Eighth-grade girls edge out boys in tech and engineering proficiency, according to the results of the nation’s first Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) student assessment. Created by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nations’ Report Card, the inaugural test, administered in 2014, presented student with real-world scenarios involving tech and engineering challenges. The assessment analyzed their ability to problem-solve, communicate, and collaborate across engineering and tech topics. Girls scored three points higher than boys overall, according to the results, which also found that students eligible for free school lunch scored 28 points lower than others, and urban students had lower scores overall than those in suburban, town, and rural areas. Overall, 87 percent said that outside of school, they had figured out why something didn’t work in order to fix it. Results were also analyzed according to race and ethnicity. The study surveyed 21,500 students in about 840 schools across the nation.