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Project Lead the Way: Impacts of a High School Applied STEM Program on Early Post-Secondary Outcomes

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Abstract

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is an applied STEM program, first introduced nearly three decades ago, designed to enhance the STEM content of Career Technical Education (CTE). Currently, more than 12,000 US high schools offer the program. Using data from three cohorts of public high school freshmen in Missouri, we investigate the impact of PLTW program offer (ITT), participation impacts on participants (TOT), and the impact of program offer on non-participants on initial post-secondary outcomes. We use a difference-in-difference (DiD) analysis for ITT and a principal score weighted DiD to estimate TOT and the impacts of program offer on non-participants. The parallel trends assumption is also tested and not rejected. We find large positive ITT impacts on STEM major declaration among students with higher STEM preparation levels. ITT impacts on college enrollment are less conclusive. We find no evidence that the program offer affected outcomes for PLTW non-participants. Over a range of estimation strategies, we find large and robust positive TOT effects on STEM major declaration.

Suggested Citation

  • Takako Nomi & Darrin DeChane & Michael Podgursky, 2025. "Project Lead the Way: Impacts of a High School Applied STEM Program on Early Post-Secondary Outcomes," Working Papers 2505, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:2505
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    Keywords

    High School Applied STEM Program; Career Technical Education; Post-Secondary Outcomes; Quasi-Experimental Design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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