ABSTRACT This article investigates whether attending a community college is related to an increase in the number of students majoring and graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at four‐year colleges. We follow a longitudinal sample of students in North Carolina from middle school through college graduation, including some who attended a community college. Our multilevel models indicate that for our sample of students, who attended a four‐year institution and declared a major within 6 years of high school graduation, ever attending a community college and/or starting post‐secondary education at a community college have a significant positive relationship with their likelihood of declaring and graduating with a STEM major. Results hold true even after controlling for sample self‐selection through propensity score matching techniques. Our findings also show that the benefits of community college attendance on students’ likelihood of declaring and graduating with a STEM major are not restricted to only low‐SES students. Overall, this study supports the notion that two‐year colleges could work as means of helping push students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds into STEM.

中文翻译：

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社区学院在学生选择 STEM 专业中的重要性

摘要 本文调查就读社区大学是否与四年制大学科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 专业和毕业学生人数增加有关。我们跟踪了北卡罗来纳州从中学到大学毕业的学生的纵向样本，其中包括一些就读社区大学的学生。我们的多层次模型表明，对于就读四年制大学并在高中毕业后 6 年内宣布专业的学生样本，曾就读社区大学和/或在社区大学开始专上教育的学生有显着的与他们宣布和毕业 STEM 专业的可能性呈正相关。即使在通过倾向得分匹配技术控制样本自我选择后，结果仍然成立。我们的研究结果还表明，社区大学出勤率对学生申报和毕业 STEM 专业的可能性的好处不仅限于低 SES 学生。总体而言，这项研究支持两年制大学可以作为帮助推动来自不同社会经济背景的学生进入 STEM 的手段的观点。