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Boys are surpassing girls in middle school math and science achievement, according to new research comparing three of the nation’s top academic assessments.
A study published Tuesday by the testing company NWEA shows a gender gap in eighth grade STEM achievement has returned following the pandemic.
Historically, boys have tested better than girls in math and science in middle school, said Megan Kuhfield, one of the NWEA report’s authors. But the gender gap disappeared in 2019, according to results from The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an assessment administered across dozens of countries every four years. For the first time since 1995, girls outperformed boys in eighth grade math and science that year.
But TIMSS scores released in December 2024 showed that girls’ performance substantially declined more than boys’ in eighth grade science and math. The study showed the same trend was found in two national tests: NWEA’s MAP Growth assessment and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Across all three tests, gender gaps in math and science went from almost nonexistent in 2019 to favoring boys starting in 2022. The MAP Growth assessment — which is administered annually — shows that the gaps widened mainly between 2021 and 2024, when students returned to classrooms.
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Kuhfield said the research is concerning because decades of progress in closing the gender gap for STEM achievement was wiped out in four years.
“It’s really hard to say definitively what’s happening here,” she said. “It’s the million-dollar question — why did we see these gaps close by 2019 and then reopen during the last five years?”
Researchers discovered that girls suffered more mental health challenges during COVID-19, but Kuhfield said if that was the main cause, reading test scores would have followed a similar pattern. Girls still outperformed boys in literacy on the latest NWEA and NAEP assessments, according to the study.
“That kind of led me to two other theories that are going on kind of in my head,” she said. “One being: Maybe there’s something about how teachers are interacting with students in the classroom — reinforcing old stereotypes of pushing boys [more] towards advanced math. We don’t have evidence of this.”
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Kuhfield said her other theory is that there’s been a shift in education to focus on boys’ academic achievement as researchers have found they are falling behind girls in school.
The NWEA study includes recommendations for schools to improve the equity in STEM education. Researchers suggest examining classroom dynamics and instructional practices to ensure boys aren’t receiving more teacher attention, and providing academic and emotional support — particularly to girls — to improve math and science skills.
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