The 1992 study painted a bleak picture of gaps in performance, opportunities and attention between boys and girls then enrolled in high school math and science courses. These were things that were actually said to girls in the classroom. The study found that in most courses fulfilling entrance requirements for the University of California and California State University systems, enrollment rates for girls exceed those for boys, with the striking exception of computer science classes. Girls' higher enrollment rates in college-prep classes also held firm across racial and ethnic groups. High school boys also lag behind girls in English, foreign language and the social sciences.
Girls still lag behind their male counterparts in advanced placement calculus and chemistry.
The study didn't analyze why these gains for girls were made. Karagianes believes one factor is the increase of women teaching science in middle schools. It's probably a combination of a lot of factors. What is clear, according to the report, is that the paths students will choose are largely in place by the eighth grade. Girls remain underrepresented in the computer sciences, where they are 43 percent less likely to be enrolled in college-prep courses, which Danenberg found surprising.