2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work-in-progress empirical research paper explores the factors influencing the STEM pathways of rural high school students as they transition to postsecondary education. Extant research indicates that rural students pursue higher education and STEM postsecondary education at lower rates than non-rural students, often due to limited access to college preparation and pre-college STEM learning opportunities. Moreover, rural students do not pursue higher education in the same patterns as their non-rural counterparts, and are more likely to first enroll in a community college rather than a four-year institution. However, little is known about rural students who do pursue STEM and how their STEM interests, identities, and efficacies might vary across individual characteristics, different STEM disciplines, and enrollment in various types of institutions (e.g., four-year institutions and community colleges). Thus, the purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to explore rural STEM students’ affective STEM characteristics in relation to postsecondary STEM enrollment and other individual characteristics.

Using the lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), we leveraged descriptive statistics and cluster analysis to explore public-use data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS:09) dataset provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to characterize rural STEM students’ postsecondary pathways. The HSLS:09 dataset consists of data collected from over 23,000 high school students starting in 9th grade in 2009, with follow-up data collection waves in 2012 (11th grade) and 2016 (three years after high school). The dataset includes variables aligned with SCCT related to students’ math and science interests, identities, and efficacies, as well as postsecondary enrollment, and demographic information. We leveraged k-medoid clustering to identify clusters based on rural students’ STEM engagement, interest, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations, as well as their enrollment patterns. Preliminary exploratory cluster analysis suggests differences in institutional characteristics of where rural students pursue STEM, highlighting different clusters of students at more moderately selective four-year institutions and community colleges. Additionally, preliminary analysis suggests that affective STEM characteristics are related to both institutional characteristics and STEM pursuits.

Further analysis will seek to explore differences between rural STEM students in these clusters by focusing, for example, on those rural students who pursue engineering compared to students pursuing other STEM degrees. Findings from this study will highlight the nuances within rural students’ STEM pathways, leading to recommendations for engaging with rural students and supporting rural STEM students, particularly at more selective four-year institutions and community colleges.