The "RDE-FRI Collaborative Research: Students with Learning Disabilities: STEM Pathways in the Social Context" is designed to explore the effects of high school context, social and academic processes, as well as variations by demographic subgroup (racial, ethnic and linguistic minority, gender, class) among the population of students with learning disabilities, on college preparatory STEM achievement outcomes.
Data analyses will be conducted using information from the 2002-2006 National Center for Education Statistics's Education Longitudinal Study, a dataset that follows a nationally representative sample of students as they transition from high school into adulthood and post-secondary settings. This research will address the following four primary question sets:
I. Students with Learning Disabilities and Their Schools: The first line of investigation is to systematically describe the students identified with learning disabilities and the schools they attend. Are identification of a learning disability and the type of school associated with a student's socio-demographic characteristics - specifically, gender, race/ethnicity, social class, and/or language minority status and Limited English Proficiency (LEP)?
II. Academic Experiences: The second line of inquiry concentrates on systematically describing students' academic experiences through the courses that they take. We concentrate on the degree of mainstreaming, the specific coursework, and the pedagogy in their math classes. What types of organizational models of course-taking do students with learning disabilities experience? To what extent do they take courses that prepare them for postsecondary study and for advanced STEM coursework in high school and college? What pedagogical approaches do their teachers use? And, finally, do these patterns differ on the basis of students' socio-demographic characteristics?
III. Social Processes: Social Integration, Behavior, and Psychosocial Attitudes and Well-being: The third line of study will explore the social world of adolescents in their schools and then consider the social processes in relation to their academic experiences. To what extent are students with learning disabilities integrated into the social fabric of the school through relationships with peers, teachers, and adult mentors? In what academic and social behaviors do they engage in comparison with their peers without learning disabilities? How do students with learning disabilities perceive themselves, and do they have academic self-confidence, and STEM specific interest and confidence? To what extent are their social worlds a function of their academic experiences? And, finally, do these informal social processes and their relationships to academic experiences differ depending on the student's background (gender, race/ethnicity, social class, and/or language minority status and LEP)?
IV. STEM Pipeline and Academic Outcomes: The final line of inquiry will consider how schools, academic experiences, and informal social processes influence academic outcomes (graduation, college preparation, college enrollment, and STEM achievement) for high school students with learning disabilities. The impact of each set of factors will be examined separately and in combination. What types of schools and academic experiences facilitate students? college preparatory and, in particular, STEM success, and do these effects differ depending on students' socio-demographic characteristics?
Improving young adults' preparation to enter into STEM fields is crucial for the economic well-being of our nation. Students labeled with a learning disability have average or high intelligence and are often exceptionally creative and innovative, yet face a special set of social and academic needs in their pathways towards STEM preparation; they often learn differently than typical students. Identification with a learning disability may indicate these students need instructional or assessment accommodations to perform to their full potential. Although the accommodation may be important for the student’s success, the need for accommodations could also exacerbate the disadvantage. An unintended consequence of the label may be that the student is framed in a negative light. Understanding the academic barriers for this group of students represents a critical step toward increasing the STEM talent pool. This study investigated the academic progress, and especially progress toward a STEM degree, of high school students who were labeled with learning disabilities, compared to their peers who did not have the label. Findings focused on three aspects of students’ academic progress: (1) patterns of identification, with attention to disproportionate representation by race, ethnicity, social class, and home language; (2) completion of college preparatory coursework in general, and STEM preparation in particular; and (3) the possibility that the label of learning disability operates as a stigma to taint teachers’ attitudes toward the student, and even carry over into the students’ experiences at school. The findings are summarized below. First, African American and Hispanic students are more likely to be labeled with a learning disability than whites and Asians. However, it is important to recognize that this is due to the fact that greater proportions of this population of students live in low-income families and with parents who have lower levels of educational attainment. Once these socioeconomic indicators are taken into account, the racial differences in identification are explained, suggesting that observed racial and ethnic differences are aligned with socioeconomic disparities in the population subgroups. English as a second language students were more likely to be labeled with a learning disability, regardless of socioeconomic status. Second, students who are labeled with a learning disability may enter high school on track to complete college preparatory coursework, yet findings suggest that they are less likely to do so than their peers without the label. Only 62% of students labeled with a learning disability actually completed Algebra 2 by the end of high school —a core prerequisite for entry into STEM fields— even though they entered high school prepared to do so. In contrast, almost 100% of non-labeled students reach their potential in Algebra 2. With approximately 6% of high school students labeled with a learning disability, this represents a talent loss of over 23,000 students annually. The disparity in science is also severe, with only 18% of students who are labeled with a learning disability completing two out of three core college preparatory science courses, compared with 60% of the students’ academically similar peers who do not carry the label of learning disability. Finally, teachers’ expectations are vital for providing students academic opportunities through their guidance and encouragement. Fewer than half of all high school teachers expect their students labeled with a learning disability to graduate from college, even when the student enters high school academically on track to attend college. In contrast, the same teachers expect about two-thirds of academically similar but non-labeled students to graduate from college. These findings suggest that teachers may not fully understand the implications of the learning disability label as it relates to students’ academic potential. The label may also manifest in problems at school. Students labeled with a learning disability have lower levels of academic self-efficacy and higher levels of negative externalizing behavior, including selfreported tardiness, coming to class unprepared, and disruptive behavior. These issues can contribute to and be a function of social stigma, possibly related to the stigma of the learning disability label. Taken together the results suggest that the label of learning disability, while intended to provide instructional support to allow students to meet their academic potential, may also contribute to additional social barriers to students’ success. Attention to ensuring that students labeled with a learning disability receive full opportunities to take advanced coursework and prepare for college is essential.
