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STEM PIPELINE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO INTENTIONS TO MAJOR IN STEM

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dc.contributor.advisorRyan S. Wells
dc.contributor.authorBittinger, Joshua
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.date2023-09-23T20:46:23.000
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T15:25:51Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T15:25:51Z
dc.date.submittedMay
dc.date.submitted2018
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation examined the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) major declaration intentions of students with disabilities as they graduated high school and entered college. I used data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) because data collection began in high school and followed students into college, facilitating research focusing on access. Before investigating major declaration intentions, I critiqued the definition and measurement of disability in the HSLS:09, drawing from survey research methods literature. The two subsequent analyses focused on psychological and structural components, respectively. My focus on psychological components drew from Eccles and colleagues’ (1983) expectancy-value framework. This framework tapped into the valuation that students placed on math- and science-related concepts and their expectations to succeed in those fields. Structural components explored in the final analysis drew from human, cultural, and social capital theories. These three theories were at the core of Perna’s (2006) model of college choice, which I adapted to predict majoring in STEM. Both analyses utilized multiple logistic regression to create prediction models. Findings suggested that college-bound students with ADHD have higher odds of intending to pursue STEM majors, compared to students experiencing other forms of disability. Psychological and structural measures were also positively related with odds of pursuing these majors. Implications highlight avenues for enhancing STEM participation for students with disabilities, offer suggestions for improvements to future data collection efforts, and lend guidance for future researchers looking to study disability using the HSLS:09 or other secondary data.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentEducation
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7275/11910531.0
dc.identifier.orcidN/A
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/17518
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2293&context=dissertations_2&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjectstudents with disabilities
dc.subjectdisability
dc.subjectaccess
dc.subjectSTEM
dc.subjectexpectancy-value
dc.subjectcapital
dc.subjectDisability and Equity in Education
dc.subjectHigher Education
dc.subjectScience and Mathematics Education
dc.titleSTEM PIPELINE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO INTENTIONS TO MAJOR IN STEM
dc.typeopenaccess
dc.typearticle
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorisAuthorOfPublication|email:jbittinger@umass.edu|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst|Bittinger, Joshua
digcom.identifierdissertations_2/1313
digcom.identifier.contextkey11910531
digcom.identifier.submissionpathdissertations_2/1313
dspace.entity.typePublication
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