During their K-12 education, girls’ and young women’s achievement in mathematics and science is on par with that of boys and young men and young women participate in high level STEM courses at similar rates as young men. 

STEM Achievement 

Source: National Science Board, National Science Foundation. 2021. Elementary and Secondary STEM Education. Science and Engineering Indicators 2022. NSB-2021-1. Alexandria, VA. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20211/ 

• In general, female and male students perform equally well in mathematics and science on standardized tests, but larger gaps exist between students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds or family income, with white and Asian/Pacific Islander students and those from higher income families scoring higher than their counterparts who are Black, Hispanic, or American Indian/Alaska Native or who are from lower income families. 

• In 2019, male students slightly outscored female students by 3 points in fourth grade in 2019 on a national math assessment, but there was no difference in scores between males and females in eighth grade. Female students outscored male students by 23 points on an assessment of computer and information literacy. 

• The NAEP 2019 mathematics data show that scores for Black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native students persistently lag behind the scores of their White and Asian peers. There are potentially many contributing factors to this persistent lag, including lack of access to high-quality STEM instruction and structural and systemic educational and societal inequities that affect students’ educational experiences and performance (Bowman, Comer, and Johns 2018; Hanushek et al. 2020; Pearman 2020; Reardon, Kalogrides, and Shores 2019). 

• Score gaps also exist at both grade levels between students from low- and high-SES families,​ students with and without disabilities, and students who are and are not English language learners. 

STEM Coursetaking 

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study, 2019. Available at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ 

• In 2019, about 44 percent of female high school graduates completed a precalculus, statistics, or trigonometry course as their highest level of mathematics, a higher percent compared to the 38 percent of male graduates who completed a precalculus, statistics, or trigonometry course as their highest level of mathematics. For high school graduates who have calculus as their highest level course in 2019, no significant gender gap exists, with 16 percent of both male and female graduates completing a calculus course.  

• The percentage of female high school graduates in 2019 earning credits in advanced science courses increased to 36 percent compared to 24 percent in 2009, while the percentage of male graduates increased to 29 percent in 2019 compared to 21 percent in 2009.  

• In 2019, a higher percentage of male graduates took first-year physics courses as their highest level science when compared to female graduates. Conversely, a higher percentage of female graduates took first-year chemistry courses as their highest level science course than male graduates. These gender gaps for chemistry and physics have persisted over all reported years.  

• In 2019, about 91 percent of female high school graduates earned credits in STEM advanced mathematics courses, a higher percent compared to the 88 percent of male graduates who earned credits in STEM advanced mathematics courses.  

• In 2019, about 90 percent of female high school graduates earned credits in STEM advanced science and engineering courses, 3 percentage points higher compared to male graduates.  

• In 2019, about 41 percent of male high school graduates earned credit in STEM-related technical courses, a higher percent compared to the 37 percent of female graduates who earned credit in STEM-related technical courses.