Girls Still Have Achievement Gap in School in the US
Dear friends of women in science,
There has been a new set of data released on achievement of American students this spring. You can read all the details here. Eric Robelen quoted data from the Advanced Placement tests to the effect that in every AP STEM subject that is taught and tested in US schools, a total of 10 STEM fields, average scores of girls lagged behind those of boys. This finding isn't about relative numbers; the average is lower in physics with few girls compared to boys and also for biology, where over half the test takers are girls. Robelen reported a selection of the data that he had received from the College Board on this subject as follows:
AP Biology
Boys (2.84)
Girls (2.43)
AP Chemistry
Boys (2.91)
Girls (2.43)
AP Statistics
Boys (2.91)
Girls (2.62)
AP Physics B
Boys (2.95)
Girls (2.49)
AP Calculus BC
Boys (3.86)
Girls (3.57)
He also reported on data from the NAEP testing on science. There were results for 2011 show a 5 point lead of boys over girls in 8th grade. In 2009, three grade levels were tested and although there are no longitudinal data, the achievement gap showed a disappointing trend in 2009, as follows:
4th grade NAEP science
Boys (151)
Girls (149)
8th grade
Boys (152)
Girls (148)
12th grade
Boys (153)
Girls (147)
So with more education, the gap does not appear to decrease, although since the data are of course not longitudinal, we cannot be sure there were no changes in methods or populations contributing to the results.
He then took a look at international comparisons. On PISA (program for international student assessment) tests of students from 34 countries, boys outperformed girls in math but generally not in science. However, in the US data on tests of 15 year olds using the PISA test, the boys did outperform the girls in science. In Finland, Greece, Poland, and two other countries, girls outperformed boys in science. Using a different test, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study group found that girls outscored boys in both math and science. At least in the 9th grade TIMSS data, in the US boys outscored girls. In Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, the Russian Federation, Singapore, and Slovenia, there was no male-female gap on the TIMSS tests at 4th or 8th grade levels.
He discussed possible reasons, and stereotype threat was one of the most convincing hypotheses he suggested, although it is not proven to be the cause. Certainly if there are differences this large between countries in these supposedly gender-based results, that calls into question their roots in basic biology and makes us take close looks at social conditions such as stereotype threat.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Christi,
Thanks for pointing that out. Certainly girls' higher grades should be more widely used for evidence than they are.
Why aren't they? The cynic would say because they don't support the prejudice! But there's also the view that teacher-pleasing is easier for girls and that affects grades and the view that there's no standardization among individual teachers in how grades reflect students' understanding. Since pretty much all the data show girls with higher grades and I'm sure there is variability in teachers, those criticisms don't seem to hold water, but I've heard them.
best,
Laura
Hi Laura,
One thing to keep in mind is that while girls' scores on math and science standardized tests are slightly lower than boys' scores, girls' grades in these subjects in high school are higher than boys' grades, on average. This has been the case for a long time - both that boys earn higher test scores and girls earn higher grades. Because of this, it's not clear to me that more young men are well-situated to become scientists and engineers than young women. I hope that the data are not interpreted by teachers, as Davida and Miranda suggest, to indicate that girls are not as good at math and science. In my mind, grades are a better indicator of what someone can do over time than test scores.
All the best,
Christi
Dear Laura,
I think Davida has a good point. People will use this information to, in effect, discriminate against girls and to discourage their interest in STEM fields. I may be quite impressed that some countries have girls achieving higher than boys, but will my daughter's elementary school teacher get why this matters? I doubt it!
MPT
Hi Laura,
Always the same stupid testing data but the ranges probably overlap almost completely, right? These are means of broad distributions. I only wish teachers didn't use these stats as an excuse to discourage girls from going into math and science, but I know they do. Yes, it's encouraging that not all countries have the same difference, but you need to be somewhat sophisticated in statistics to see why this is important, and so many teachers just aren't. Argh!
DRS
