In the Guise of STEM Education Reform: Opportunity Structures and Outcomes in Inclusive STEM-Focused High Schools

• Published in: American educational research journal 2015-12, Vol.52 (6), p.1024-1059
• Main Authors: Weis, Lois, Eisenhart, Margaret, Cipollone, Kristin, Stich, Amy E., Nikischer, Andrea B., Hanson, Jarrod, Leibrandt, Sarah Ohle, Allen, Carrie D., Dominguez, Rachel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Colorado; Comparative Analysis; Disproportionate Representation; Education reform; Educational Change; Educational Opportunities; Equal Education; Ethnography; High School Students; Inclusion; Interviews; Longitudinal Studies; Low income groups; Low Income Students; Mathematics education; Minority Group Students; Minority students; New York; Outcomes of Education; Participant Observation; Science education; Secondary schools; Social and Institutional Analysis; STEM Education; Technology education; Urban Schools
• ISSN: 0002-8312; 1935-1011
• DOI: 10.3102/0002831215604045

In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of "inclusive STEM-focused schools," to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students. Although introduced with great fanfare, the data indicate that well-meaning efforts toward expanding opportunities in STEM-focused schools for low-income underrepresented minorities quickly dissolved. We focus on mechanisms that seem to underlie this dissolution and consider its contributions to short- and long-term inequalities.