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Felisha Herrera & Sylvia Hurtado Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA American Education Research Association Annual Meeting April 9, 2011 – New Orleans, LA. Background. Total Workforce vs. STEM Workforce Demographics.
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Felisha Herrera & Sylvia Hurtado Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA American Education Research Association Annual Meeting April 9, 2011 – New Orleans, LA
Background Total Workforce vs. STEM Workforce Demographics Sources: National Science Foundation, 2009 & U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009
Literature • Background Characteristics • Prior Academic Achievement • Undergraduate Experiences • Environmental Pull Factors • Institutional Structural Influences
Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) • Outcome Expectations • Technical Interests • Goals • Contextual Influences • Person Inputs • Learning Experiences • Background Contextual Affordances • Self-efficacy
Contextual Influences Institutional Level Variables • Structural Characteristics • Selectivity • Institutional Control • Institutional Type • Percent of students majoring in STEM Student Level Variables • College Experiences • Studied with other students • Performed community service for a class • Asked a professor for advice • Worked full-time while in college • Joined a club/org related to major • Faculty provided opportunity for research • Perceptions • Satisfaction w/ science & math courses • Satisfaction w/ leadership opportunities • Sense of belonging on this campus • Campus racial tension • Person Inputs • Gender • Self-efficacy • Self-rated: Academic ability • Self-rated: Leadership ability • Self-rated: Mathematical ability • Pre-College • Learning Experiences • High School GPA • Math + Verbal SAT Score • Yrs of high school math • Yrs of high school physical science • Yrs of high school bio science Retained STEM Career Interests Senior Year • Technical Interests • Science Identity • Goals • Degree Aspirations • Outcome Expectations • To train for career • Working for social change • High income potential • Social recognition or status • Availability of jobs • Leadership potential • Discovery/enhancement of knowledge • Importance of promoting racial understanding • Background Contextual Affordances • Socioeconomic status • Parent with STEM career • Concerns w/ financing college Conceptual Model Utilizing SCCT Framework (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994)
Research Questions • What factors predict the retention of STEM career aspirations over four years of college? • What are the unique predictors of retained STEM career aspirations for URM and Non-URM students?
Data Sample • Data Source • 2004 Freshman Survey (TFS) • 2008 College Senior Survey (CSS) • 2004 IPEDS institution data • Sample • 3,165 entering freshmen with STEM career plans • 218 institutions • 47% URM; 53% Non-URM • 63% female; 37% Male
Methodology • Outcome Measure • Senior year retained STEM career plans/interests • Predictors guided by SCCT • Analyses • Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling (HGLM) • Accounts for variance between institutions with clustered data
Methodology • Stages of Analyses • 1. HGLM analysis of variance across institutions • 2. HGLM analysis of student-level predictors of retained STEM career interest for all-student sample, focusing on significance of race effects • 3. HGLM analysis of student and institution-level predictors of retained STEM career interest for each sub-sample URM and Non-URM students • Significant predictors reported as delta-p statistics
Results: Factors Contributing to URM Retained STEM Career Interests *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
Results: Factors Contributing to URM Retained STEM Career Interests *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
Discussion & Implications • Influential factors for URM students • Psychological processes in the development of career goals • Reasoning/motivations • Educational interventions • Career specific training • Undergraduate research • Faculty & peer networks • Institutional • Introductory coursework • Structural characteristics
Contact Information Faculty and Co-PIs: Sylvia Hurtado Mitchell Chang Postdoctoral Scholars: Kevin Eagan Josephine Gasiewski Administrative Staff: Aaron Pearl Graduate Research Assistants: Christopher Newman Minh Tran Jessica Sharkness Monica Lin Gina Garcia Felisha Herrera Cindy Mosqueda Juan Garibay Tanya Figueroa Papers and reports are available for download at: http://heri.ucla.edu/nih Project e-mail: herinih@ucla.edu Acknowledgments: This study was made possible by the support of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH Grant Numbers 1 R01 GMO71968-01 and R01 GMO71968-05 as well as the National Science Foundation, NSF Grant Number 0757076. This independent research and the views expressed here do not indicate endorsement by the sponsors.