Girls, having made strides to close the math gender gap in California schools before the COVID-19 pandemic, are now falling behind their boy peers in San Diego County.
In 2019, girls in third through eighth grade had higher math scores than boys in a third of local districts, according to an EdSource analysis using data from the Stanford Education Data Archive. But at the close of the 2023-24 school year, only one could claim that statistic.
The data analysis showed that the regression is happening statewide.
An outlier: Del Mar Union saw average math scores rise for both boys and girls, with girls taking the lead. The district also leads the county with the highest math scores for both groups. Del Mar Union is just one of three districts in the state to see girls take the lead, and the only one of the three to have math proficiency rise across the board.
The Flip: These school districts all saw the highest average math scores shift from girls to boys:
- Chula Vista Elementary
- San Ysidro Elementary
- National Elementary
- Cajon Valley Union
- La Mesa-Spring Valley
- Lemon Grove
- Escondido Union
- Oceanside Unified
- Fallbrook Union Elementary
Together, they represent about 30% of the third through eighth grade population within San Diego County districts.
The reason: Murky at best. “It wasn’t something like COVID happened and girls just fell apart,” Megan Kuhfeld, director of growth modeling and data analytics for the education research company NWEA, told EdSource. Some suggest continued gender stereotypes in STEM fields may be holding girls back. There’s also a worry that rising behavior problems among boys have led teachers to give them more attention.
Zooming out: Girls across California aren’t enrolling in eighth grade algebra at the same rate they did before the pandemic — a decrease from 27% to 25% by 2024, according to NWEA research.
Explore the changes: Here’s a look at unified and elementary school districts across San Diego. Tap on the district to compare average math test scores in the 2018-19 academic year to 2023-24 for both boys and girls.
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News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
