This article investigates the empirical basis for often-repeated arguments that gender differences in entrance into STEM majors are largely explained by disparities in prior achievement. Analyses use data from three national cohorts of college matriculates across three decades to consider differences across several indicators of high school math and science achievement at the mean and also at the top of the test distribution. Analyses also examine the different comparative advantages men and women enjoy in math/science vs. English/reading. Regardless of how prior achievement is measured, very little of the strong and persistent gender gap in physical science and engineering majors over time is explained. Findings highlight the limitations of theories focusing on gender differences in skills and suggest directions for future research.

Our study utilizes data from a national cohort of eighth‐grade students to consider how different gender and racial/ethnic subgroups compare to White males in their likelihood to aspire toward a science or math occupation and examine the roles that self‐concept, enjoyment, and achievement may play in shaping disparities at this early point in occupational trajectories. We find that the importance of enjoyment, self‐concept, and achievement in explaining disparities in science career aspirations relative to White males varies according to the female subgroup considered, such that no singular story applies to females across different racial/ethnic backgrounds. For math, White and Hispanic females remain approximately half as likely as White males to aspire to a math occupation regardless of all indicators we consider. Finally, Black and Hispanic adolescent boys have generally comparable aspirations toward future careers in science and math as their White male peers, despite notably large differences in achievement. We discuss implications of our results for future research on equity. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95: 458–476, 2011

Informed by the theoretical lens of opportunity hoarding, this study considers whether STEM postsecondary fields stand apart via the disproportionate exclusion of Black and latina/o youth. Utilizing national data from the Beginning postsecondary Study (BpS), the authors investigate whether Black and latina/o youth who begin college as STEM majors are more likely to depart than their White peers, either by switching fields or by leaving college without a degree, and whether patterns of departure in STEM fields differ from those in non-STEM fields. Results reveal evidence of persistent racial/ethnic inequality in STEM degree attainment not found in other fields.

This study examines how high school boys' and girls' academic effort, in the form of math coursetaking, is influenced by members of their social contexts. The authors argue that adolescents' social contexts are defined, in part, by clusters of students (termed "local positions") who take courses that differentiate them from others. Using course transcript data from the recent Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study, the authors employ a new network algorithm to identify local positions in 78 high schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Incorporating the local positions into multilevel models of math coursetaking, the authors find that girls are highly responsive to the social norms in their local positions, which contributes to homogeneity within and heterogeneity between local positions.The adolescent is choosing how to invest time, and … the choices depend greatly on the social system surrounding them. (Coleman 1996, p. 346) This study examines how high school boys' and girls' academic effort, in the form of mathematics coursetaking, is influenced by their social contexts. The literature on sociology of education has established how adolescent coursetaking is influenced by schools' decisions and resource allocations (e.g., Natriello, Pallas, and Alexander 1989;Hallinan 1991;Useem 1992). Other sociologists have described education, independent of the school's function as a social institution, in terms of status attainment, arguing that adolescents and young adults are influenced by their parents' education, occupations, and aspirations (Sewell and Hauser 1976;Steelman and Powell 1991). Complementing status attainment theory, standard economic models directly address parents' motivations for investing in their children for long- (Adelman 1999). But, as implied by Coleman's quote in the epigraph above, while adolescents may be influenced by adults, including school faculty, administrators, and parents, they may also respond to their peers in making short-and longterm educational decisions (see also Sizer 1984;Crosnoe, Cavanagh, and Elder 2003; RiegleCrumb, Farkas, and Muller 2006). In this article we examine how an adolescent may be influenced in particular by the cluster of students with whom she takes courses-which we term the local position. NIH Public AccessWe focus specifically on effort in the domain of math coursetaking for four reasons. First, math has gained increasing attention in the popular press (e. Simpkins, Davis-Kean, and Eccles 2006) for its potential contributions to society. Second, math is an important gateway to other advanced courses and college entry and therefore to pursuing human capital (Sells 1973;Adelman 1999;Simpkins et al. 2006;Sadler and Tai 2007). Third, math has long been a key to the social organization of the school, as it is used to delineate academic tracks (Stevenson, Schiller, and Schneider 1994;Gamoran and Hannigan 2000;Lucas and Good 2001). Fourth, although math coursetaking has been the focus of considerable empirical study, ...

This article examines the role of friends in girls' and boys' advanced course taking and explores whether friends' characteristics are particularly important for girls' math and science attainment. With the use of data from Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Heath, the results indicate that same-sex friends' academic performance significantly predicts course taking in all subjects for girls, but not for boys. Furthermore, for math and science only, the effects of friends' performance are greater in the context of a predominantly female friendship group, which suggests that such groups provide a counterpoint to the gendered stereotypes and identities of those subjects.