Posted on 06/13/2018 6:24:41 AM PDT by reaganaut1
In much of the country, the stereotype that boys do better than girls at math isn’t true – on average, they perform about the same, at least through eighth grade. But there’s a notable exception.
In school districts that are mostly rich, white and suburban, boys are much more likely to outperform girls in math, according to a new study from Stanford researchers, one of the most comprehensive looks at the gender gap in test scores at the school district level.
The research, based on 260 million standardized test scores for third through eighth graders in nearly every district in the country, suggests that local norms influence how children perform in school from early ages – and that boys are much more influenced than girls.
“It could be about some set of expectations, it could be messages kids get early on or it could be how they’re treated in school,” said Sean Reardon, professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford, who conducted the study with Erin Fahle, a doctoral candidate in education policy there, and colleagues. “Something operates to help boys more than girls in some places and help girls more than boys in other places.”
The study included test scores from the 2008 to 2014 school years for 10,000 of the roughly 12,000 school districts in the United States. In no district do boys, on average, do as well or better than girls in English and language arts. In the average district, girls perform about three-quarters of a grade level ahead of boys.
But in math, there is nearly no gender gap, on average. Girls perform slightly better than boys in about a quarter of districts – particularly those that are predominantly African-American and low-income. Boys do slightly better in the rest
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Seriously, both girls and boys are doing better in rich suburbs. A better environment appears to help boys more than girls.
Perhaps. Or perhaps a lousy ghetto-trash demonicRAT anti-male environment harms boys more than it harms girls.
Someone skilled who wanted some good data could dive in and find meaningful correlation in lurking variable [fathers in home as you mentioned].
Before eighth grade, it's arithmetic not math.
ML/NJ
But of course, this finding will be construed to be nothing but ‘White privilege’. And maybe it is. Middle upper and upper class Americans have higher expectations of their children and the kids work toward those expectations. I suspect, if they looked further, they would find that this applies across Gendar AND Racial lines. The success is more defined by Middle upper and Upper, than by any race or gender. Middle, Middle lower and Lower ‘class’ Americans often fall into the ‘Vicitm’ mentality, helped along by the Dems, of course. Lower expectations will get you lower outcomes.
Do better, or is it that girls from this economic and social stratum are less inclined to want to excel at math?
Maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t have as much to do with gender, color, and location, as it does with good parenting, helping and insisting that their children are afforded the time, courage, and atmosphere to learn.
Some of the smartest people I knew growing up, were from the poorest side of town...but they had dedicated parents who actually cared about THEM and not a new car, or big house, or a $200 purse.
Using gender and color has become the national scapegoat for being a bad parent.
If you raise them right, they’ll most likely turn out all right.
ML/NJ
“they perform about the same, at least through eighth grade.”
Love how they sneak in that little qualifier which changes the story completely. Then they proceed like it wasn’t there at all. As we all know, 8th grade is when the higher level math begins.
Next time someone does a study ask all the kids what they’d like to do for a living. See how the answers correlate with math perfomance.
Except when Conservative School Boards fumble the management and allow the commie Union to regain control of the Board.
I think it is the expectations angle. Asian kids in even bad neighborhoods are expected by their parents to do well, and usually meet those expectations. Black kids who have (real) families who expect a certain level of performance achieve those expectations.
Comment at NY Times by Kathleen:
“Perhaps the authors should have read up on the human brain and not relied entirely on test results. As an anthropology major in college, I was required to take a course on brain development. On average, men’s are larger - they have about 500 ccs more brain than women, however, women have a much larger corpus collosum - the bundle of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres. Our brains are different, we learn differently and different areas of our brains develop at different rates. In years of pouring over test results, researchers have found that girls, in general, do better with language skills earlier than boys do and boys are generally better at math; however, by late adolescence, they usually catch up to one another. I know that, in my own experience, when I took algebra as a 14 year old it was incomprehensible to me! I barely scrapped by with a grade of C and promptly forgot it all! Many years later when I returned to college in my late 20’s, I took it again (with fear and trepidation, I might add). Suddenly, it all made perfect sense. I got an A and kept wondering why I couldn’t grasp it before. (Then, of course, I took the brain development course and had an “aha” moment!).
“We may be introducing our girls to more advanced math a bit too early. Girls take these courses, don’t do well and label themselves “bad at math”.
She’s gotten 15 ‘likes’ already, and a reply that says she knows more than the authors of the article.
Try a weekend at Katz’s Deli in Manhattan. Filled with Long Island white Jewish boys eating pastrami & corned beef while doing math and algebra questions for fun.
Maybe fewer poor performing and disruptive students that bring down everyone’s ability to learn.
Also larry elder has talk about the soft abuse of low expectations. He did well in his inner city spanish language class but when he got to attend a more select school the standards and expectations were higher and the other students had been challenged more in their classes.
Are Asian Indians and Northeast Asians now magically white? Children from these backgrounds, especially the first and second generations, do better than children of European ancestry. OTOH, there have always been white trash, for example, the three cretins in Louisiana who murdered a man who was recovering from brain surgery. Their ancestry is likely similar to the old, wealthy families of New Orleans. There is a genetic element to intelligence, but culture and environment are predominant.
No mystery when it comes to math and science.
Both take work - lots and lots of work to excel. Like competitive sports, talent puts one ahead of the pack in the beginning, but the victor is the one who is diligent and doesn’t give up.
I’m sure the distractions are significantly different depending on where the school is located and the caliber of the teacher.
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