Gender Gaps

In addition to test scores and GPA, course taking in science is critical to understanding the landscape of science education. Advanced course taking prepares students to enter into science-related major, placing them on a trajectory to careers in the sciences (Wang, 2013). Similar, but more notable, gender gaps are observed in course taking. Girls lag behind boys in advance physics course taking in high school, even as they have reached parity in advanced mathematics courses (Riegle-Crumb & Moore, 2013). The gender gap has remained consistent over the past 30 years, even as the number of students taking advanced science courses has increased overall (Riegle-Crumb & Moore, 2013; Xie et al., 2015). In contrast, girls are overrepresented in advanced biology courses, again reflecting a difference in gender gaps by science domain (Xie et al., 2015).

Turning to differences in science course taking by race/ethnicity, we see that at the
These aspirations vary by race/ethnicity, with greater parity among White boys and girls than Hispanic or Black. Riegle-Crumb and colleagues (2012) also explored differences in science enjoyment and self-concept—how able students believe they are in the subject. In general, boys showed higher average enjoyment and self-concept in science than girls. However, again, the differences varied by race/ethnicity, with a smaller difference between white boys and girls and larger differences between Hispanic and Black boys and girls. Other research has demonstrated gaps in interest and affect between boys and girls, showing a persistent difference between the genders. That is, even when controlling for achievement, girls show less interest, motivation, self-confidence, and desire for a career in STEM fields (Xie et al.,