Study: women and girls lag in science, engineering and technology progress (News).

Even though women and girls have made significant progress in science and math in the past 20 years, a new report stresses that females still have a long way to go before reaching equal footing with their male counterparts.

According to Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Technology?, there remains weaknesses in training girls in math and science in the U.S. The report was prepared by the 20-year-old National Council for Research on Women.

"Young women exhibit less confidence in their math skills than young men. At higher levels of math achievement, high school boys still outperform girls," according to the report.

As an example, the report cites some recent Advanced Placement data. While 56 percent of overall AP test takers were female in 1999, 90 percent of the test takers for AP computer science were male, and 78 percent of AP physics test takers were also male.

Here are some other findings from the report:

* Generally, girls are "more successful in math and science programs that incorporate a cooperative, hands-on approach" to instruction, as opposed to a more competitive and individual education approach.

* Girls often benefit from extracurricular, same-sex science programs. As an example, the report cites the Smith College Summer Science and Engineering Program where just under 70 percent of the high school girls who participate go onto major in science in college.

* Strategies that help increase girls' success in science have also shown positive results with boys, especially with boys from under-represented groups.

* Increased performance levels by female students account for more than half the national improvement in the test scores in the last decade. However, girls still score lower than males on the SATs.

* In comparison to their male counterparts, women almost fill up less than half the seats in science classrooms. Among advanced placement test takers, women represent 55 percent of those taking the biology test, 47 percent of the calculus test, 42 percent of chemistry and 35 percent of physics.

"In the last few decades, we have learned how to increase women's and girls' participation in science and technology. Now we need to use that knowledge," says Linda Basch, executive director of the national women's research group, adding that contributions of half the nation's population are being overlooked by not better addressing the needs of girls and women when it comes to math and science instruction.

www.ncrw.org