![]() President Obama’s White House developed policies based on this line of thinking, including $80 million in the 2017 federal budget for the creation of “next-generation” high schools (White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2016). This has important implications for STEM education it underscores the need to motivate students for long-term study of STEM, and points to the potential for many more students to excel in STEM. Tudies suggest that achieving expertise is less a matter of innate talent than of having the opportunity and motivation to dedicate oneself to the study of a subject in a productive, intellectual way – and for sufficient time – to enable the brain development needed to think like a scientist, mathematician, or engineer. A 2010 report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) made the case for moving away from the idea that we can fulfill our needs by selecting for STEM talent to the idea that we must develop STEM talent: ![]() Those demographic groups most likely to pursue STEM studies and careers-middle and high socioeconomic status white and Asian males-comprise a dwindling proportion of the country’s population. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, for example, have drawn attention to the clash between the growing need for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) expertise on the one hand and US demographic trends on the other (, 2011 National Academies, 2005). Recently, however, thinking has changed about how to build America’s STEM workforce. Historically, secondary education programs to prepare students for the STEM pipeline-such as selective STEM programs and high schools or selective courses like Advanced Placement science, mathematics, and computer science in regular high schools-have targeted students who could demonstrate a high level of prior academic achievement or aptitude. Positive impacts on the odds of taking advanced mathematics and science courses in high school and on interest in entering a STEM profession are of particular importance, given the strong association between these variables and entry into a STEM major in college. These findings suggest that the inclusive STEM high school model can be implemented broadly with positive impacts for students, including low-income, female, and under-represented minority students. ![]() Attending an inclusive STEM high school appeared to have a small positive impact on science test scores for students overall and for economically disadvantaged students, but there were no discernible impacts on mathematics test scores. Importantly, these positive impacts were found for low-income, under-represented minority, and female students as well as for students overall. Students who attended an inclusive STEM high school also identified more strongly with mathematics and science and were more likely as high school seniors to be very interested in one or more STEM careers. ![]() Positive effects for inclusive STEM high schools were found for completion of key STEM courses and for likelihood that students would engage in self-selected STEM activities. ResultsĬombining effect estimates from five separate datasets of students from inclusive STEM high schools and matched comparison schools, the analysis reported here used data from administrative records and survey data for 9719 students in 94 high schools to obtain estimates of the average impact of attending an inclusive STEM high school on STEM-related high school outcomes. This study uses a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relationship between attending an inclusive STEM high school and a set of high school outcomes known to predict college entry and declaration of a STEM college major. ![]() Almost nonexistent before the present century, these high schools have proliferated over the last two decades as a strategy for addressing gaps in STEM education and career participation. Inclusive STEM high schools seek to broaden STEM participation by accepting students on the basis of interest rather than test scores and providing a program sufficient to prepare students for a STEM major in college. ![]()
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