I came across the College Board Trends in Performance Report and was struck by the difference in math scores by gender.

 

I asked a few tutors what they thought, based on experience.

Here’s what Stacey Howe-Lott said:

I know this is the prevailing wisdom out there, but it’s not true with the student I work with.

My top 7 math students are 5 girls and 2 boys. My worst 5 students are 4 girls and one boy.

I know that students who have private tutors are different than your average bear, so maybe that skews the results.

In my inner-city SAT class last fall, I had 5 girls and 3 boys, and 3 of the girls were accepted to colleges.

I also think that the test plays to gender biases – not that boys are smarter in math than girls – but that boys are rewarded in our culture for speaking up and taking wild-ass guesses – plowing forward even when they don’t have the faintest idea what they are doing. And girls are reinforced when they “hang back” and seek consensus before they guess.

A man invented this test that asks for answers on a sheet of paper. If a woman invented the SAT test, it would be conducted in a group and the best scorers would be the ones who mentored their teams and got the highest number of right answers collectively.


Related posts:

  1. Finger Length and SAT scores
  2. Finger Length and SAT Scores
  3. Watch Your Back (That’s All I’m Sayin’)
  4. How’d You Do It? (i.e. Raise Your SAT Score)
  • Akil

    Good morning! No rants today just links:

    Here is more recent SAT data:
    http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/cb-seniors-2010

    2010 Average Math scores

    Public schools: 511 Independent: 583 
    Family income > $200k : 586 <$20k : 460
    Asian: 591, White: 536
    Took PSAT as Jr: 534, No PSAT: 484

    Have you read on stereo type threat?

    http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/

    • Probably all affected by stereotypes…..
      Thanks for pointing out that site.  I can’t wait to check it out fully. 

      I was wondering if there are other cultures where girls score higher than boys on math.  Do you have any idea?  Or, where income doesn’t play a role (say, Singapore).  Have you ever come across any of those numbers?

      • Anonymous

        A couple of things: 

        First, I want to point out that the overall number of girls taking the SAT is somewhat higher than the number of boys, with 54% of test-takers being female and 46% male in 2007 (http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/whereGirlsAre.pdf); it therefore stands to reason that a higher percentage of girls at the lower end of the scoring spectrum would take the test, including, I would assume, many from inner-city schools, where levels of female achievement far outpace levels of male achievement. 

        In response to Stacey’s assertion that the SAT automatically favors boys because it was designed by a male and that girls would score better were there a stronger focus on skills such as group work and mentoring, I need to say that I find that line of thought to be highly reductive and extremely dangerous. As a female who would rather do almost anything than work in a group (I am most definitely not what anyone would call a team player!), I find generalizations about gender and learning differences to be vastly overstated and often harmful to people whose learning styles don’t fit a particular set of assumptions. I say this as someone who attended a women’s college (Wellesley) whose most radical aspect was, in retrospect, its very refusal to attempt to tailor its curriculum to any notion, simplistic or otherwise, about “how women learn.” On the contrary, we were simply treated as human beings and scholars with a wide range of preferences and learning styles, and there was never the slightest attempt to base our educational experience on a single paradigm about gender or “women’s brains.” Indeed, one of the most fascinating things for me about going to school there was that it was possible to witness pretty much the full spectrum of female behavior, which, I can honestly say, is remarkably diverse. 

        Coming back to the issue of score-gap, I agree with PWN that the stereotype threat plays a huge role. In general, the more signals — however subtle — someone picks up that she isn’t supposed to be good at something, the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

        • Agreed: “the more signals — however subtle — someone picks up that she isn’t supposed to be good at something, the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
          I just finished reading the book Brain Rules http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Rules-Principles-Surviving-Thriving/dp/0979777747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308075617&sr=8-1  , and one of the last chapters was about gender differences.  It actually wasn’t as in depth as I was hoping, but he did say that men and women are in fact wired differently.

          He also talked about an experiment where girls were taught math (and science?) separately from boys, and the girls did better under those circumstances.

          It did pique my curiosity and make me want to learn more about the biology of gender differences (vs. those caused by the culture).  

          My daughter goes to an all girls school and I was wondering if their SAT math scores are higher than the a comp co-ed school.  Need to look into.

          When I was a boss, I was always surprised at how men asked for a raise versus the women.  It fell right down the lines of the stereotypes.  Occasionally I would get a strong woman who would have the conversation with confidence, but honestly, it was rare.

          I also recall a time when I first started working (late 1980s) and there was an entry level group of us all talking after work one night —  and we had that forbidden conversation that only young people can have (i.e. we told each other our salaries).  Across the board, the young men made more than the young women.  And this was a company that was run by a progressive woman!

          I don’t have any conclusions here, just observations, and questions.

          Thanks for your comment.

        • Anonymous

          Hi Erica – 
          I agree :-)  I was being mostly tounge-in-cheek in my response.  

          I was lucky enough to attend an all-girls Catholic grade school at the convent, taught by the nuns who wore the floor-length black habits, wimples, and veils. I suppose it should have been a conservative, repressive place but it wasn’t at all. 

          We were expected to excel across the curriculum and were grouped by ability for the most part, not age.   

          I can’t imagine the nuns were at the forefront of the women’s lib movement in the 70s.  But I saw powerful examples of women working in all levels of authority.  It left me with the indelible impression that ability mattered and gender was irrelevant.

          Which, of course, is not how it is in the real world.  I began my career with the consulting firm Ernst & Young. The old boy’s network was thriving. While I was there, they touted that they doubled the number of women partners. From 1% to 2%. Woot.  The things they valued and rewarded were not the things that a lot of the women valued.

          I think the world is changing –  creativity, communication, and “socialness” are becoming increasingly important. And I think we’ll need new tools to measure it.

          • Anonymous

            Ok, totally missed the tongue-in-cheek part. Now I feel très stupide. I do agree that creativity and communication are totally necessary skills for *everyone*. It’s really interesting, though — both of the girls I’ve had recently who were stronger in math/science and interested in more quantitative fields (architecture and engineering) had gone to an all-female Catholic school for 10+ years! Somehow I don’t think that’s a coincidence!

          • Anonymous

            Yay for all girls schools!  Yay for Catholic schools!

          • My daughter chose (and pushed for) going to an all girls school, and I reluctantly agreed (reluctantly, not because it was all girls, but more because I didn’t know my plan ) — and I have been pleasantly surprised again and again.  It’s hard to exceed my expectations in the school dept. — but I will say that this school has done succeeded.  I’m surprised that it didn’t occur to me before she went there that an all girls school would have such empowering consequences for math and science.

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  • Falak

    A girl in my school in Pakistan, Asha Gul, got a world distinction in Add Math in O Levels MashAllah. Many girls I personally know from school got 2200+ on SAT mashAllah. Girls frequently get straight A’s in O and A Levels. In my tuition center, which was co-ed, I alhamdulillah was the only girl in class to get straight A’s. The boys were really smart and from reputable schools but they got B’s or even C’s. Your effort and mindset count, and your prayers. Not your gender.