Giving Compass' Take:

• According to the latest Technology and Engineering Literacy Report Card,  eighth graders in the U.S. are getting better at applying their knowledge of technology and engineering. 

• How can educators keep fostering middle schooler's engineering skills to translate into career pathways?

• Read more about how to help students and teachers embrace engineering. 

Compared to 2014, U.S. 8th-graders are getting slightly better at applying their knowledge of technology and engineering to real-world challenges — and girls are outscoring boys even when they don’t take a specific class focusing on those topics, according to the newest results of the Technology and Engineering Literacy Report Card.

Part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the results show the average score increased from 150 to 152 on a scale of 0-300 and that scores increased in the three content areas — technology and society, design and systems, and information and communication technology. Students’ scores also increased in the three practice areas — understanding technological principles and developing solutions, achieving goals, and communicating and collaborating.

The score of 152 brings students closer to the proficient level of 158, which represents “mastery over challenging subject matter,” Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics' Assessment Division, said during a press call. “It is an aspirational goal and it is a challenging goal.”

The results, however, show performance gaps, with 59% of white students scoring in the proficient range, compared with 23% of black students and 31% of Hispanic students. And 60% of students not eligible for free or reduced-price meals scored proficient, compared with 30% of those who are eligible. Since the first administration of the assessment in 2014, the gap between white and Asian students has increased, with 66% of Asian students now scoring proficient.

Efforts have increased in recent years to incorporate technology and engineering into the curriculum, beginning even at the preschool level, and to ensure schools have more well-prepared STEM teachers.

Related developments include efforts such as new engineering curriculum resources from the Museum of Science, Boston, and an outreach initiative at the University of Hawaii to get K-12 students interested enough in engineering to take courses that would qualify them to pursue the subject in college.

Read the full article about eighth graders need to develop engineering skills by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.