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 a. Need to examine high school science curriculum. An integrated curriculum may offer opportunities for improvement. NSTA is considering getting rid of layering of bio, chem, physics course in favor of an integrated approach-- great opportunity to subvert gender issues. 
 
b. K-8 textbooks very poor.

6. Overall, beginning after chemistry, girls take fewer science courses than boys. They don't drop out of these classes; they simply choose not to take them.

7. Similarly, of the high school students who are well-qualified to major in some area of science, math, or engineering in college, a much higher percentage of girls choose not to. The transition from h.s. to college is apparently a critical one: in a (1985) OTA study, this was found to be one of the points of steepest decline.

 a. A related study is the analysis of which undergraduates change majors, and why they change. [Seymour and Hewitt].
 
 b. Only slightly more females than males change major from math/science to other.


C. ACHIEVEMENT

1. Girls/women receive higher grades than boys/men in both math and science at all levels. That is, there is no difference favoring boys in math or science as measured by grades.

2. Math: there is no difference in achievement between boys and girls at any level as measured by standardized tests, except the SAT (i.e. boys and girls score the same on NAEP at all ages).

3. Science: girls/women consistently score lower on science multiple-choice standardized achievement tests than boys/men. 

 a. Results of standardized tests that employ essay questions are more ambiguous (in fact, girls do better on biology tests requiring essays).
 b. Ref: "A Fair Test", Gipps and Murphy; ETS book by Marcia Linn.

4. In science, the gap (as measured by NAEP) increases with age. 

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