A Snapshot of Virginia’s High School-to- Postsecondary Engineering and Computer Science Enrollments

Enrollment in engineering and computer science postsecondary degree programs and careers (note: hereafter encapsulated by “engineering”) is not equally distributed across all segments of the population, despite continued investments and efforts to address this gap. This study aimed to better understand the transition from high school into enrollment in postsecondary engineering and computer science bachelor’s programs. Although our original goal was to examine enrollments across all Virginia public high schools for students attending a four-year university, either directly from high school or transferring from community college, we broadened the analysis to consider enrollments in engineering programs at community colleges as well based on early findings. We tracked (anonymous) individual students from Virginia public high schools into postsecondary enrollment (N=685,429 students, high school graduating years 2007-2014) using data from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (VLDS). The VLDS connects student-level administrative data from the Department of Education (PK-12) to postsecondary records from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. To better understand or “unpack” why certain schools and divisions yield different engineering enrollment rates, we explored student data in VLDS, such as high school course taking, and also interviewed administrators, school counselors, and teachers from five purposefully sampled regional sites across the state. It is important to note that these data are based on cohorts that completed high school and enrolled in postsecondary institutions prior to the existence of COVID-19. It is too early to understand the effects of COVID-19 on pathways into engineering and computer science postsecondary institutions, but we would anticipate that observed inequities would likely deepen. Our results shed light on demographic and school-based patterns that could be used to (a) guide conversations around local and state policy; and (b) increase and broaden enrollment in engineering in Virginia. In addition to this summary report, we include: 1) analyses specific to your high school/division, and 2) a reflective tool aimed to help guide conversations with local stakeholders to think through these reports and analyses.