Are boys and girls equally capable of doing science?
Research shows that girls and boys have similar mathematics and science proficiency scores at age nine. However, as girls enter middle school, a gender gap begins to develop. Girls’ grades in math and science begin to plummet, and girls become progressively less likely to take elective courses in these subjects. This downward spiral is especially severe for girls of color, girls with disabilities, girls living in poverty, and girls who are learning English as a new language. Work done by the WEEA Equity Resource Center and the New England Comprehensive Assistance Center has continued to show that female students’ success in math and science has less to do with their innate abilities than with the ways in which educators create environments, structure classroom interactions, and provide appropriate learning experiences. Such experiences support equal expectations of excellence for both girls and boys, while at the same time valuing the different ways of knowing that each gender brings i
