Yoon So Yoon, Strobel Johannes
1Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation (IEEI), College of Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX USA.
2School of Information Science & Learning Technology (iSchool) College of Education, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO USA.
Int J STEM Educ. 2017;4(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s40594-017-0063-6. Epub 2017 May 22.
In the context of Texas of the USA, House Bill 5 signifies a major policy shift requiring entering high school students starting in fall 2014 to choose an endorsement, like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) being one of them, to provide students with earlier exposure to a coherent course sequence. As we barely understand students' choices before the endorsement requirement, this study explored 6 years of data (2008-2013) on high school student enrollment rates in mathematics, science, and career and technical education (CTE)-STEM courses to set out the baseline of the trends in STEM course enrollment in Texas.
The enrollment rates of the STEM-related courses had wide variations by types of courses, gender, and race/ethnicity. Overall, student enrollment rates increased across time in selective and advanced mathematics, science, and CTE-STEM courses, which indicates a promising prospect for the STEM pipeline. However, there were exceptions in several courses with gender and racial/ethnic differences in the trends. Gender disparity was greater in advanced science courses than advanced mathematics courses, and collectively, gender gap in CTE-STEM courses increased greater than advanced mathematics and advanced science courses across years. While racial/ethnic differences were constant across years in both advanced mathematics and advanced science courses, the differences were rising in CTE-STEM courses in recent years.
As little is known about students' preferences in course-taking in STEM courses at the state level, the findings on the trends in students' STEM course-taking, disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity, can provide needed insights on what institutional K-12 changes would be effective for impacting the STEM pipeline.
在美国得克萨斯州的背景下，众议院法案5标志着一项重大政策转变，要求从2014年秋季开始入学的高中生选择一种认证，比如科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）认证就是其中之一，以便让学生更早接触连贯的课程序列。由于在认证要求实施之前我们对学生的选择了解甚少，本研究探讨了6年（2008 - 2013年）关于高中生数学、科学以及职业和技术教育（CTE）- STEM课程入学率的数据，以确定得克萨斯州STEM课程入学趋势的基线。
STEM相关课程的入学率因课程类型、性别和种族/族裔而有很大差异。总体而言，选择性数学、高级数学、科学以及CTE - STEM课程的学生入学率随时间增加，这表明STEM人才培养渠道前景良好。然而，在一些课程中存在例外情况，趋势上存在性别和种族/族裔差异。高级科学课程中的性别差距比高级数学课程更大，并且总体而言，CTE - STEM课程中的性别差距在多年间的增长幅度大于高级数学和高级科学课程。虽然高级数学和高级科学课程中的种族/族裔差异多年来保持不变，但近年来CTE - STEM课程中的差异在增加。
由于在州层面上对学生在STEM课程选课方面的偏好了解甚少，按性别和种族/族裔分类的学生STEM课程修习趋势的研究结果，可以为K - 12教育机构做出哪些改变能有效影响STEM人才培养渠道提供所需的见解。
