Math Achievement Gap Persists

STEM fields – science, technology, engineering, and math – have gotten a lot of press in recent years. Most notably, there’s been an earnest movement to increase the number of girls and young women who choose to engage deeply in these fields. Historically, men have been disproportionately represented in college majors and careers that depend on math and science knowledge. This tendency trickled down all the way to elementary school, where an achievement gap persists between girls’ and boys’ math achievement, beginning in first grade. New research compares data from a large cohort of children who were in kindergarten in 2011 with a similar data set gathered from the cohort of students who were in kindergarten in 1999.

The researchers who analyzed all these data were expecting – and hoping – to find that there were some significant changes not only in the math achievement gender gap over the 12 year period but also in the way teachers perceive students’ math abilities. Unfortunately, what they found in the 2011 cohort is strikingly similar to what they found in 1999. Boys continue to outperform girls, and the gap widens as children get older. For example, by the spring of grade two, when looking at the students above the 99th percentile, only one out of every five students is female. In other words, most of the top performers are boys.

In addition to this achievement gap, the researchers also found that teachers underrate girls’ performance. This means that teachers think girls are doing more poorly in math even when their scores are equal to that of boys. Girls have to outperform boys to be perceived as doing equally well. This is not a surprising finding, given prior research. It is reminiscent of a New York Times article, which references a meta-analysis of many studies. However, much of the research about the phenomenon is conducted with adults. The data garnered from this 2011 cohort confirm that the bias exists with young children as well; teachers seem just as likely as office managers to fall victim to this unfortunate bias.

The authors of the new study, which was published in an open access journal by the American Educational Research Association so it can be read by anyone for free, have a few data-backed hypotheses about why this achievement gap appears as pronounced as ever. The first ties in to teachers’ biased perceptions. Stereotypes about girls’ math ability persist, and these stereotypes likely affect teacher ratings. Ratings, in turn, affect teacher expectations and expectations affect how teachers interact with students. For example, girls often receive less direct feedback about their math work as compared to boys. Teachers are also more likely to attribute a girl’s math difficulty to a lack of innate ability, while they believe a boy who is struggling just needs to work harder. All of these conscious and unconscious beliefs affect how teachers and parents interact with students, and those interactions can play a big role in how girls approach math and feel about their math capabilities.

In addition to stereotypes, the researchers raise the question of whether the different types of learning behaviors seen in young boys and girls may contribute to the differences they found. Boys are more likely to use out-of-the-box strategies, while girls are more likely to use familiar procedures that adhere to teacher direction. Following procedures may be helpful with early math skills, but it’s the creative, bold thinking that helps students achieve higher-level math skills. These problem solving differences are likely due, again, to the different expectations placed on girls and boys from a very young age.

It’s unfortunate that the gap and the bias persist, but despite the bit of bad news, many more girls and young women are choosing to stick with the STEM fields than ever before. Being aware of our biases and actively working to overcome them is an important component to helping girls feel confident and successful in math. Teachers who believe in their students, recognize their own potential for subconscious bias, and are motivated to overcome the achievement gap hurdle are going to help these numbers shift for the next cohort of students.

Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching

We know from a vast amount of psychology literature that people are chock-full of biases, which impact our judgments and behaviors. For example, gamblers use both winning streaks and past losses to support the likelihood of future winnings, despite the laws of probability that contradict both theories. People may, for safety reasons, choose to drive rather than fly despite the greater preponderance of lethal car crashes than plane crashes. In making decisions about with whom to associate, people tend to deem out-group members to be more similar to one another than in-group members. The list goes on and on. 

A study released earlier this year suggests the importance of being wary of such limitations and biases as they play out in classroom settings. Researchers analyzed five years’ worth of student evaluations of teaching (SET) from thousands of students about hundreds of instructors at a French university. They also applied rigorous analyses to the data from a 2014 study that looked at SETs from an American online course in which the students were, depending on which group they were randomly assigned to, told the instructor’s gender (which was only sometimes true). Interestingly, there was no statistically significant correlation found between SETs and actual student performance on anonymously graded finals. There was a statistically significant finding, though: male instructors, or those perceived to be male, were rated more highly than female instructors.

Another interesting finding emerged in the comparison of French and American data. Among the French students, it was primarily males who tended to rate the male instructors more highly than the female instructors. Among the American students, it was primarily the females who rated the male instructors more highly. Consistent across both countries, though, were the overall relatively low ratings of female instructors, regardless of student achievement. While there is certainly room for subjectivity in evaluating teaching aspects such as enthusiasm and fairness, even what should be a much more objective measure— promptness— was found to be subject to bias. Despite taking the same amount of time to return assignments, the female instructors were rated as being significantly less prompt than the male instructors. This highlights the concerning extent to which biases can color perceptions

The conversation about gender bias in education is not new. However, much of the research done has focused on teacher biases as they relate to, and impact, students. Now we see that it is a bi-directional issue. As in all contexts, it is important to identify and be aware of biases as a first step in minimizing them or guarding against their being accepted as unquestionable truths.

The question of what may be a better, or the best, means of evaluating teacher effectiveness is an important one. This continues to be debated and opinions will continue to shift as new information comes to light. For example, the finding reported earlier this year that erroneous scores were used to link student performance to teachers has raised some eyebrows higher over one particular method. Finding an A+ means of grading teachers is certainly not easy. It is a worthy pursuit for continued exploration, but in the meantime, teachers should focus on using the best methods at their disposal for bringing out the best in their students.

Despite the many impressive things our minds allow us to do, clearly people are far from perfect in forming assessments.

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TV's Danica McKellar Writes on Girls and Math

Most readers of a certain age will remember Winnie Cooper, the object of Kevin Arnold’s (and many viewers’) long-standing crush on the TV series The Wonder Years. After the show concluded, Danica McKellar, the actress who played Winnie, continued to be crush-worthy off-camera, graduating summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in math and helping to pen a groundbreaking mathematical physics theorem. She’s devoted to promoting math education for girls and by all accounts is a whiz with numbers, though apparently in middle school she was terrified by math. But then she began to make up “tons of cool tricks and ways of remembering things,” and math began to fall into place. And in her book, Math Doesn’t Suck, she shares those tips and tricks with middle school girls.

Math Doesn’t Suck is a breath of fresh air. The style is fun and engaging, and McKellar’s tips really are insightful. Girls will be drawn in by the style and held by the substance; they’ll actually want to read chapters of a math book from beginning to end! McKellar explains tricky concepts like the relationship between decimals and fractions, proportions, and percentages in ways that are easy to understand, and provides plenty of clear, interesting examples to give the concepts context. “Step-by-Step” sections provide handy lists of steps girls can use to get through procedures; these pages would be good to bookmark, though McKellar provides lots of memory tricks so girls may not even need to go back and reference them too often. There are also practice problems. The answer key is in the back of the book, and so is a useful Troubleshooting Guide with helpful advice about where to start when you don’t know what to do and lists of useful websites. One of them is McKellar’s own math website, which is available to everyone, whether or not they buy the book. Girls ready to take it to the next level should check out McKellar’s other offerings: Kiss My Math (pre-algebra), Hot X (algebra) and Girls Get Curves (geometry).

An important consideration to keep in mind is that this book is very “girlie,” at least on the surface. The subtitle is “How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.” Chapters have titles like “Choosing the Perfect Necklace” and “You Can Never Have Too Many Shoes.” This is the aspect of the book that is either brilliant or off-putting, depending on one’s perspective: McKellar uses all of these stereotypically tween-y topics to hook girls, explain mathematical concepts, and make it all feel relevant. “Choosing the Perfect Necklace” starts with a situation: The perfect necklace to complete your outfit is tangled up, so before you can wear you have to straighten it out. McKellar moves, unexpectedly and smoothly, to an analogy about complex fractions, which also need to be “untangled” before they can be used. Similarly, the shoe chapter is not actually about shoes; instead, it introduces the concept of multiples. If you have one pair of perfect heels, you have two shoes, but if you want to stock up and get two pairs, you’d have four shoes. Buy three pairs and you’ll have six shoes, etc. Four and six are multiples of two. Who knew math could be so stylish?

We urge those who bristle at the idea of over-feminizing adolescent girls to take a deep breath and read on. Yes, the headings are written in a font replete with curlicues, and the Step-by-Step sections are each adorned with an image of flowered, high-heeled shoes. But you can’t deny that the book has style – it looks compelling instead of dry. And McKellar has sprinkled in insightful quotations by adolescent girls about intelligence, and information about inspiring women, some famous (Eleanor Roosevelt) and some not (McKellar’s real-life acquaintances who use math to be successful).

In fact, the overall message of the book, which it is nearly impossible to miss in spite of all the pink, is that being smart is more than OK – it’s wonderful. McKellar and her book are living proof that intelligence and feminine style are not mutually exclusive. She seems to want girls to know that they don’t have to choose between being smart and being glamorous, if that’s they want. They can have it all. And they should. That’s a message that’s hard to object to.

Reading Club – No Girls Allowed!

Research continues to show that boys have more trouble reading than girls and, even more troubling, that boys’ reading skills are worsening. Instead of wringing his hands, inimitable children’s author Jon Scieszka (the genius behind The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Time Warp Trio series, and other much-loved books) took action. Guys Read, a website rich with resources for bringing books to boys, was the result.

The homepage states, “research…shows that boys will read – if they are given reading that interests them,” and the site puts its money where its mouth is by offering a huge, diverse list of all kinds of books that, according to the site, “guys have told us they like.” The list is divided into categories, some familiar (Historical Figures, Funny) but many that are delightfully unexpected (Dragons, Mysterious Occurrences, At Least One Explosion). The lists are not categorized by reading level, alas, but there is a list called “For Little Guys” that should be helpful for guys who are early readers. Older guys will have to click on titles that seem appealing to them to find information about the book’s genre, how many pages it has, and what ages the book would be most appropriate for. They can even rate the book if they've already read it to help other guys. The lists are huge and varied, ranging from picture books like Jumanji to the wonderful tomes that make up the Redwall series. In addition to all these suggestions, Guys Read selects a Book of the Month, which is featured on the homepage. Looking for another way to find great titles for guys? Check out the “This Guy Reads” section, which features male authors’ lists of favorite books.

Jon Scieszka

The site provides resources even if a guy isn't in a reading mood. “Guys Listen” contains a list of audiobooks that might catch a guy’s fancy. And “More Stuff for Guys” includes drawing lessons, comics, and a link to an archive of back issues of National Geographic magazines.

Whether the guys in your life are book lovers or reluctant readers, they’re sure to love Guys Read.


Above images CC by Jon Scieszka

Math Gender Stereotypes Start Early

A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington looked at how boys and girls associated gender with math, and examined how these associations correlated with strength of gender identity. The study included 126 girls and 121 boys between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Using Implicit Association Tests (computerized tasks that measure strengths of association among concepts) and measures of self-report, they found that boys and girls both associated math more strongly with boys than with girls. Furthermore, boys associated "me" with "math" more strongly than did girls, and their association of "me" with "male" was stronger than was the girls' "me" with "female".

Two new findings emerged from this study. First, math-gender stereotypes which prior researchers had found widespread in adults were present even in these young children. In addition, elementary school girls showed a weaker identification with math than did boys on both kind of measures used in the study, and this gender difference was seen before the ages when differences in math achievement begin to emerge (generally middle to late elementary school).

So, what are the implications for these findings? The study authors note that because the gender differences in their study came before actual differences in math achievement, they may play a part in shaping achievement, since girls might conclude that they "don't belong" in mathematics, since it is a field for boys.

What can parents of girls do to build a sense of "belonging" to the world of math? You might want to take a look at the work of  Danica McKellar, actress and summa cum laude math graduate of UCLA, who has written such tartly titled books as Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail and Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape . Her books are designed to make math appealing to middle and high school girls who may need a push to get them interested in the subject.

The Girl Scouts recently published a study on girls and STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, which includes an extensive resource list of organizations providing programs and information to build girls' interest in these fields. These websites and programs can help extinguish the stereotype that the University of Washington researchers found to still be pervasive.

Photo CC by Pink Sherbert Photography

Forty Years of Title IX

Next week marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the Education Amendments Act of 1972 whose key language provided that " No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."

Since it was signed into law on June 23, 1972, Title IX has transformed the landscape for women's education and women's sports, providing for such sweeping changes as the formation of women's sports teams, and the right of pregnant girls and women to remain in school. The law does still permit single sex schools and colleges, so long as public schools do not use them to limit access to programs to only one gender, such as having special math or art programs only available to students in a single sex school.

The protections of Title IX have not been enjoyed equally by all women. A recent New York Times article points out that women of color in sports still face challenges in reaching equality in athletics and that white girls participate in high school sports at higher rates than other groups.

Still, the progress under Title IX has been substantial in the last 40 years. One place that is celebrating these decades of growth for women is the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, California, which is running an exhibit called "Leveling the Playing Field" which celebrates the athletic exploits of Schulz's comic strip girl characters in sports from football to figure skating. It turns out that Schulz was very impressed by tennis great Billie Jean King and was inspired by his friendship with her to create a series of strips celebrating women in athletics. They certainly make a point, and are sure to bring a smile as well. Take a look for yourself.

Photo by Ingy via Flickr Creative Commons

Anxiety and Gender Issues in Math Education

A survey of studies looking at math anxiety and how it relates to math learning appeared in a recent issue of Education Week. The article built on information from the Learning and the Brain Conference held in Chicago in early May of this year where Sian L. Beilock, a professor of psychology from the University of Chicago, was a featured speaker. Dr. Beilock and her colleagues look at how emotions, such as anxiety, affect complex cognitive skills, such as solving mathematical problems.

Like so much of learning, math anxiety has several different aspects. One is the social acceptability of math difficulties, since many people will readily confess to "being terrible at math" but would not make the same kind of admission about another academic skill, such as reading. There are also gender issues, with female elementary school students being more likely to have difficulties with math if their female teachers have some anxiety about math themselves. This is particularly important because the vast majority of elementary school teachers are female; of note, this finding does not apply to male students.

Other findings noted in the Education Week article include documented changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain (which controls active working memory, a key function for math calculations) when students are faced with even such minor anxiety provoking stimuli as a picture of a frowning face. Math anxiety can also diminish a student's number sense, a part of sequencing, making the anxious student less likely to be able to quickly determine which of two numbers is larger.

As groups such as the STEM Education Coalition work to raise awareness about "the critical role that STEM  education [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] plays in enabling the U.S. to remain the economic and technological leader of the global marketplace of the 21st century," it is important to be aware of such barriers to math competence and enjoyment as anxiety and gender issues so that more students, boys and girls, can enjoy and succeed in math and related fields.