New Report Released on High School Student Expectations for Careers in STEM

A new Statistics in Brief provides information about the science, information technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) occupational expectations of high school freshmen in 2009 and how their expectations changed (or did not) by the spring of 2012.The focus is on student expectations for a career in a STEM field at age 30. The report defines STEM as life and physical science, engineering, mathematics, and information technology. Health sciences and health occupations are not included as STEM occupations in this brief. The analyses use four categories of STEM occupational intentions:STEM Intenders: students who, as high school freshmen in 2009, expected to be in a STEM occupational field at age 30 and maintained that intention when surveyed again in 2012.

STEM Newcomers: students who, as high school freshmen in 2009 expected to be in a non-STEM occupational field at age 30 but in 2012 changed their occupational expectation to a STEM field.STEM Leavers: students who, as high school freshmen in 2009, expected to be in a STEM occupational field at age 30 but in 2012 changed to a non-STEM field.Non-STEM Intenders: students who did not expect to be in a STEM occupational field at age 30 at either time point.Key findings include—Fourteen percent of students were either STEM Intenders (3 percent), STEM Newcomers (5 percent) or STEM Leavers (6 percent).Among STEM Intenders, a higher percentage were male (77 percent) than female (23 percent). Among Non-STEM Intenders, a higher percentage were female (54 percent) than male (46 percent).A higher percentage of STEM Intenders compared to Non-STEM Intenders took a mathematics course higher than algebra I by the end of ninth grade (57 percent compared to 34 percent).

The report draws on data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09).To view the full report, please visit http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020167.