The study examines post-COVID trends in gender gaps in 8th grade STEM skills using three national assessments and Algebra enrollment data¶
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Evidence · 1 study · associationalr?·q1
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2030: baselines and conditions change
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q1 i? The study leverages data from three national assessments, as well as enrollment in Algebra, to examine trends in gender gaps in 8th grade STEM skills over the course of the pandemic. → Megan Kuhfeld 2025
Evidence¶
Megan Kuhfeld 2025¶
Megan Kuhfeld, Karyn Lewis, Gustave Robinson. (2025). Technical appendix for "Boys regain the advantage in middle school STEM skills: Post-COVID trends in gender achievement gaps". NWEA technical brief. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/technical-appendix-for-boys-regain-the-advantage-in-middle-school-stem-skills-post-covid-trends-in-gender-achievement-gaps/
q1 · i? · associational · r?
The article's own description of the accompanying technical appendix states the study design: it uses "data from three national assessments, as well as enrollment in Algebra" to examine gender gap trends in 8th grade STEM skills across the pandemic period. No statistics are printed in the supplied text.
"leveraging data from three national assessments, as well as enrollment in Algebra, to examine trends in gender gaps in 8th grade STEM skills over the course of the pandemic"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Access to 8th-grade Algebra remains highly inequitable across the United States — related
- The study explored whether 8th-grade Algebra enrollment varied by gender during and after the pandemic — related
- Using nationwide MAP Growth scores, the brief examines how many students ready for Algebra actually enrolled in it — related
- Boys regain the advantage in middle school STEM skills in post-COVID gender achievement gap trends — related
- Gender gap trends in 8th-grade STEM were estimated from five years of TIMSS, NAEP, and MAP Growth data spanning the pandemic — related
- A two-million-student MAP Growth sample was used to test whether gender gaps widened among low- and high-achieving students — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Taking Algebra in 8th grade instead of 9th grade raises questions of readiness and enrollment that NWEA examined with nationwide MAP Growth data — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
post-covid-gender-gap-trends-8th-grade-stem-three-assessments |
title |
The study examines post-COVID trends in gender gaps in 8th grade STEM skills using three national assessments and Algebra enrollment data |
description |
The study examines post-COVID trends in gender gaps in 8th grade STEM skills using three national assessments and Algebra enrollment data |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2025 |
recheck_by |
2030 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — megan-kuhfeld-2025 |
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