precursor STEM outcomes in elementary school and included Kindergarten (K) and Grade 5 G5) test scores and the change in these scores from K to Grade 3 (K-3). We conducted multilevel models to estimate the associations between the community resources and children’s STEM outcomes. The main effect model included individual, family, school characteristics, and precursor scores at level 1, and neighborhood characteristics and resources at level 2. Next, interaction terms between the precursor scores and each of the resources were added separately to the model to identify critical points for resources to potentially intervene.

Results of interaction models suggested that among children with above average K-3 math gains, greater availability of educational non-profits was associated with higher G8 math scores. In addition, among children with below average G5 math scores, more museums were associated with higher G8 math scores. However, among these same children, more general youth-serving non-profits in their communities were associated with lower G8 math scores. In general, the community resources were not significantly associated with children’s G8 science scores and teacher’s academic ratings.

Overall, Grade 5 could be a critical point for resources to shape Mexican-origin children’s STEM pursuits, but the functions of the resources may be mixed. Additional analyses will incorporate propensity score weights to address neighborhood-level selection bias. Implications for future research, policy, and practices will be discussed.

Authors

• Fei Tan, Tufts University
  Presenting Author

• Tama Leventhal, Tufts University
  Non-Presenting Author