A Longitudinal Analysis of Young Adult Pathways to STEMH Occupations STEMH Occupations Will Tyson Principal Investigator, PathTech Associate Professor Department of Sociology Edward Fletcher Quantitative Researcher, PathTech Assistant Professor Career and Workforce Education University of South Florida

 Determine educational pathways of individuals entering STEMH technician and professional jobs Demographic characteristics High school course-taking High school academic achievement 2 year and 4 year college enrollment Degree attainment Purpose

Theoretical Framework  Status attainment  Societal rewards and individual resources  SES, education, and employment factors (Blau & Duncan, 1967)  SES, mental ability, academic performance, etc. (Sewell, Haller, & Ohlendorf, 1969)  Schooling experiences  Tracking research

Methods  Ex-post facto (causal-comparative)  1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth  National random sample of 4,715 participants  Longitudinal  Timing of educational events (i.e., enrollment in 2- year and 4-year degree programs and degree attainment)  Hierarchical Linear Modeling  Model person-level predictors to both status and change

Methods (continued)  2009 Occupational outcomes  STEMH technician jobs  Engineering and related technicians  Life, physical, and social science technicians  Health care technical and support  STEMH professional jobs  Mathematical and computer scientists  Engineers, architects, and surveyors  Physical scientists  Health diagnosis and treating practitioners

Findings

Findings (continued)

Discussion  Females were significantly more likely to obtain employment in technician occupations and less likely to be employed in STEMH professional occupations  Research has revealed significant income and occupation choice disparities between male and females (Fletcher, 2009, 2012; Jantzer, Stalides, & Rottinghaus, 2009; Levenson, 2006)  Participation in CTE and dual programs were significantly related to technician and STEMH occupation participation  This finding is quite promising for dual program completers and substantiates prior research which used the NLSY 1997 dataset and found CTE graduates to be more likely to participate in STEM occupations compared to general education graduates in 2006 (Fletcher, 2009)

Significance  Silverberg, Warner, Fong, and Goodwin (2004) posited the most critical issue for CTE and federal legislation is investigating and understanding how well students in CTE programs fare during school and beyond  Research has found short and medium term advantages for CTE graduates in regard to labor market outcomes (Fletcher, 2009; Lerman, 2007; Silverberg et al., 2004)  Little is known of long-term workforce outcomes associated with differentiated schooling experiences  This study reveals individuals who participated in CTE and dual tracks are more likely to acquire STEMH occupations  The implementation of STEM career academies might be a promising initiative for increasing long-term occupational status attainment