Panel Paper:
Access to STEM Pathways and Careers for Children of Immigrants in New York City
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
40.S01 - Level -1 (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
While research continues to highlight the growing achievement gaps by race and class, we know less about the pathways of students who are children of immigrants in the US school system in regard to STEM coursework, degrees, and careers. This project capitalizes on unprecedented data access along the K—workforce pipeline in a city where immigrant students are part of every major race and ethnic group in the district. We first provide a descriptive analyses using multivariate regression analyses regarding which immigrant and children of immigrant groups are more likely to engage in STEM pathways that are likely to lead to STEM majors in the City University of New York (CUNY) public, two and four-year college system. Next, we employ a variance decomposition analysis to then examine whether gaps in STEM participation are due to individual (country of origin, languages, family), school context and coursework (junior high school, high school), and college type (level, resources, prerequisite STEM availability) within and across immigrant and children of immigrant groups. Finally, we examine whether STEM pathway students in high school are indeed successful in persisting to STEM major choice and whether STEM graduates experience different employment and earning outcomes after college as compared to similar students from different race and ethnic groups. Data are from the New York City Department of Education, The City University of New York, and the New York State Tax and Income records.
