Student tech and engineering proficiency study

     Forty-three percent of students scored proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress's technology and engineering literacy test. Data show girls outperformed boys on the exam by three percentage points. The test was designed to measure students’ abilities in areas such as understanding technological principles, designing solutions and communicating and collaborating. Girls were particularly strong in the latter.
     There also were large racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, mirroring results on standardized tests in other subjects. Just 25 percent of students who received free and reduced-price lunch scored proficient, compared to 59 percent of more affluent students. Eighteen percent of black students and 28 percent of Latino students scored proficient, for example, compared to 56 percent of white and Asian students. The test was particularly difficult for students learning English as a second language: Five percent of them scored proficient. And 60 percent of private school students were proficient, outperforming their public-school peers, 42 percent of whom were proficient.
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2016). The nation's report card: Technology and engineering literacy. Washington, DC: NAEP.
https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016119