<p>There is some interesting stuff in <a href="https://royalsociety.org/~/media/policy/projects/computing-education/computing-education-report.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">“After the reboot: computing education in UK schools”</a>. It shows that a lot of the differences is girls/boys and background differences are mostly social constructs, e.g. by comparing all girl, all boy, and mixed schools.</p>

<p>It is not a research paper, but it does cite other work.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Nl0O8.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Nl0O8.png" alt="Figure from the report"></a></p>

<p>Image taken with permission from the report (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CC-BY</a>).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-20T09:32:31.460Z
Sadly it doesn't appear to touch on attainment. I (being one of the authors), note that girls do better at GCSE CS, but they all outperform boys at most things: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311595274_The_Roehampton_Annual_Computing_Education_Report_2015_data_from_England p47
pluke
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-19T17:19:12.403Z
2017-12-13T22:53:17.997Z
2017-12-13T22:53:17.997Z
ctrl-alt-delor
<p>Failing to find an answer, I wrote this with Billy and Miles: <a href="https://dlnext.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3366016" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://dlnext.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3366016</a></p>

<p>From the abstract:</p>

<p>The change in the English computing curriculum and the shift towards computer science (CS) has been closely observed by other countries. Female participation remains a concern in most jurisdictions, but female attainment in CS is relatively unstudied. Using the English national pupil database, we analyzed all exam results (n = 5,370,064) for students taking secondary school exams in 2016, focusing on those students taking GCSE CS (n = 60,736), contrasting this against ICT (n = 67,359).</p>

<p>Combining gender with ethnicity and the IDACI poverty indicator, we find that females from the poorest areas were more likely to take CS than those from the richest areas and that CS was more popular among ethnic minority females than white females. ICT was far more equitable for females and poorer students than CS.</p>

<p>CS females typically got better grades than their male peers. However, when controlling for average attainment in other subjects, males got 0.31 of a grade higher. Female relative underperformance in CS was most acute among large female cohorts and with girls studying in mixed-gender schools. Girls did significantly better than boys in English when controlling for CS scores, supporting theories around female relative strengths lying outside STEM subjects.</p>

<p>The move to introduce CS into the English curriculum and the removal of the ICT qualifications look to be having a negative impact on female participation and attainment in computing. Using the theory of self-efficacy, we argue that the shift towards CS might decrease the number of girls choosing further computing qualifications or pursuing computing as a career. Computing curriculum designers and teachers need to carefully consider the inclusive nature of their computing courses.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-26T17:54:15.603Z
Thank you for posting this!
Ben I.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-25T14:57:24.340Z
2019-11-25T14:57:24.340Z
pluke
<p>I am lecturing on gender and computer science and have found plenty of material outlining factors that impact female access to computer science courses.  I stumbled across this paper: <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2920173" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2920173</a> which shows significant attainment differences at the highest degree level in UK universities. This raises questions about male focused course material and assessment methodologies. I wondered if there were many other papers on gender and attainment in CS? Google scholar has lots of generic studies, but few focused on CS.</p>

<p>Attainment here could be at any level, including compulsory education and work based assessments</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-12T23:41:49.197Z
@pluke Have you uncovered anything additional in the intervening time?  If so, I would encourage you to also create an answer here, if only to help others in the future.
Ben I.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-15T08:50:41.087Z
I'm working on a paper about this now, will share when it's published :)
pluke
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-07T13:20:42.017Z
When you say attainment, do you mean degree attainment? Job attainment? Can you add a little more description?
nova
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-07T13:22:42.787Z
have updated, I'm interested in any studie saround attainment
pluke
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-07T13:31:00.763Z
I associate the word attainment with highest degree achieved (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment). That might be a U.S. quirk. Is your question about any sort of measure of achievement or performance?
nova
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-07T13:33:43.503Z
any sort of measure would do, this might be AP or some general programming proficiency test. The reference above uses UK degree levels
pluke
<resource-request><attainment>
Research on gender and attainment in CS
# Research on gender and attainment in CS

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-06)

I am lecturing on gender and computer science and have found plenty of material outlining factors that impact female access to computer science courses. I stumbled across this paper: <https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2920173> which shows significant attainment differences at the highest degree level in UK universities. This raises questions about male focused course material and assessment methodologies. I wondered if there were many other papers on gender and attainment in CS? Google scholar has lots of generic studies, but few focused on CS.

Attainment here could be at any level, including compulsory education and work based assessments

**Tags:** resource-request, attainment

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: When you say attainment, do you mean degree attainment? Job attainment? Can you add a little more description?  
> **username_0**: have updated, I'm interested in any studie saround attainment  
> **username_2**: I associate the word attainment with highest degree achieved (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment). That might be a U.S. quirk. Is your question about any sort of measure of achievement or performance?  
> **username_0**: any sort of measure would do, this might be AP or some general programming proficiency test. The reference above uses UK degree levels  
> **username_1**: @username_0 Have you uncovered anything additional in the intervening time?  If so, I would encourage you to also create an answer here, if only to help others in the future.  
> **username_0**: I'm working on a paper about this now, will share when it's published :)  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2019-11-25. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Failing to find an answer, I wrote this with Billy and Miles: <https://dlnext.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3366016>

From the abstract:

The change in the English computing curriculum and the shift towards computer science (CS) has been closely observed by other countries. Female participation remains a concern in most jurisdictions, but female attainment in CS is relatively unstudied. Using the English national pupil database, we analyzed all exam results (n = 5,370,064) for students taking secondary school exams in 2016, focusing on those students taking GCSE CS (n = 60,736), contrasting this against ICT (n = 67,359).

Combining gender with ethnicity and the IDACI poverty indicator, we find that females from the poorest areas were more likely to take CS than those from the richest areas and that CS was more popular among ethnic minority females than white females. ICT was far more equitable for females and poorer students than CS.

CS females typically got better grades than their male peers. However, when controlling for average attainment in other subjects, males got 0.31 of a grade higher. Female relative underperformance in CS was most acute among large female cohorts and with girls studying in mixed-gender schools. Girls did significantly better than boys in English when controlling for CS scores, supporting theories around female relative strengths lying outside STEM subjects.

The move to introduce CS into the English curriculum and the removal of the ICT qualifications look to be having a negative impact on female participation and attainment in computing. Using the theory of self-efficacy, we argue that the shift towards CS might decrease the number of girls choosing further computing qualifications or pursuing computing as a career. Computing curriculum designers and teachers need to carefully consider the inclusive nature of their computing courses.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Thank you for posting this!  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-11-19. Score: 2

There is some interesting stuff in [“After the reboot: computing education in UK schools”](https://royalsociety.org/~/media/policy/projects/computing-education/computing-education-report.pdf). It shows that a lot of the differences is girls/boys and background differences are mostly social constructs, e.g. by comparing all girl, all boy, and mixed schools.

It is not a research paper, but it does cite other work.

[![Figure from the report](https://i.sstatic.net/Nl0O8.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Nl0O8.png)

Image taken with permission from the report ([CC-BY](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Sadly it doesn't appear to touch on attainment. I (being one of the authors), note that girls do better at GCSE CS, but they all outperform boys at most things: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311595274_The_Roehampton_Annual_Computing_Education_Report_2015_data_from_England p47  

---

