2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Historically the STEM disciplines have not been inclusive. Workforce projections indicate that there is a growing need for STEM professionals and STEM degree programs are not keeping up with demand to meet workforce needs. Efforts to broaden interest in the STEM disciplines has been an ongoing effort with considerable investment from government agencies and private sector organizations. Participation in the STEM workforce still does not reflect population demographics. The research literature provides an evidence base that early STEM experiences can impact K-12 students intent to enroll in STEM degree programs. Over the last two decades pre-college engineering programs and pathways have been developed to interest and prepare K-12 students for engineering degree programs at the post-secondary level. A secondary goal of these pathways was to broaden interest in engineering professions and recruit a more diverse engineering pipeline. Pre-college programs that provide a positive STEM experience may increase the pipeline and diversity of students interested in pursuing STEM at the postsecondary level. The Project Lead the Way Program (PLTW) is one example of a pre-college engineering program implemented in all 50 states in the US in over 12,000 schools. This study examined district adoptions using the lens of Diffusion of Innovation Theory of engineering curriculum such as PLTW using a 12-year data set from Texas. Researchers examined adoption patterns of PLTW across the US with a deeper examination of Texas data. Factors that may influence adoption were examined including school size, expenditures, student demographics, and standardized test scores. Findings suggest that school size and socio-economic status have a significant impact on adoption of the PLTW engineering curriculum. It was also found that adopting districts enroll more students from underrepresented groups which may lead to broader participation in engineering.