Opportunity Matters: Investigating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the STEM Career Pipeline

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the educational landscape of the United States, overwhelming schools and leaving high school students with fewer opportunities to learn math and science content. Reduced opportunities to learn math and science content has profound implications for the pipeline from high school, through college, to STEM careers, narrowing it to only students with the necessary resources to ensure continued access to learning opportunities. Building on prior research, this study is designed to explore disruptions in math and science high school course taking during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The project draws upon Opportunity to Learn theory and a multidimensional conceptualization of cultural capital which incorporating Bourdieu's concept of hysteresis. The project is designed to advance foundational knowledge about students’ access to and engagement with science and math courses at different time points before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from the National Opinion Research Center will obtain student-level math and science high school course-taking data from multiple states and districts across the United States. The project team will use weighting techniques designed to warrant claims about public high schools with enrollments larger than 50 students. Data will be analyzed using concept grounding and latent class analysis. Findings from this study will inform evidence-based strategies for schools and districts nationwide to increase participation in STEM education. The project will disseminate results through practitioner networks, policy briefs, and open-access publications to ensure broad societal benefit. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.