A Comparison of Career Progress of Science and Mathematics Graduates of Selected Thirteen-College Curriculum Programs and Conventional College Programs.

Investigated were differences between students participating in a compensatory education program and those enrolled in a regular college program. The primary aim of the Thirteen-College Curriculum Program was to stimulate students coming from culturally deprived areas to pursue study at the higher education level by using innovative instructional techniques and materials. The study involved measures of career progress. An examination of 15 variables using chi-square and t-test statistics revealed the following: (1) experimental group students had a lower mean salary than control students; (2) the program students' grade point average decreased significantly the last 2 years of college as contrasted to an increase in averages of control students; (3) both groups, in significant numbers, chose a career in business; and (4) neither group chose teaching more frequently than other careers. The finding considered the most important difference noted in this study was that significantly larger numbers of the program participants (the experimental group) furthered their education by going to graduate school full-time than did the students in the control group. (Author/EB)