Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early "gatekeeping" courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This…

Additional to the lack of gender and ethnic diversity, the attrition rate among Physics and Engineering undergraduates is as high as 40%. Considering the impact of STEM gateway course on students' choice of major, we investigated the association between students' Expectancy-Value beliefs at the beginning of the class with their intent to persist…

High school students from lower-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are less likely to enroll in advanced mathematics and science courses compared to students from higher-SES backgrounds. The current longitudinal study draws on identity-based and expectancy-value theories of motivation to explain the SES and mathematics and science…