The relationship of mathematics achievement to expected career choice for females in grades three, five and eight in a rural school district

In the past, very few females have entered math related occupations. Studies show that females score equally to males in the elementary and junior high school grades but start to fall behind in math achievement when they get to high school and college. The problem of this study is to investigate the relationship between mathematics achievement and expected career choice of females in grades three, five and eight.;This study compared math achievement scores and girls' career choices to see if a relationship exists at three grade levels.;The mean scores of two math tests were compared to the number of girls who chose and did not choose a math related career. Opinions girls have about math were gathered from interviews.;The statistics in this study show that results are inconclusive among the three grade levels for choosing and not choosing a math related career. The results show a significant difference at the eighth grade level where higher math achievement scores have higher proportion of girls choosing a math related career, but not for girls in grades three and five.;It is concluded that a very low percentage of girls plan to pursue a math related career. Math anxiety was the reason most often given by the girls for forming a negative attitude towards math. Stereotyping does not seem to be a problem with girls in this sample.