Over the next ten years, there is expected to be a significant increase in the demand for high-skilled and STEM jobs around the world, with some specific fields in engineering projecting increases of up to 14 percent while there has been a decrease in the number of students enrolling in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects and majors (National Science Board, 2010; Ognenova, 2019; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022a). Additionally, in recent years there has been a specific call to address the lack of diversity in STEM fields, including individuals with disabilities (Ladner & Burgstahler, 2015). This group has received attention given that individuals with disabilities have lower overall educational attainment in engineering than their peers without disabilities and are significantly less likely to have a STEM-related career (Campaign for Science and Engineering, 2014; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). Though current data availability makes disaggregation by specific type of disability difficult, students with learning disabilities (SWLDs) make up a substantial proportion of all students and are therefore an important population on which to focus educational and career progression.

As one potential means of promoting persistence along one STEM pipeline—engineering specifically—we explore how participation in engineering career-related coursework (E-CTE) may relate to a set of key college preparatory measures. To this end, we asked the following research questions:

1. For SWLDs, how does E-CTE coursetaking in high school link to key college preparatory achievement and coursetaking outcomes?
2. For SWLDs, how does E-CTE coursetaking in high school link to secondary-to-postsecondary transition outcomes?

E-CTE represents one strand of STEM-focused CTE coursework. Examples of such courses include surveying, structural engineering, and computer assisted design. Through participation in these courses, students gain the necessary skills and education to excel and persist in STEM-related areas by completing rigorous projects related to engineering design, manufacturing process implementations, and quality improvements (Gottfried et al., 2014). These courses are meant to complement the material and reinforce the conceptual and academic knowledge from these traditional STEM courses (Bozick & Dalton, 2013; Shifrer & Callahan, 2010).

Participation in this type of coursework links to improved student outcomes such as higher math scores, better chances of participating in advanced math/science coursework, higher postsecondary earnings, and better chances of graduating from high school (Bozick & Dalton, 2013; Dougherty, 2016; Gottfried, 2015). Additionally, there is reason to believe these courses are particularly beneficial to certain subgroups of students. For example, female students who complete engineering technology coursework in high school receive a boost in probability of earning an engineering credential in college greater than the boost for male students (Gottfried & Plasman, 2018a), and students with learning disabilities who participate in AS-CTE receive a boost in their probability of graduating from high school above and beyond the boost for the general population (Plasman & Gottfried, 2016).

There are three potential mechanisms by which E-CTE participation may link to improved college preparatory outcomes. First, students reinforce academic skills through opportunities to build on learning from traditional STEM coursework through more applied and hands-on experiences (Bozick & Dalton, 2013; Shifrer & Callahan, 2010). Second, students develop new skills through use of multiple learning techniques to teach these skills is an important pedagogical method to help students understand their own abilities and encourage interest in future pursuits along the engineering pathway (Stone & Lewis, 2012; Stone et al., 2008). Finally, the applied nature of CTE coursework in high school is designed to help students make the connection between high school coursework and later opportunities in college and career (Gottfried et al., 2016).

To explore whether E-CTE links to improved college preparatory outcomes for SWLDs, we relied on a recent longitudinal student dataset. This dataset includes multiple observations beginning with baseline data during the first year of secondary school. Follow-up data was collected during the third year. Transcript data was added upon completion of secondary school. We limit our analyses to the subset of students for whom a specific learning disability is indicated as present in the dataset. Outcomes Our outcomes of interest include the following four variables related to steps students can take to ease the transition to postsecondary education: math SAT scores, dual credit course participation, application to college, and completion of the FAFSA (a federal application for financial aid). Main Predictor The key independent variable is E-CTE coursetaking, which we operationalize here as the number of credits completed. A credit is equivalent to a single course taken for an hour per day across an entire academic year. Control Variables We identify key covariates related to AS-CTE and student attendance falling into the following categories: student/family demographics, academic history and attitudes, and school characteristics. Demographic variables include gender, race/ethnicity, family arrangement, and parent education. Academic history and attitude variables include 9th grade GPA, academic untis, CTE units in other clusters, English learner status, advanced math coursetaking, math self-efficacy, school engagement, math homework, extracurricular participation, employment outside the home, and postsecondary expectations. Finally, school characteristics include percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, percent English language learners, and percent minority students. Analytic Plan We begin our analyses using an OLS regression for SAT score and a linear probability regression for the binary outcomes of dual credit course enrollment, college application, and FAFSA completion. We include all of the above-mentioned covariates to obtain a more accurate estimation. We also employ school-fixed effects estimates to account for potential omitted variable biases at the school level that may have influenced the relationship between E-CTE coursetaking and our outcomes of interest.

Our findings related to college preparatory achievement showed that SWLDs who took more E-CTE scored higher on their math SAT tests than students who took fewer E-CTE courses. Under our more rigorous fixed effects models, SWLDs see an increase in math SAT scores of about 74 points per each additional E-CTE credit earned. Second, with respect to college preparatory coursetaking, we observed a parallel relationship between dual credit participation and E-CTE enrollment, indicating that SWLDs had approximately 15 percent higher probability of participating in dual credit coursework for each E-CTE credit earned. Turning to secondary-to-postsecondary transition activities, E-CTE participation was linked to a 13 percent higher probability of college application and 17 percent higher probability of FAFSA completion. Given the positive findings presented in this study, our study presents several important implications for both policy and practice. First, E-CTE courses benefit SWLDs with respect to a range of college preparatory outcomes. This provides evidence that these courses aim for more than just improving occupation-based skills; they provide students an opportunity to develop quantitative reasoning, logic, and problem-solving skills that are useful both in college and career pursuits (Bradby & Hudson, 2007) and their individual development. Second, policymakers should consider the relationship between E-CTE and college application and FAFSA completion as they seek ways to encourage the persistence along the E-CTE pipeline. E-CTE courses offer a potential means of increasing participation in STEM majors. Finally, our findings highlight how E-CTE participation may help SWLDs make decisions related to postsecondary opportunities. Through providing access to such courses for SWLDs, schools may ultimately help smooth the transition from high school to postsecondary education to career in STEM fields for this population of traditionally underrepresented students.

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