When computer science courses are delivered through career and technical education in high school, the courses can help students with learning disabilities feel better about their ability to succeed in STEM. The classes also help the students see the usefulness of computer science.
This is what we found in a recent study with our co-authors – education scholars Michael Gottfried, Jennifer Freeman.
We used national survey data from more than 20,000 students across the country to dig into this connection between computer science and science, technology, engineering or mathematics, a group of subjects generally known as STEM.
In our work, we found that – compared with other students with learning disabilities – those who took computer science courses in a career and technical education program were more likely to believe they could succeed in STEM. They were also more likely to believe STEM was useful for future employment or college options.
We also found that – within career and technical education programs – students with learning disabilities were just as likely to take computer science courses as students without learning disabilities. All our findings were still evident even after we took into account key student characteristics, such as family income, first language, gender and racial or ethnic identity.
Students with learning disabilities in our study are those who have a disability that affects their learning to write, read, spell or perform mathematical calculations.
Why it matters
Computer science is one of the fastest-growing fields in the current economy. Employment experts predict a 13% increase – about 667,000 new jobs – in these computer occupations from 2020 to 2030. That’s more than three times the rate of anticipated overall job growth.
However, there have not been enough computer science graduates in recent years to fill these jobs.
Based on our work, computer science courses appear to help students with learning disabilities develop positive attitudes toward STEM. These attitudes are linked to persistence in both computer science and STEM more generally. This makes it important for educators to encourage students to study, and stick with, computer science and STEM and make sure these students have access to these courses.
At the moment, students with learning disabilities are underrepresented in computer science fields in college and the labor market. Specifically, fewer than 8% of students in undergraduate computer science programs have any disability. This is compared with about 19% of all undergraduates.
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