Browsing by Author "Moller, S"
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Item Metadata only Demographic characteristics of high school math and science teachers and girls' success in STEM(Social Problems, 2016-01-01) Stearns, E; Bottía, MC; Davalos, E; Mickelson, RA; Moller, S; Valentino, L© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. All rights reserved.Given the prestige and compensation of science and math-related occupations, the underrepresentation of women and people of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors (STEM) perpetuates entrenched economic and social inequities. Explanations for this underrepresentation have largely focused on individual characteristics, including uneven academic preparation, as well as institutional factors at the college level. In this article, we focus instead on high schools. We highlight the influence of the intersection between race and gender of female math and science teachers on students' decisions to major in STEM fields. Theoretically, this article extends the political science concept of representative bureaucracy to the issue of women's and disadvantaged minorities' underrepresentation in STEM majors. We analyze longitudinal data from public school students in North Carolina to test whether organizational demography of high school math and science faculty has an association with college major choice and graduation. Using hierarchical probit models with an instrumental-variable approach, we find that young white women are more likely to major in STEM fields and to graduate with STEM degrees when they come from high schools with higher proportions of female math and science teachers, irrespective of the race of the teacher. At the same time, these teachers do not depress young white or African American men's chances of majoring in STEM. Results for African American women are less conclusive, highlighting the limitations of their small sample size.Item Metadata only Growing the roots of STEM majors: Female math and science high school faculty and the participation of students in STEM(Economics of Education Review, 2015-04-01) Bottia, MC; Stearns, E; Mickelson, RA; Moller, S; Valentino, L© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is problematic given the economic and social inequities it fosters and the rising global importance of STEM occupations. This paper examines the role of the demographic composition of high school faculty-specifically the proportion of female high school math and science teachers-on college students' decisions to declare and/or major in STEM fields. We analyze longitudinal data from students who spent their academic careers in North Carolina public secondary schools and attended North Carolina public universities. Our results suggest that although the proportion of female math and science teachers at a school has no impact on male students, it has a powerful effect on female students' likelihood of declaring and graduating with a STEM degree, and effects are largest for female students with the highest math skills. The estimates are robust to the inclusion of controls for students' initial ability.Item Metadata only Moving Latino/a Students Into STEM Majors in College: The Role of Teachers and Professional Communities in Secondary Schools(Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 2015-01-01) Moller, S; Banerjee, N; Bottia, MC; Stearns, E; Mickelson, RA; Dancy, M; Wright, E; Valentino, L© The Author(s) 2014.We argue that Latino/a students are more likely to major in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in college if they were educated in high schools where they studied with satisfied teachers who worked in collaborative professional communities. Quantitative results demonstrate that collaborative professional communities in high school are important for Latino/a students’ choice of major in college. Results from qualitative interviews clarify how Latino/a students’ perceptions of precollege educational environments shape their decisions to major in STEM.Item Metadata only Perceptions of Future Career Family Flexibility as a Deterrent from Majoring in STEM(Social Currents, 2016-09-01) Valentino, L; Moller, S; Stearns, E; Mickelson, RItem Open Access Teacher collaboration and latinos/as’ mathematics achievement trajectories(American Journal of Education, 2016-08-01) Bottia, MC; Valentino, L; Moller, S; Arlin Mickelson, R; Stearns, E© 2016 by The University of Chicago.Latino/a students’ low mathematics achievement is a pressing issue given their increasing numbers in the United States. This study explores the relationship between teacher collaboration and Latino students’ math achievement, taking into account the great diversity of Latinos/as in America. Using multilevel growth models, we analyze Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-K data from approximately 1,900 Latino/a students and find that teacher collaboration has, on average, a nonsignificant effect on the mathematics achievement growth of all Latino/a students between kindergarten and fifth grade. However, when analyzed separately, teacher collaboration is shown to have a positive relationship with the math academic trajectories of Latino immigrant students, while having a negative association with the math trajectories of Latino/a students who do not speak English at home.