The assessment made its debut in 2014, which also showed girls outscoring boys but by a smaller margin. In 2018, girls on average scored five points higher than boys on a 300-point scale, due to the fact that girls made gains between 2014 and 2018 while boys' scores stayed about the same. The latest findings suggest the decade-long effort to champion more opportunities for girls and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math is gaining ground. "Although girls are outperforming boys, boys are taking at a higher rate more engineering classes," Carr said. "The message to the administrators is we need to encourage girls to take more of these technology and engineering courses," Carr said.

Source: ABC News April 30, 2019 05:26 UTC