Genetic associations with mathematics tracking and persistence in secondary school

K Paige Harden,Michel Nivard,Elliot M Tucker-Drob,Daniel W Belsky,Kathleen Mullan Harris,Robert Crosnoe,Margherita Malanchini,Jason D Boardman,Benjamin W Domingue

doi:10.1038/s41539-020-0060-2

Abstract

Maximizing the flow of students through the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline is important to promoting human capital development and reducing economic inequality. A critical juncture in the STEM pipeline is the highly cumulative sequence of secondary school math courses. Students from disadvantaged schools are less likely to complete advanced math courses. Here, we conduct an analysis of how the math pipeline differs across schools using student polygenic scores, which are DNA-based indicators of propensity to succeed in education. We integrated genetic and official school transcript data from over 3000 European-ancestry students from U.S. high schools. We used polygenic scores as a molecular tracer to understand how the flow of students through the high school math pipeline differs in socioeconomically advantaged versus disadvantaged schools. Students with higher education polygenic scores were tracked to more advanced math already at the beginning of high school and persisted in math for more years. Analyses using genetics as a molecular tracer revealed that the dynamics of the math pipeline differed by school advantage. Compared to disadvantaged schools, advantaged schools buffered students with low polygenic scores from dropping out of math. Across all schools, even students with exceptional polygenic scores (top 2%) were unlikely to take the most advanced math classes, suggesting substantial room for improvement in the development of potential STEM talent. These results link new molecular genetic discoveries to a common target of educational-policy reforms.

Highlights

Math matters for economic success.[1]
While these analyses suggest a robust association between the educational attainment PGS and persistence, within-family analyses suggested that the polygenic score is not Higher socioeconomic status (SES) schools buffer the risks faced by students predicted to struggle in math Building on recent evidence,[26,31] we conducted two analyses of how STEM pipeline dynamics varied by school advantage
Students with higher education polygenic scores tended to enroll in more advanced mathematics tracks in the 9thgrade, and they were more likely to persist in these tracks through the end of high school

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Math matters for economic success.[1]. American students who take math courses beyond Algebra 2 are more likely to enroll in college and complete a STEM degree[2,3,4] and have better labor market outcomes.[5,6,7] Students from low-income families and schools are less likely to take advanced math courses in secondary school, which impairs their entry to post-secondary STEM education and to a STEM career.[8,9,10] There are, continuing debates about whether the underrepresentation of low-income students in STEM is due to the diminished resources available to their schools and families or, rather, due to those students having lower aptitude or interest in math.[8,11,12,13,14] Despite the intense focus on STEM outcomes, it is challenging to conduct rigorous studies of whether and how schools differ in the flow of students through the math pipeline. Controlling for tracking in the 9th-grade, the education-PGS again remained associated with persistence (b = 0.087, SE = 0.012, 95% CI = [0.061, 0.11]) While these analyses suggest a robust association between the educational attainment PGS and persistence, within-family analyses suggested that the polygenic score is not Higher SES schools buffer the risks faced by students predicted to struggle in math Building on recent evidence,[26,31] we conducted two analyses of how STEM pipeline dynamics varied by school advantage. There was a significant and negative interaction on mathematics persistence, such that low-PGS students were less likely to drop out of math if attending high-status schools as compared to lowstatus schools (b = −0.304, SE = 0.074, 95% CI = [−0.443, −0.147]; Supplementary Table 4). Developed in European-ancestry populations has the potential to exacerbate pre-existing health disparities, using polygenic

DISCUSSION

METHODS

Findings

CODE AVAILABILITY