No Difference in Math Scores Between Girls and Boys
July 27, 2008 – 11:49 pm by Nick
A recent study published in the Journal Science found that boys are not better than girls in math. The report gathered the results of 7.2 million math test administered between 2005 and 2007. The scores were gathered from ten states.
The report focused on students in grades two through eleven. Janet Hyde, a psychologist of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, led the the study, which gauged the effectiveness of No Child Left Behind initiative. Officials are using the myth busting results as way to guide more girls into science and math fields.
The improvement in girls test scores is due to the increasing selectivity of colleges, driving girls to take advanced math courses. A consultant in math education in Berkeley remarks that no simple reason explains the increase.
Hyde’s main goal was to but an end to the gender stereotype propagated by teachers and parents that girl’s are bad at math. The data revealed that boys and girls split the top percentile evenly.
The study also found boys have a larger variance than girls. They either scored extremely well or extremely poorly. Girls would score closer to the average. When observed as a whole, no difference can be perceived between boys and girls.
Even though women receive 48 percent of undergraduate college degrees in math. The gap is still significant in engineering and physics. Many high schools like Thomas Jefferson High School feature science clubs that encourages girls to enter these fields. The number of jobs available in these fields should be shown to students. Microsoft, Sun, and Oracle have resorted to begging the government for more visas to fill these jobs.
One Response to “No Difference in Math Scores Between Girls and Boys”
The results of the study can be interpreted as consistent with what Larry Summer said: That girls and boys have the same average achievement, but boys have higher variance, leading to an over-abundance of males at the higher (and lower) ends of the achievement spectrum.
It seems that only the wall street journal reported on the “boys higher variance” part of the study with this headline: “Boys’ Math Scores Hit Highs and Lows”
Here is Andrew Gelman of Columbia talking about the variance part of the study as well, and the contrasting parts that were emphasized by the WSJ vs the NYT (and virtually all other newspapers).
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2008/07/nyt_vs_wsj_on_g.html
Also, here is Alex Tabarrok of marginalrevolution talking about how the study vindicates summers:
Summers Vindicated (Again)
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/07/summers-vindica.html
By scottynx on Jul 28, 2008