| Hyunsil Yoo
University of Virginia
School factors affecting postsecondary career pursuits of high-achieving girls in math and science
FINAL REPORT
This study examined the influences of secondary school experiences of high-achieving girls in math and science on their postsecondary career pursuits in science fields. Specifically, using the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), the study investigated how science class experiences in high school affect science career persistence of high-achieving girls over and above personal and family factors. Selecting the top 10% on the 8th grade math and science achievement tests from two panel samples of 1988-1994 and 1988-2000, this study examined which science instructional experiences (i.e, lecture-oriented, experiment-oriented, and student-oriented) best predicted college major choices and postsecondary degree attainments in the fields of science after controlling for personal and family factors. A two-stage test was employed for the analysis of each panel sample. The first test examined the dichotomous career pursuits between science careers and non-science careers and the second test examined the dichotomous pursuits within science careers: ÒhardÓ science and ÒsoftÓ science. Logistic regression procedures were used with consideration of panel weights and design effects. This study identified that experiment-oriented and student-oriented instructional practices seem to positively affect science career pursuits of high-achieving females, while lecture-oriented instruction negatively affected their science career pursuits, and that the longitudinal effects of the two positive instructional contributors to science career pursuits appear to be differential between major choice and degree attainment. This study also found that the influences of instructional practices seem to be slight for general females, while those for high-achieving females were highly considerable, regardless of whether negative or positive. Another result of the study found that only student-oriented instruction seemed to have positive effects for high-achieving males. In addition, this study found that the lecture-oriented and experiment-oriented instructional practices were more likely to contribute to the choice of soft sciences for general and high-achieving females, while student-oriented instructional practices were more likely to contribute to the degree attainment in hard sciences for high-achieving females in science. The results should provide information for educational policies regarding school instruction and curriculum and career development targeted towards improving gender equity in science career pursuits.
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