Mars and Venus in the Classroom
By Richard Morin
Washington Post
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A02
First the good news: One year with a male English teacher would eliminate nearly a third of the gender gap in reading performance among 13-year-olds.
Now the bad: Having a male teacher improves the performance of boys while harming girls' reading skills. On the other hand, a year with a female teacher would close the gender gap in science achievement among 13-year-old girls by half and eliminate the smaller achievement gap in mathematics, says economist Thomas S. Dee of Swarthmore College, who examined data collected from more than 20,000 eighth-graders beginning in 1988.
In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading readiness, general knowledge and math. By third grade, boys have slightly higher math scores and slightly lower reading scores -- gaps that widen as the children grow older. The gender gaps for children age 9 to 13 approximately double in science and reading. And by the time they're 17, "the underperformance of . . . boys in reading is equivalent to 1.5 years of schooling, and though men continue to be over-represented in college level science and engineering, girls are now more likely to go to college and persist in earning a degree," Dee said in a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research."
In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading readiness, general knowledge and math. By third grade, boys have slightly higher math scores and slightly lower reading scores -- gaps that widen as the children grow older.
The gender gaps for children age 9 to 13 approximately double in science and reading. And by the time they're 17, "the underperformance of . . . boys in reading is equivalent to 1.5 years of schooling, and though men continue to be over-represented in college level science and engineering, girls are now more likely to go to college and persist in earning a degree," Dee said in a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
\nDee found that assigning boys to male teachers and girls to female instructors "significantly improves the achievement of both girls and boys as well as teacher perceptions of student performance and student engagement with the teacher's subject."
That's particularly bad news for boys, because more than eight in 10 sixth- and eighth-grade reading and English teachers are women, he reported.Dee found that assigning boys to male teachers and girls to female instructors "significantly improves the achievement of both girls and boys as well as teacher perceptions of student performance and student engagement with the teacher's subject."
To read more about this study, click here
Washington Post
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A02
First the good news: One year with a male English teacher would eliminate nearly a third of the gender gap in reading performance among 13-year-olds.
Now the bad: Having a male teacher improves the performance of boys while harming girls' reading skills. On the other hand, a year with a female teacher would close the gender gap in science achievement among 13-year-old girls by half and eliminate the smaller achievement gap in mathematics, says economist Thomas S. Dee of Swarthmore College, who examined data collected from more than 20,000 eighth-graders beginning in 1988.
In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading readiness, general knowledge and math. By third grade, boys have slightly higher math scores and slightly lower reading scores -- gaps that widen as the children grow older. The gender gaps for children age 9 to 13 approximately double in science and reading. And by the time they're 17, "the underperformance of . . . boys in reading is equivalent to 1.5 years of schooling, and though men continue to be over-represented in college level science and engineering, girls are now more likely to go to college and persist in earning a degree," Dee said in a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research."
In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading readiness, general knowledge and math. By third grade, boys have slightly higher math scores and slightly lower reading scores -- gaps that widen as the children grow older.
The gender gaps for children age 9 to 13 approximately double in science and reading. And by the time they're 17, "the underperformance of . . . boys in reading is equivalent to 1.5 years of schooling, and though men continue to be over-represented in college level science and engineering, girls are now more likely to go to college and persist in earning a degree," Dee said in a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
\nDee found that assigning boys to male teachers and girls to female instructors "significantly improves the achievement of both girls and boys as well as teacher perceptions of student performance and student engagement with the teacher's subject."
That's particularly bad news for boys, because more than eight in 10 sixth- and eighth-grade reading and English teachers are women, he reported.Dee found that assigning boys to male teachers and girls to female instructors "significantly improves the achievement of both girls and boys as well as teacher perceptions of student performance and student engagement with the teacher's subject."
To read more about this study, click here
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