Who’s Taking What? “Applied STEM” Coursetaking for High School Students With Learning Disabilities

Increasing and improving the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) educational pipeline has been a point of emphasis for decades, federal policy in United States urged high schools to embed new types STEM courses into curriculum. As one example, applied courses—one growing branch within career technical education (CTE)—are designed reinforce traditional academic content motivate students’ interests long-term pursuits areas. That said, little is known about who takes these courses, applied-STEM-CTE enrollment not explored research students with learning disabilities. Using High School Longitudinal Study (a nationally representative data set school students), we asked whether CTE coursetaking differed disabilities compared those without disabilities, there were specific differences applied-STEM-CTE. We found that more likely earn units Yet, when looking at see although than do take different amounts courses. Implications are discussed.