When it was released in September, the latest national assessment showed some upsetting, although not surprising, trends.
Considered a good window into how K-12 students in the U.S. are faring, the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP — known as the country’s “report card” — returned a poor grade, with more grim statistics about the postpandemic period. Chief among them were figures that seemed to show that students are less prepared than ever to enter college or the workforce, and that the difference between high-performing students and low-performing students noted in previous assessments is becoming entrenched.
It also contained another morbid suggestion, that girls are once again performing markedly worse than boys in science.
In prior years, the gender performance gap across some subjects had narrowed, thanks in part to the ways schools spent federal relief money, according to some experts. But lately, similar to results in math, the gap has reemerged.
The national assessment that contained these figures immediately became part of the Trump administration’s bitterly contested attempts to dismantle and siphon resources away from public education.
So now, with schools facing staffing shortages, enrollment declines, pinched budgets and a contested political future, what’s known about the unwelcome reappearance of the gender performance gap in STEM, and can schools make it disappear again?
Both Sides of the Equation
The gender gap in performance is not just an American issue, as global studies have identified similar gender gaps. For instance, the largest of the performance gaps in science and math between boys and girls occur in Canada, France, Italy, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Spain, according to a research note on gender gaps in OECD countries. Further research has purported to show that, in France, those gaps emerge in math very early in students’ academic careers.
There isn’t a single cause, argues Christy Hovanetz, a senior policy analyst at ExcelinEd.
She notes that American student performance data contains interesting exceptions. Across a number of states, the performance gap between the genders in eighth-grade math is slimmer or even favors girls, she notes.
What’s more, having the gap close doesn’t necessarily speak to wholly good trends.
It’s important to note that the closure of the gender gap in recent years was fueled by boys’ decline in performance, says Hovanetz. For instance, female students had improved consistently in science scores over the past few assessments, even as boys’ performance worsened. But in the latest assessment, girls’ scores in eighth-grade science have declined more rapidly than boys’, though both are falling.
Hovanetz adds: “Even though there might be gaps, it doesn't mean that the group that is performing better is knocking it out of the park.”
It’s also not just gender.
Previous research from Sean Reardon at Stanford University has also noted that race and income is important to grasping these gender gaps. According to his research, white, affluent boys score better than white, affluent girls in math; while in racially diverse, low-income districts girls can actually outperform boys. (Reardon recently told EdSurge via email that he’s investigating the data around the latest gaps and does not yet have comments about them to report.)
Hovanetz thinks it’s vital to keep these intricacies in mind when weighing how schools should respond.
But just because it’s complex doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.
For Hovanetz, improving student performance means implementing tougher accountability policies for schools. The specifics of the policy will depend on the subject, she says. In math, that means early identification of deficiencies and individual support for students, according to a policy document produced by her organization. The organization argues for schools to adopt “comprehensive math policies” in K-8, in the years before students enter algebra, which is a critical falling off point in science and math.
Few states have gender-specific education initiatives, says Hovanetz. It’s important for solutions at that level to include boys and girls, she adds. Programs like Black Girls Love Math — which EdSurge profiled over the summer — are effective initiatives aimed at girls specifically in math, she says. These programs are often funded outside of schools and they vary by community, others note. For instance, Black Girls Love Math operates in communities in the mid-Atlantic, but would not be accessible to students in other areas.
A Subtraction Problem
These trends may not be exclusive to the U.S., but a shifting national context may impact the problem.
The reemergence of the gap occurs at a tense time.
Schools are struggling with teacher shortages and enrollment declines. These teacher shortages can be devastating and are particularly pronounced in math and the sciences, and are especially worrisome in high-poverty districts. It’s only gotten worse since the pandemic, and a report from the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences says that “at least 47” states (out of 50) had teacher shortages in 2022-2023’s school year in elementary, middle or high school math.
Still struggling with this, public schools have become swept up in political battles. The release of NAEP’s scores was delayed and was used as a political cudgel to further the Trump administration’s attempts to wipe out the Education Department. Meanwhile, the administration desires to send an increasing share of public money to private school options, arguing that public schools have failed to deliver on educational promises for families. Together, these trends spell fewer dollars for public schools.
Does that context further imperil girls’ performance in science and math?
“It’s very much in danger,” says Alicia Conerly, a federal programs coordinator in Marion County School District in Mississippi. She is also the retiring president of the National Science Teaching Association, one of the biggest science teaching associations in the world.
Conerly contends that the rise in girls’ science and math performance came from an increase in early exposure to the math and science concepts as well as an increase in cultural emphasis on STEM, which exposed girls to a clearer picture of what a career in science looks like — including nontraditional careers such as in environmental science, which involves more hands-on work, say, checking oxygen levels in water samples. This makes more students actually want to pursue STEM subjects, she says. Early exposure to science is particularly important for K-4 students in rural public schools, Conerly notes.
After-school programs like Girls Who Code and the National Science Honor Society have proven useful for boosting interest and exposure to science, Conerly says.
But making real gains in these subjects early also meant curriculum changes. Intermingling the science into other subjects is also useful for convincing students of the value of these subjects: for example, finding quality English-Language Arts curriculums that incorporate science, she says.
That relied, at least in part, on federal pandemic relief funding, which has now lapsed.
A former district Conerly worked with, in Lawrence County, used relief funding to purchase a six-year subscription to Savvas Learning, whose ELA curriculum included an embedded science program, she says. That gave teachers a clear view of how to incorporate science into other lessons and helped win teacher buy-in, Conerly adds.
But with federal relief funding having vanished, and under a federal administration eager to rip away resources, the district only has one year left in that subscription. It’s not clear if they will be able to purchase more.
Districts like Conerly’s have taken to pooling resources, sharing information via Google Drive with other districts and relying on information from membership associations, Conerly says. They are also using free resources and figuring out how to thriftily buy replacement products for science kits and similar materials that enable students to have hands-on experiences, in order to retain as much effectiveness as possible, she says.
But whether they can find a way to reverse student declines in performance, counteracting deeply entrenched cultural trends, is another question.
