In a new study published in the American Journal of Education, a group of scholars from New York University sought out to find a correlation between early academic success and enrollment in a STEM major for students from different racial backgrounds.
For their study, the authors leveraged New York City Department of Education data for all public-school students enrolled in ninth grade between 2002 and 2011, tracking their academic records from sevevth grade through their first semester at the City University of New York – the institution with the largest share of students who are New York City public school graduates in the country. They examined data regarding 10 different racial groups: Asian English speakers, Black English speakers, Latine English speakers, White English speakers, Spanish speakers, Cantonese speakers, Mandarin speakers, Korean speakers, speakers of languages from South Asia, and Black French speakers.
According to their findings, the authors found that White English-speaking students were the only group with a positive relationship between strong STEM aptitude in high school and declaration of a STEM major in higher education. In comparison, a significantly greater proportion of Black and Hispanic students who scored well in STEM high school classes did not declare a four-year STEM major. Conversely, students who speak Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, and South Asian languages were more likely to choose a STEM major even when they were below the top quartile for high school math scores.
