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The purpose of this study was to examine the link between technical and soft skills which students develop through enrollment in high school engineering and engineering technology Florida career academies. Based on interviews from 69 high school academy participants and 27 industry leaders, we found four themes: technical skills, interpersonal skills, personal responsibility, and student goals and aspirations. Findings suggest that a way to enhance the workforce is through developing co-ops and internship partnerships as well as recruitment opportunities between high school STEM magnet programs and local industry employers. Making both students and employers aware of their options would strengthen the workforce and allow schools to better advance the purpose of career academies.

This study examines the need for young workers in manufacturing and high-tech industry with an emphasis on what employers see as deficits in technical skills and industry knowledge gained in middle school and high school. This study draws from interviews with 27 employers from Tampa Bay area manufacturing and high-tech companies, most of whom actively work with local secondary and higher education to coordinate educational programs to prepare students for the workforce. These employers also serve on community workforce boards and host industry for students and parents. Employers actively worked to create high school programs in which students learn hands-on technical skills and gain knowledge about the local job market. Employers believed high school students could right away and/or after graduation. Many employers directly facilitated these opportunities through internships and apprenticeships that directly recruited from local high schools. Employers wanted these young workers to plan their post-secondary schooling based on industry need and career aspirations with the assistance of company tuition reimbursement programs. Employers believed this pathway was preferable to enrolling in four-year universities without specific career goals. These industry perspectives suggest a reconsideration of how we understand traditional school to work transitions. This study is part of a larger study of pathways into "good tech jobs" from high schools and community colleges. The paper draws from a book in progress on the employability skills desired by STEM-related industries and how those skills are taught and learned in high school engineering and engineering technology themed career and technical education courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using longitudinal administrative transcript data for five cohorts of students in Florida, we examine how schools structure opportunities through differential curricular offerings. The results indicate that curriculum is associated with math attainment beyond the opportunity to take more or less rigorous classes. For example, students who did not take remedial courses had lower math attainment in schools that offered remedial courses compared to their peers in the same courses in schools without remedial courses. At the other end of the spectrum, students who did not take honors courses had higher math attainment in schools that offered honors courses. Moreover, the results show that the consequences of initial math course placement are very difficult, if not impossible, to overcome. Neither students' academic preparation nor performance in their algebra 1 courses can overcome the negative association between remedial placement and eventual math attainment. These findings offer important insights into how school curricula structure opportunities, with implications for both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School and work are often simultaneous endeavors students/workers experience while also moving through important transitions and milestones in the life course, including partnering, parenting, financial independence, and elderly care. Understanding the ways in which school and work transitions intersect with the life course is particularly important in understanding the role of community colleges in the contemporary economy. Community college students in technician education are an ideal example of the complex mechanisms through which individuals experience work and education. The contemporary economy requires constant re-skilling of the technician workforce meaning students move back and forth between school and work as necessitated by broader market demands and their own personal life histories. Through interviews with community college students enrolled in engineering technology associates of science (AS) and certification programs, this study shows that community college not as a destination with a simple entrance and exit. Instead, community colleges allow people to transition to adulthood and/or attempt to re-enter or better their position in the workforce. Individuals experience technician education programs not as part of a linear pipeline towards an occupational field, but as a fluid system of cycling between school, work, and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using administrative data from a statewide cohort of Pre-calculus students in Florida public schools, this study finds a gender gap in Calculus coursetaking among 11th graders. Girls enrolled in Calculus at a lower rate than boys despite (1) entering the course with higher grades in prior math courses, (2) outnumbering boys in Pre-calculus courses across the state, and (3) earning higher grades in Pre-calculus than boys. This study finds that although all students benefit from high achievement and taking Pre-calculus with high achieving peers, students in courses in which girls make up over 60 percent of students and courses in which girls earned higher grades than boys had lower rates of taking Calculus. These negative effects of female advantage were even more pronounced for girls and high achievers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's career development and socialization into the sciences and engineering is generally acknowledged to be uniquely guided by factors including having role models and mentors who provide useful guidance. This study examines the strengths and weaknesses of science and engineering department cultures as experienced by tenured female faculty in Florida universities. These women reflected on their path to tenure, department culture, and their ideas of how their departments address issues faced by women and minorities. These groundbreaking scholars reflected on what it was like to be one of the only women in their departments and the strain this unofficial "role" played on their ability to perform teaching, research, and service. Women discussed coping with their perceived lack of community in their departments and how it impacted progress toward recruiting more women faculty into the department as well as more women and minority students. Data is taken from ten interviews with tenured female faculty in Florida science and engineering progress. These interviews are part of a larger project and interviews with male and female undergraduate students and faculty across Florida institutions conducted over a three year period. We find that both administrators and the women faculty themselves struggle to cope with challenges that include a lack of capable leadership at the departmental level, the struggle with male colleagues to gain resources, and these women feel their departments do little to recruit more women and minorities into the faculty. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of career timing on gender earning differentials among 1996-97 civil engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Florida public four-year universities. Female graduates earned 98 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers after graduation in 1997. By 2004, they earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by male counterparts. Despite no evidence of personal characteristics' effect such as race, pursuit of a second degree, or employment during undergraduate studies either on the gender wage gap or annual earnings, career factors such as timing and length of stopouts influenced annual earnings but not the gender wage gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High school coursetaking and achievement in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics courses predict future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) bachelor's degree attainment. Using the population of public university college graduates among a statewide cohort of high school graduates, this study compares the likelihood of STEM attainment of high- and low-achieving students in Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses to that of students who earned an A in general Biology, Chemistry, and Physics courses. This study finds that almost regardless of achievement, students who complete AP/IB Chemistry and AP Physics B and C courses are significantly more likely than A students in general courses. A grade of B in Physics I Honors is equivalent to an A in Physics I. Women and African-American students are significantly less likely to take these key courses compared to Chemistry I and Physics I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The A+ Plan may well be race-neutral in its design. However, it is not race neutral in its effects. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that A+ Plan reforms have neither improved educational quality nor broadened educational equity in Florida. To the contrary, the reforms have had disparate racial impact on retention rates, high school completer rates, graduation rates, and access to gifted programs. This paper reports on racial disparities in school composition, student retention, high school completion and graduation, and placement in programs for students with gifts and talents. We find that despite claims to the contrary Florida's race neutral education policies are not race-neutral in terms of outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has found significant gender disparities in the pursuit of degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The primary source of this disparity among a cohort of Florida high school students are Engineering and Biology, the most popular STEM majors. Men are overrepresented in Engineering while Biology degree recipients are representative of all baccalaureate degree recipients. This study examines how gender, race, and high school course-taking predict STEM, Engineering, and Biology degree attainment. High school biology is a clear predictor of future Engineering or Biology degree attainment. Future biologists take Advanced Placement Biology while future engineers take Biology Honors. Engineering and Biology students show few differences in Chemistry and Physics course-taking. When accounting for course-taking, Black and Hispanic baccalaureate degree recipients are more likely to complete STEM degrees. Directions for further research are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two objectives. The first objective is to analyze race, class, and gender differences in high school course-taking and achievement among 1996-97 Florida public high school graduates by playing students in high school educational pathways based on their mathematics and science courses taken and achievement in these course. We then supplement this analysis by determining the extent to which race, class, and gender differences in course-taking and achievement both contributed to patterns of educational achievement in high school. This paper is the first part of a larger set of analyses that examine the structural and individual influences on high school educational pathways in relation to the likelihood of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) college majors and careers after high school. Given educational opportunities provided in high schools embedded in specific local school districts and communities, students, presumably with input from school guidance counselors and parents, must decide how far to proceed in available mathematics and science sequences. This paper describes race, class, and gender patterns of educational pathways of individual students and finds that Asian students take more difficult courses and have higher achievement than white students. Both groups have more advanced course-taking and achievement than black and Hispanic students. Students on free lunch do not perform on the level of students who are not on free lunch. Females have high achievement than males and are more likely to take Algebra II and Chemistry, but are less likely than males to take Calculus and Physics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the high school and post-high school educational pathways of over 91,000 1996-97 Florida public high school graduates. We construct high school course-taking and achievement Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) pathways using mathematics and science courses and use these pathways to predict future college and university enrollment and non-STEM and STEM degree attainment.High School course-taking and achievement are key factors in enrollment and employment trajectories in the first two years after high school and enrollment through 2004. Students who achieved a C or above in Calculus and Physics while in high school are on a STEM pathway and are more likely than lower achieving students to enroll in a four-year university, obtain a bachelor's degree, and are more likely to obtain a STEM degree in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, or Computer Sciences major.Students who achieved a C or above in courses at or above the Algebra II and Chemistry levels are on a college pathway out of high school have higher degree attainment than borderline pathway students who only completed Algebra II or Chemistry, but both college and borderline students had favorable enrollment outcomes.Students who did not successfully complete Algebra II or Chemistry generally went into the workforce or attended community college after high school. Few students enrolled in a university or out of state institution and very few obtained a bachelor's degree. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States is experiencing a decline in science-related careers. Research suggests that attrition during college and post-graduate study accounts for the loss of talented students to other fields. The present study examines the pathways of baccalaureate recipients in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields after graduation. This preliminary study is the first step of a larger research agenda to study school to work transition of a cohort of Florida four-year college graduates. This analysis allows us to better understand demographic and academic factors associated with persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics careers post graduation. The examination of the school to work transition into STEM careers will provide higher education institutions and educational policy makers with the insight on how to attract and maintain STEM talent within the U.S., especially for underrepresented populations, like women and minorities. This study finds that women and men earn graduate degrees at the same rate, but women earn more non-STEM degrees. Engineering majors obtain their higher degrees more efficiently than students in Biology, Chemistry/Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]