GirlTECH: Girls and Science 2000

A Troublesome Trend

The low numbers and poor academic preparation of black and Mexican American men are of grave concern. Men in these two ethnic groups have the lowest levels of academic preparation for college of any subgroup and are greatly outnumbered by women in these groups.

"If such trends continue," College Board President Donald Stewart said, "the nation will lack a cadre of well-educated black and Mexican American men well into the next century."

Women making great academic strides

Gretchen W. Rigol, executive director of Admissions and Guidance Services for the College Board, pointed out that women not only outnumber men in college today but have also been stepping up their study of science and math in high school and aspiring to more advanced degrees in college.

"Over the past decade, women who take the SAT have increased their study of chemistry to the point where they now exceed men, and they are not far behind men in the study of precalculus and calculus," she said. "Such preparation is enabling more young women to undertake college majors and enter professions that were closed to them in years past."

She said record numbers of women are selecting majors related to health today. One woman in four plans to major in "health and allied services." Majors in "business and commerce" now attract only 11 percent of women, down from 23 percent 10 years ago.

Ms. Rigol pointed out that more women than men plan to go on for Master's and Ph.D. degrees today,, a finding that reverses the situation of 10 years ago and is most evident for women in minority groups. Fully 65 percent of Asian American, black, and Hispanic/Latina women who take the SAT are interested in postgraduate degrees--a level matched only by Asian American men.

Ms. Rigol said women continue to get higher grades than men, and that grading is not uniform across subjects. This year, students' high school grade averages in six academic subject areas ranged from a low of 3.02 in mathematics to a high of 3.70 in arts/music. Women took fewer mathematics courses and more arts/music courses, and their overall grade average was 3.29, compared to the 3.13 average of men.

College-level AP trends

Reflecting trends observed with the SAT, almost 30 percent of the test takers were ethnic minorities, up from 19 percent 10 years ago, and women outnumbered men. The female majority is particularly large for black and Mexican American AP students, who are more than 60 percent female.

"We can only imagine what such trends mean for the future," Mr. Curry said. He pointed out that over the past decade women's participation has tripled in AP calculus, chemistry, physics, and other science courses and in the number of women receiving the top AP Examination grade in math and science. In that time, men's participation in math and science courses has doubled, as has the number of top grades they receive on related AP Exams.

Next: What Can We Learn from 1999 SAT STATS?

URL http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/pres/eyh2000/gtech2000b.html