While calculus remains the gold standard of academic rigor in most college admissions offices, educators and employers increasingly champion advanced statistics as critical for navigating today's data-driven workforce. So which math pathway actually shapes long-term success? To find out, we asked UT Austin Associate Professor Matt Giani, graduate…

Pundits, politicians, and academics have long worried about potentially low rates of civic participation among STEM-oriented students. Does studying STEM actually decrease the odds that young people will be actively involved in democracy? To answer this question, we created a dataset of over 23 million students in the United States, matched to…

The mid-20th century push for high school calculus nurtured generations of future STEM professionals. While the growth of high school calculus is often seen as an educational success story, the emphasis on calculus has also exacerbated opportunity gaps along racial and socioeconomic lines, and crowded out other important math topics that are…

Approximately 2 million students take Advanced Placement (AP) examinations annually. However, departmental policies that allow students to replace introductory courses with AP credit greatly vary within and across universities, even across relatively similar universities. This study examines the impact of AP credit policies on second-course…

Background: The underrepresentation of Black and Latinx students in STEM is highlighted due to structural impediments. Although AP mathematics classes are being introduced as a solution, students from underprivileged schools continue to confront challenges. The study project seeks to investigate the obstacles associated with teaching AP…

For decades, pundits, politicians, college administrators, and academics have lamented the dismal rates of civic engagement among students who enroll in courses and eventually major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (i.e., STEM) fields. However, the research supporting this conclusion has faced distinct challenges in terms of…

This Data Byte uses data from a previous study to analyze whether indicators of having taken advanced coursework in specific subjects (i.e., English, math, science, and social studies) can reduce the negative impact of grade inflation.

Motivated by assessment of externally awarded grants and internal programmatic practices, we used transcript and demographic data for students entering a highly selective residential liberal arts college between 2002-2015 to answer institutional-level questions about course taking patterns and pathways relevant to Science, Technology, Engineering,…

Map literacy is a key goal of geographic education learning outcomes. Geography classrooms develop map literacy through practicing map skills (Sandford 1986; Hanus and Havelková 2019). One area where map skills pedagogy is deficient is in teaching the analysis and interpretation of maps as inherently political objects, with bias and latent meaning…

Although students have more opportunities than ever before to participate in advanced academic programs while in high school, it is unclear whether this has affected their ability to succeed in college. To determine what impact the students' experiences in Advanced Placement (AP) and dual credit coursework had on their level of college and career…

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college…

Background: Early Colleges (ECs) are a type of rapidly growing dual enrollment program proven to be successful in helping underrepresented students get a jumpstart on their postsecondary education. To date, the most rigorous evidence on the impact of ECs has come from two lottery-based natural experiments conducted by the SERVE Center (Edmunds et…

Racialized tracking is central to sociological explanations for racially stratified educational outcomes. However, school officials' decision-making is of debated importance for explaining racialized tracking. We contribute to this literature by examining the effects of schools' enrollment policies for Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Using a…

As college-bound high school seniors know, the ACT examination is possibly the single most important assessment students take during their academic careers. ACT scores can determine college entrance, scholarship dollars, and whether students will be placed in remedial courses. Parents pay large sums of money to prepare their children for this…

High schoolers have opportunities to jump-start postsecondary education and save money on college by participating in dual enrollment or Advanced Placement coursework. Students and families in a large Maryland district need to decide which pathway offers the most financial gains given academic and demographic characteristics when offered both…