School-level Earth science course enrollment, student demographics, and Earth science performance

Student participation and performance in high school Earth science coursework is an important factor in scientific literacy and workforce readiness in geoscience fields. Many studies have shown that high school students have not experienced equitable access to Earth science education, and performance gaps persist for economically disadvantaged students and ethnic minorities underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study explored secondary Earth science access and mediating factors in the performance of students in New York State, where 70% of high school students take an Earth science course. A non-experimental, observational research design was used to explore school-level variables (locale, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and English language proficiency) and their relationship to students’ Earth science participation and performance. The sample included N = 1176 public schools and N = 153,749 Earth science students enrolled during the 2016–2017 academic year. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance indicated that urban schools with greater numbers of economically disadvantaged students and ethnic minorities underrepresented in STEM had a lower rate of student participation in Earth science as compared to rural and suburban schools. Mediation analyses were performed with a subset of the sample, including N = 45,549 enrolled Earth science students. Results indicated that school-level Earth science course enrollment was a partial mediator of the predictive value of demographic variables for Earth science performance with small to medium effects. This suggests that increasing Earth science access may improve school-level geoscience performance, particularly for economically disadvantaged students and ethnic minorities underrepresented in STEM. These findings suggest that school leaders and policy makers should institute targeted reforms that increase access to high school Earth science coursework, such as increasing science graduation requirements, the prevalence of Earth science standardized assessments, and the integration of life, physical, and Earth science instruction.