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塑造专业选择:高中辅导员的作用

Shaping Major Choice: The Role of High School Counselors
NBER Working Papers · 2026 · [{"name": "Kennedy Johnston", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Jonathan Meer", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Danila Serra", "affiliation": []}]

中文摘要

既有研究表明,高中升学顾问能够显著影响学生的毕业率和大学入学率;但对于其引导学生选择特定学习领域的能力,人们所知甚少。我们评估了一项旨在提高升学顾问对经济学专业认知的信息干预——经济学是一门常因其内容和职业机会而被误解的专业,且女性以及种族和族裔少数群体的代表性均严重不足。来自随机抽取的得克萨斯州高中的升学顾问受邀参加了一场为期一天的经济学专业信息研讨会。我们利用一所大型公立大学的申请与录取数据(该校有大量来自处理学校的毕业生就读),以及得克萨斯州教育研究中心的入学和选课记录,评估了该干预对学生专业偏好及结果的影响。该干预使大学申请阶段学生对经济学的兴趣大幅增加,尤其是在成绩优异的女性中,但并未使大学专业选择结果出现统计显著的变化。我们得出结论:高中升学顾问可以在塑造学生的学习领域偏好方面发挥重要作用,但要将偏好转化为实际入学选择,还需要额外的接触与强化。

Abstract

Existing studies show that high school counselors can significantly influence students' graduation rates and college enrollment; less is known about their ability to direct students toward particular fields of study. We evaluate an information intervention aimed at increasing counselors' awareness of economics, a major often associated with misconceptions about its content and career opportunities, and characterized by substantial under-representation of women and racial and ethnic minorities. Counselors from randomly selected Texas high schools were invited to participate in a one-day information workshop on the economics major. We evaluate the impact of the intervention on students' major preferences and outcomes using application and admissions data from a large public university attended by many graduates from the treatment schools, as well as enrollment and course-taking records from the Texas Education Research Center. The intervention led to substantial increases in interest in economics at the college application stage, particularly among high-achieving women, but did not lead to significant changes in college major outcomes. We conclude that high school counselors can play an important role in shaping students' field-of-study preferences, but translating preferences into enrollment requires additional exposure and reinforcement.
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