Does Advanced High School Coursework Enhance Community College Women’s Pathways to Computing Degrees? Evidence from Florida
Lara Perez‐Felkner, Yang Li, Kristen Erichsen, Shouping Hu, Jinjushang Chen, Chantra Nhien, Ciera Fluker · Review of higher education/The review of higher education · 2025
Women remain problematically underrepresented in computing fields. Guided by the STEM momentum framework, we leverage Florida administrative data to investigate the relationship between community college students’ gender, advanced high school STEM coursework, and their pathways to postsecondary degrees. We find that advanced high school coursework functions differently by gender and STEM field. Notably, completing computing courses and advanced mathematics courses especially promotes community college women’s selection of STEM majors and completion of computing degrees. Implications for advanced high school course offerings are discussed with respect to research and policy, especially with respect to enhancing opportunities for community college students.