For nearly 20 years, academic strategies, support and policies focused on closing long-standing achievement gaps in STEM between boys and girls. These efforts paid off, and by 2019, girls’ achievement in math and science equaled or exceeded boys’. Then the pandemic hit, and the gaps between boys' and girls' STEM skills that took two decades to close were back.

My colleagues and I at NWEA, an education assessment and research company, recently released new research examining how the pandemic impacted achievement for boys and girls in math and science. We looked at scores from three large national assessments (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and NWEA’s MAP Growth). The data highlighted two main trends:

  • The achievement gap in math and science reemerged during the pandemic, once again favoring boys. However, an achievement gap did not resurface in reading, where girls continue to outperform boys.
  • Looking at high-achieving students, boys showed significantly higher scores across assessments than girls in both math and science, demonstrating the slip in girls’ STEM skills. For low-achieving students, however, boys’ scores were lower than girls’.

These trends are not limited to the U.S. Other English-speaking countries show similar gaps, pointing to a broader issue. A similar trend is seen more locally.  On the NAEP assessments, which provide California-specific data for eighth grade math, the results mirror the nation. In 2019, California boys and girls had an average math score that was not significantly different. By 2024, however, boys had an average score that was 6 points higher than girls’ in math.

Our research also looked at enrollment by boys and girls in eighth grade algebra across 1,300 U.S. schools. Enrollment in this math course is often used as a predictor of future enrollment in higher-level math in high school, as well as a predictor of participation in college and career opportunities in STEM fields. In 2019, girls enrolled at higher levels than boys in eighth grade algebra (26% vs 24%). By 2022, enrollment had declined for both groups, with the drop-off for girls being slightly sharper than for boys. While the decline was experienced by both, enrollment for boys in algebra had bounced back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

Read the full article about girls’ STEM skills by Megan Kuhfeld at EdSource.