Posted on 08/18/2014 2:48:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Girls in New York City outperformed boys on the state's standardized math tests this year, widening the gap between the genders when it comes to math, new statistics show.
More than 35 percent of the city's third-through-eighth-grade girls passed the state math test, up from 30 percent last year which was the first year of the harder tests aligned to federal Common Core standards. For boys, 33.4 percent passed this year's test, up from last year's 29.3 percent.
It's too soon to know why girls' math scores are rising faster than boys', but some experts wonder if all of the focus and funding going to boosting girls' performance in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — is paying off.
"My gut feeling is that all of the attention that has been given to STEM and getting girls involved in the STEM areas really has impacted these results," said Deborah Shanley, professor at Brooklyn College.
Over the past several years, the National Science Foundation and other organizations have given a lot more funding for K through 12 programs directed at girls, Shanely noted. Groups like Black Girls Code run programs to spark girls' interest in math and computer science.
There has been a cultural shift, too, with commercials like the General Electric one that features a girl talking about how her mom builds underwater fans and airplane engines.
"Putting women in those roles and having girls talk about 'that's my mother that developed that engine' — a lot of it is PR," she said. "But I'm hoping [it seeps into] instruction for girls."
Girls' math scores were better than boys' in all grades from third through eighth and across all ethnic groups, according to city and state data. But it remains to be seen whether the gains will be sustained in high school and beyond.
There are still big gaps between boys' and girls' SAT math scores, with boys scoring 30 points better on recent SATs. And there's still a dearth of women in math and science-related fields, advocates said.
"There is no intrinsic difference in math ability in girls and boys and, in fact, there’s evidence that girls are more attentive and diligent students," Glen Whitney, founder of Flatiron's Museum of Math which is highlighting the accomplishments of women in the field with in an informal lunch discussion featuring three female mathematicians on Sept. 6 called "Solve for XX: A Celebration of Women in Mathematics."
"Methods of assessment," Whitney said, have gradually "let go of their gender biases," which has helped turn the tide for girls' math scores.
"As parents, teachers and mentors we must make sure we don’t introduce a bias that might be based on old misconceptions," he added.
Elementary and middle school girls in New York City have been performing better on English tests than boys for many years and the data shows they've been doing better on math for several years too, raising questions about whether schools are now doing enough to reach boys, some said.
"Girls have the social skills at an earlier age to do well, like sitting still and listening to instruction," said NYU education professor Pedro Noguera. "Boys especially — and all kids — benefit from more hands-on learning, more active learning."
The challenge now, Noguera said, is to use the results of the standardized test scores to think about effective teaching for all students.
"We should be using the scores to guide our interventions and professional development for teachers," he said. "We need again to focus on what kind of instructional strategies would engage kids."
Something here doesn’t add up.
Yeah, maybe so but girls have cooties!
Didn't think so.
That makes no sense at all.
Don’t understand why the last thread was deleted.
Not noted is how many of each group are in the top 3-5 percentile bracket, which is where all the physicists, engineers, mathematicians and technologists live. The usual ratio is at least 3-to-1 in favor of males.
Some of the mods are pretty feminist. This one will probably be pulled too.
Yeah, but its in the early HS years that boys hit their stride. I also wonder what the stats look like when broken down by ethnicity.
But how many were Black? Hispanic? Asian? Caucasian?
Jeez we need to pigeonhole peole based on identity!
The ratio of girls to boys in my son’s national honor society organization is 2 to 1. Just a spot sampling and our last meeting.
My son’s school is your typical public High School.
Anywho, I just thought that was odd.
I did not see any obnoxious reply’s.
It is no secret that women are outperforming and displacing men in all levels of education excluding a few heavily mathematical field like engineering and physics. We are slowly moving towards a matriarchy where formerly working class men are reduced to a poor, destitute, criminal class. More and more blue collar men sit at home with kids while college educated wife works.
Men are more independent and competitive, women are more cooperative and have better communication skills. Modern America has no use for brave, courageous, independent men; it wants a society of obedient drones. Women serve this purpose better than us Y chromosome relics.
Common core math is language bound. Precision is not important/rationalizing process answers is emphasized.
My son’s school is your typical public High School.
Possibly so. However, national honor society memberships aren't awarded based on the ability to solve complex technical problems. What I'm referring to is the fact that males are over-represented at both extremes of the bell curve compared to females.
Then something has to be done to stop that.
wanna know why boys cant do math anymore? math is now all reading. my sons (poor readers in lower grades) suffered in math classes - not because they couldn’t do arithmetic - but because the problems were ALL words, with a cultural connection attached.
So, little Johnny is trying to do his math homework, but gets stumped at the first sentence.....’the gobbledegook tribe in the montebumaka forest are led by chief whatshisname.’ By the second paragraph, you are asked to figure how many nuts each of the villagers collected.
So, the way to get girls to perform better in math - is to change it to reading!
So many boys end up at the bottom of the class, and in some schools, its practically impossible to get college prep classes once you’re in the lower half of the class.
I rarely see women in engineering fields, when I do they usually suck at it.
The exception is software, but even there, it is rare to find the performer.
They line up for dress design though LOL
But Jeez let us tell the truth, even the culinary world is ruled by men.
The exception being baking.
Usually baking really crappy cakes and Mcfrosted foo foo’s.
The real bakers are generally Men.
I got nothin against women and they are quite capable, but my experience is they do not want to do the hard everyday work.
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