“Planning Early for Careers in Science”, 2006-05-26 (; backlinks; similar):
Young adolescents who expected to have a career in science were more likely to graduate from college with a science degree, emphasizing the importance of early encouragement.
…We used nationally representative longitudinal data to investigate whether science-related career expectations of early adolescent students predicted the concentrations of their baccalaureate degrees earned years later. Specifically, we asked whether eighth-grade students (approximately age 13) who reported that they expected to enter a science-related career by age 30 obtained baccalaureate degrees in science-related fields at higher rates than students who did not have this expectation. We analyzed students in the United States for years 1988 through 2000 and controlled for differences in academic achievement, academic characteristics, and students’ and parents’ demographics.
We analyzed (see figure at left) the proportion of students who earned the three types of baccalaureates degrees, according to eighth-grade expectations and math achievement scores. Most notable is the proportion of students who, in a sense, followed through on their eighth-grade science career choices—roughly half. In contrast, proportionally fewer students who reported nonscience career expectations switched into science—roughly a third.
…Much effort has been focused on raising test scores and promoting advanced courses at later ages; however, we should not overlook the likelihood that life experiences before eighth grade and in elementary school may have an important impact on future career plans. Although our current analysis does not provide proof of an uninterrupted causal chain of influence, our study does suggest that to attract students into the sciences and engineering, we should pay close attention to children’s early exposure to science at the middle and even younger grades. Encouragement of interest and exposure to the sciences should not be ignored in favor of an emphasis on standardized test preparation.
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