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Approximately 2 million students take Advanced Placement (AP) examinations annually. However, departmental policies that allow students to replace introductory courses with AP credit greatly vary within and across universities, even across relatively similar universities. This study examines the impact of AP credit policies on second-course success in introductory Biology, Chemistry, and Physics course sequences at six large public research universities (N = 48,230 students). Applying logistic regression analyses, we found that general performance indicators and measures of systemic inequities during high school were predictive of students earning skip-eligible scores. Interestingly, we descriptively discovered wide variation across institutions and disciplines in the percentage of students who chose to skip when meeting their local policies. However, logistic regression analysis did not find general trends of inequalities for skipping courses for students with skip-eligible scores. We then applied inverse-probability weights with regression adjustment to examine the effects of course skipping. We found that students who skipped their first course with AP credit actually performed similarly well or better in subsequent courses than did students who did not skip, even in contexts where lower AP scores were accepted. Therefore, our study suggests administrators to increase coherence in AP credit policies across departments and disciplines. In particular, we encourage modifying AP credit policies and academic advising to encourage students to skip when they have eligible AP scores. Benefits may include reductions in unnecessary coursework that is burdensome for both students and universities, potentially freeing up resources to better support students who were not privileged to enroll in AP courses during their high school education.

Prior research suggests that students endorsing a science identity are more likely to participate in optional science experiences and choose STEM careers. Science identity is a topical identity, which refers to an identity related to a topic rather than a social or cultural group. However, studies of topical identities typically examine them in isolation. The current study identified typically occurring combinations of topical identities as identity complexes to determine whether science identity would tend to occur within STEM-only complexes or together within larger topical identity complexes. Over 1200 urban public-school students in 6th, 7th, and 9th grades from two different regions in the USA completed surveys asking about their topical identities, choice preferences, and optional science experiences. Latent class analyses revealed that students often endorse science identities in the context of other unrelated identities like athletic and artistic identities. Further, the frequency (overall and relative to each other) of the two high-science identity complexes varied substantially by gender, ethnicity, and grade. These patterns were not simple reflects of the commonly observed overall rates of science identity by demographics. Further, students in topical complexes with high science identity still had high participation in optional science experiences despite having many topical identities that could compete for time.

Process oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) is a specific type of active learning centered on a learning cycle where students first explore a concept through scientific models, followed by a concept invention, and finally a concept application phase. In spite of POGIL's research-based design and the many studies showing it increases learning outcomes, there is still a critical gap in the knowledge behind the effect of POGIL in attitudinal factors and the mechanisms behind it. The current study seeks to build an understanding of the mechanistic ways in which POGIL works and its effect on students' attitudes and learning. The sample consisted of students who enrolled in General Chemistry I in the Fall semester across 7 sections (classrooms) at an R1 (large research) university in the eastern part of the US. Four sections used POGIL instruction (N = 809) while the other three used Traditional teaching methods (N = 543). Statistical models using multilevel statistics show students in the POGIL condition had higher chemistry identity, competency beliefs, and chemistry grades. Furthermore, performance in General Chemistry I appeared to be a core mediator of all the observed differences in General Chemistry II where students in the POGIL condition still performed better and had higher chemistry-related attitudes.

Women take qualifying exams and enter medical school at substantially lower levels than predicted by their interest in medical degrees at the end of high school. We examined how science course experiences contribute to gendered attrition in premed using a multicohort data set of 8,253 undergraduates taking the traditional premed sequence of introductory science courses at a public research university between 2008 and 2016. Gendered attrition was not based in academic performance, was specific to high-performing women, and yet was grounded in competency beliefs. The result is that high-performing women often graduate with lower paying, lower status degrees. Motivational interventions in premed science courses will be critical for retaining high-performing women in premed, an important outcome with implications for equity and women's health.

Background: A major concern in science education involves the under-representation of many groups in science and technology fields, especially by gender (Brotman and Moore, J Res Sci Teach 45:971-1002, 2008; Clark Blickenstaff, Gend Educ 17:369-386, 2006), stemming from an intersection of systemic obstacles (Cantú, Equity Excell Educ 45:472-487, 2012; Rosa and Mensah, Phys Rev Phys Educ Res 12:020113, 2016). Research on persistence of minoritized populations within science trajectories has often highlighted identity as particularly important (Archer et al., Sci Educ 94:617-639, 2010; Barton and Calabrese, Am Educ Res J 50:37-75, 2007; Barton et al., Am Educ Res J 50:37-75, 2013; Merolla and Serpe, Soc Psychol Educ 16:575-597, 2013). Results: This study quantitatively investigated the nature of science identity in over 1300 seventh and ninth grade students from a range of urban US public schools using survey data on science identity, choice preferences, and optional science experiences. Factor analyses validated this conceptualization of science identity as integrating perceived internal and external identity components. Regression analyses revealed the importance of this conceptualization of science identity for driving students' choices at this crucial developmental period. Furthermore, science identity had a complex differential function in supporting students' optional science choices by gender. Conclusions: The novel contribution to the science identity field highlights the specific multi-component ways in which students endorse science identity in middle school and early high school. There was an important finding that science identity has a complex differential function in supporting student's optional science choices by gender. Thus, at this age, developing a strong science identity is especially critical for girls.

The authors examine the effects of undergraduate research experiences on key steps in the path to medical school, considering the case of an undergraduate research experience (URE) offered to first-year students that also might influence performance in large introductory science courses. Using a historical dataset of 15,000 first-year students, logistic and linear regressions were performed to better understand the influence of early UREs on different measures of college success. Immediate effects of an early URE on second-year course performance and very large effects on second-year retention are demonstrated. There also are delayed effects on taking the MCAT and medical school acceptance. Results demonstrate the importance of early UREs and their role in STEM student persistence.

In chemistry, lack of academic preparation and math ability have been offered as explanations as to why women seem to enroll, perform, and graduate at lower levels than men. In this paper, we explore the alternative possibility that the gender gap in chemistry instead originates from differential gender effects of academic factors on students' motivation. Using a sample of approximately 670 students enrolled in a mid-sized university in the United States we conducted: (1) t-tests to understand incoming academic differences between freshman students by gender, (2) regression analysis to determine which academic and attitudinal factors predict success in General Chemistry 1, and (3) a mediation analysis to understand the underlying mechanisms of how academic performance affects students' beliefs about their competency in chemistry, which in turn has an effect on chemistry achievement. We demonstrate the importance of math ability as a contributor to chemistry achievement, but further that ability differences in math are important because they affect students' chemistry competency beliefs. Critically, this link between ability and competency beliefs is stronger for women than men. These results suggest that interventions geared towards improving women's chemistry competency beliefs could have an important influence in improving their achievement in the classroom, and in consequence reduce the gender gap in chemistry

The number of women studying STEM careers and pursuing graduate degrees has not changed in the last decade (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2015; Science & Engineering Degree Attainment: 2004-2014). Most prior research to explain this problem has focused on the topics of identity, access, pedagogy, and choice (Brotman & Moore, 2008; Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 971-1002). Additional research is needed on how internal and external factors interact with one another to demotivate girls and young women from pursuing science careers. Here, we show how girls' competency beliefs are an essential foundation for science content learning during middle school and how these effects of competency beliefs are mediated by in and out-of-school factors. We recruited over 2,900 6th and 8th grade students from two different regions in the United States. At two different time points, students completed surveys asking about their stance toward science such as competency beliefs in science, willingness to engage in argumentation, and choice preferences toward optional science experiences. We also collected a reasoning ability measure, and pre- and post-tests on science content knowledge. Moreover, students also reported on their cognitive behavioral engagement during a sampled science class on two separate occasions. Multiple regression and mediation analyses show that as boys grow older, their willingness to engage in argumentation and to participate in science experiences suppresses the role of competency beliefs on their learning science content. By contrast, as girls grew older, they showed an increasing need to have high competency beliefs to achieve strong content learning gains. Our results demonstrate that despite girls' willingness to participate in scientific argumentation and to take part in science experiences, they probably do not receive enough support in their environment to access the benefits of these experiences, and hence they have a stronger need to have high competency beliefs in order to achieve significant growth in science learning.