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As part of the Stanford Curriculum Study, information is provided on sex differences in undergraduate students' characteristics and performance. Attention is directed to the effect of gender on major choice, classroom performance, awards earned at graduation, and related variables for graduates from 1975-1976 to 1981-1982. A comparison to national trends is also made. The findings indicate that there is considerable conformity to sex stereotypes among Stanford students in the majors they select and their classroom performance. Women come to Stanford with lower mathematics ability than men and are strongly influenced by their established abilities in their choice of major. Women tend to concentrate in the humanistic and social science areas while men favor engineering, the natural sciences, and several traditionally-male disciplines in other areas. On the whole, women at Stanford are similar to women in the nation in their degree of conformity to traditional sex differentiation. In addition, women perform less well in natural science and engineering courses; however, poorer performance by women in technical courses is limited mostly to introductory courses. The proportion of women in engineering and the earth sciences increased rapidly in the late 1970s. (SW)

The Stanford Curriculum Study, which provides comprehensive and systematic information about curricular choices of undergraduates, is discussed. The information can promote policy decisions, help departments regularly monitor their programs, and generate a database for research concerning undergraduate education. The study analyzes the academic records of each graduating class, relating characteristics such as gender, Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, and ethnicity to course and major choice, grades, academic honors, and other indicators of student accomplishment. The database for each year of the Curriculum Study contains about 50 records per student, one for each course taken. With about 1,600 students in each graduating class, there are about 80,000 records in the file. Data from the study are also used to produce the annual Curriculum Report. Information is provided on the study methodology, including the population, the database, the university's academic structure, and the Curriculum Report. Also discussed are the background characteristics of graduates, course enrollments and units of credit, and characteristics of courses. Appendices include a sample table providing descriptive statistics on 1980-1981 majors in industrial engineering. (SW)

Grading standards in departments and school divisions at Stanford University were analyzed, along with grading trends, and the classroom performance of students with different majors. From 1975-1976 to 1981-1982, the proportion of A grades decreased, while B and C grades increased. In 1976, D grades were reinstituted. Considerable variation in grading standards of the various school divisions was found. Grading was highest in the humanities, with nearly half of all grades reported as A's, while it was lowest in the School of Engineering. Even more variation in grading standards was found for individual departments. Generally, the level of grades varied inversely with the degree of technical content of the subject area, with the national sciences and engineering having the lowest grade distributions and the humanities and social sciences the highest. Grades were inversely related to class size in all of the school divisions. Humanities classes had greater enrollments in smaller classes, while the natural sciences had greater enrollments in large classes. Natural science majors did better in nearly all fields and were more likely than other students to earn awards at graduation. Information is also provided on the relationship of grades and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. (SW)

As part of the Stanford Curriculum Study, information is provided on the university's approach to monitoring undergraduate education through research into student academic records. Trends in bachelor's degrees granted in the various departments from 1960-1961 to 1981-1982 at Stanford are charted and compared to national trends. Course enrollments are also examined, along with policy implications of the results. Data were obtained for the following six school divisions: School of Earth Sciences, the School of Engineering, and four divisions within the School of Humanities and Sciences--humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and interdepartmental programs. Looking at the 7 years covered by the Curriculum Study (after 1975), significant declines for numbers of bachelor's degrees granted were found in three school divisions (humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences), and large increases in the other divisions (interdepartmental programs, engineering, and earth sciences). Although the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences experienced a decrease in graduates in recent years, none of these divisions suffered losses in their overall course enrollments. Enrollments in the interdepartmental programs and engineering departments increased. (SW)

Theories of mass education that emphasize processes of differentiation or the reproduction of inequalities ignore the universal and institutional character of mass education. A theoretical framework emphasizing individualism and the rationalization of individual and collective authority better explains the relationship of mass education to national objectives in a competitive world. (SV)