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?
