Computer Science for All? The Impact of High School Computer Science Courses on College Majors and Earnings

Jing Liu (), Cameron Conrad () and David Blazar ()
Additional contact information
Jing Liu: University of Texas at Austin
Cameron Conrad: University of Maryland
David Blazar: University of Maryland

No 16758, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study provides the first causal analysis of the impact of expanding Computer Science (CS) education in U.S. K-12 schools on students' choice of college major and early career outcomes. Utilizing rich longitudinal data from Maryland, we exploit variation from the staggered rollout of CS course offerings across high schools. Our findings suggest that taking a CS course increases students' likelihood of declaring a CS major by 10 percentage points and receiving a CS BA degree by 5 percentage points. Additionally, access to CS coursework raises students' likelihood of being employed and early career earnings. Notably, students who are female, low socioeconomic status, or Black experience larger benefits in terms of CS degree attainment and earnings. However, the lower take-up rates of these groups in CS courses highlight a pressing need for targeted efforts to enhance their participation as policymakers continue to expand CS curricula in K-12 education.

Keywords: computer science; STEM; high school curricula; college major choice; earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 74 pages
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp16758.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16758

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().