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| Guan Saw co-authors study about disparities in math achievement and motivational factors among Hispanic high school students and their peers. Photo: UTSA Today |
A researcher at The University of Texas at San Antonio has co-authored a study examining important cognitive and non-cognitive predictors of entering science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields for Hispanic high school students.
Guan Saw, assistant professor of educational psychology in the UTSA College of Education and Human Development (COEHD), worked alongside Chi-Ning Chang, doctoral student from Texas A&M University, to investigate whether and to what extent math achievement and motivational factors for Hispanic high school students differ from that of their White, Black and Asian peers.
"A recent analysis using 2014-2016 American Community Survey Data, provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, showed that while Hispanics accounted for 16% of employed adults ages 25 and older, only 7% of STEM jobs were held by Hispanics, the lowest percentage compared with other racial/ethnic groups. We were aware that there is a critical need to study the distinctive developmental patterns of STEM-related cognitive and non-cognitive factors for Hispanic students in high schools, a crucial life stage with adolescents forming and reshaping their career orientations," said Saw.
In the study, published in the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, the pair analyzed the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
The study traced students' educational trajectories from high school into postsecondary education. It also explored factors at the high school level that could affect STEM participation in college and the workforce.
Saw and Chang studied responses from more than 18,000 Hispanic, White, Black and Asian respondents in early ninth grade and late 11th grade.
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Source: UTSA Today
