In this dissertation study, I aimed to 1) investigate gender patterns in students' career aspirations, in both STEM and non-STEM fields, and 2) identify factors contributing to persistent gender differences within specific STEM disciplines. Drawing on Gottfredson's (1983) model of circumscription and compromise, I examined gender patterns and…

We examined the relationships between high school CTE participation and indicators of career and college readiness using 2009 High School Longitudinal Study restricted-use data. Regression analyses of 2009-2018 data revealed significantly lower dropout rates for CTE participants, but only White CTE participants experienced better employment…

This Data Point uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a nationally representative study of more than 23,000 ninth-graders in 2009. Follow-up surveys were administered to the cohort in 2012, 2013, and 2016. This Data Point uses data from the initial survey in 2009 and first follow-up in 2012. Students who were…

Existing research has studied the underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students enrolling in and graduating from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in college (e.g., Okahana et al., 2018; Rincón & Lane, 2017). However, there is a dearth of research that examines the precollegiate…

Although postsecondary STEM outcomes for students with disabilities are poorly understood, literature exploring this problem is quite sparse. We examined the career aspirations of high school students by modeling the likelihood of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) aspiring to STEM careers. Results demonstrated no differences…

It is widely agreed that attitudes about mathematics play an important role in students' performance, choice, and persistence in STEM. Motivational theories posit this link and suggest that differences in these attitudes should explain in part why female, Black, Hispanic, low-income, and first-generation students are underrepresented in STEM…

Federal policy in the United States has urged high schools to expand offerings in career and technical education (CTE) coursework to address persistent gender inequities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) fields. Unfortunately, gender composition in engineering and health sciences CTE enrollment is highly…

Federal policy in the United States has urged high schools to expand offerings in career and technical education (CTE) coursework to address persistent gender inequities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) fields. Unfortunately, gender composition in engineering and health sciences CTE enrollment is highly…

Students with aligned educational and occupational expectations have improved college and labor market outcomes. Despite extensive knowledge about the ways social background and school context contribute to educational expectations, less is known about the role of social intuitions in shaping expectational alignment. Drawing on data from the 2009…

Using the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), this study documents that rural and small-town students were significantly less likely to enroll in postsecondary STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree programs, compared with their suburban peers. This study also shows that schools…

This Statistics in Brief provides information about the occupational expectations of high school freshmen in 2009 and how their expectations changed (or did not) by the spring of 2012. The focus is on expectations for a career in a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field, defined in this report as science, technology,…