Communications of the ACM
Study Highlights Striking Racial and Gender Gaps in High School STEM
High school boys are significantly more likely than girls to take engineering and technology classes.
Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
High school boys are significantly more likely to take engineering and technology classes and to consider pursuing postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, despite the fact that male and female students are earning high school math and science credits at similar rates, according to the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) High School Transcript Study. The study also found black and Hispanic students are much less likely than white students to take upper-level STEM courses.
The NCES researchers found boys and girls tended to take the same amount of total STEM credits, and although girls earned slightly more credits on average than boys in science and math, boys earned more credits in computer science and engineering. Meanwhile, about 21 percent of males earned credit in engineering and technology, but only 8 percent of females did the same. About 33 percent of male students were considering a STEM major, compared to 14 percent of females, according to the study.
In terms of race, nearly 42 percent of Asian students were considering majoring in STEM, compared to 25 percent of white students, 20 percent of Hispanic students, and 15 percent of black students.
From Education Week
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