Health and STEM Career Expectations and Science Achievement of U.S. 15-Year-Old High School Students

In 2015, some 40 percent of all U.S. 15-year-old students expected to have either a health or STEM career at age 30. Specifically, 23 percent expected to have a health career and 16 percent expected to have a career in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. A new National Center for Education Statistics brief, Health and STEM Career Expectations and Science Literacy Achievement of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students, analyzes health and STEM career expectations and science achievement by gender, race/ethnicity, immigration status, and socioeconomic status. Key findings: In 2015, while a greater percentage of male students (26 percent) expected a STEM career than female students (7 percent), there was no measurable difference in the science literacy scores of male and female students who anticipated a STEM career. The percentage of students expecting health or STEM careersvaried by economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), with a greater percentage of students from the high ESCS quarter expecting health or STEM careers than students from lower ESCS quarters. Average science literacy scores of students expecting health or STEM careers ranged from 469 points for low-ESCS students to 561 points for high-ESCS students, a gap of 92 points. A greater percentage of Asian students (50 percent) reported health or STEM career expectations than did Black students (38 percent), Hispanic students (39 percent), and students of Two or more races (39 percent). For students expecting STEM careers, White students scored 575 points on average, which was 113 points higher than Black students’ average score of 462 points and 57 points higher than Hispanic students’ average score of 518 points. While first-generation immigrants were as likely to report health career expectations as native-born students, there was a 58-point science literacy score gap favoring native-born students expecting health jobs. This report uses U.S. data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a nationally representative study of 15-year-old students. In 2015, science literacy was the main assessment domain of PISA, and the student questionnaires included an open-ended question asking students about their career expectations.