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What Are the Gender Differences in Science Achievement?
Exhibit
1.5 presents average science achievement separately for girls
and boys for each of the participating entities, as well as the difference
between the means, in increasing order of the difference. The gender
difference for each entity is shown by a bar indicating the amount
of the difference, whether its direction favored girls or boys, and
whether it is statistically significant (a darkened bar).
It is disappointing that in science at the eighth grade, the TIMSS
1999 Benchmarking Study shows relatively unequal average achievement
for girls and boys in many of the Benchmarking jurisdictions, and
in the United States overall. Boys had significantly higher average
science achievement than girls in 10 of the 13 Benchmarking states,
with Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Texas the exceptions. Gender
differences were less prevalent among the Benchmarking districts and
consortia, with significant differences in just four jurisdictions:
the First in the World Consortium, Guilford County, Naperville, and
the Southwest Pennsylvania Math and Science Collaborative. On average
across all TIMSS 1999 countries, there was a significant difference
of 15 scale-score points favoring boys, although this varied considerably
from country to country. Differences large enough to be statistically
significant were found in 16 of the 38 countries, including the U.S.
Exhibit
1.6 provides information on gender differences in science achievement
among students with high performance compared with those in the middle
of the achievement distribution. For each entity, score levels were
computed for the highest-scoring 25 percent of students, called the
upper quarter level, and for the highest-scoring 50 percent, called
the median level. The percentages of girls and boys in each entity
reaching each of the two levels were computed. For equitable performance,
25 percent each of girls and boys should have reached the upper quarter
level, and 50 percent the median level.
As may be seen from Exhibit
1.6, in all Benchmarking states but Maryland, Massachusetts, and
South Carolina, the percentage of boys reaching the upper quarter
level was significantly greater than the percentage of girls. There
was a significantly greater percentage of boys reaching the median
level in all states but Connecticut, Massachusetts, and South Carolina.
Among the Benchmarking districts and consortia, significantly greater
percentages of boys reached the upper quarter level in the First in
the World Consortium, Guilford County, and the Southwest Pennsylvania
Math and Science Collaborative. Only in the latter did a significantly
greater percentage of boys reach the median level.
The gender difference in science at the country level is more apparent
among high-performing students, although internationally it was about
the same at both the upper quarter and median levels. On average across
countries, 29 percent of boys reached the upper quarter level, compared
with 21 percent of girls, a statistically significant difference of
eight percentage points. Similarly, the international average percentage
of boys reaching the median level was 54 percent and of girls 46 percent,
also a significant difference of eight percentage points. Perhaps
more important, however, Exhibit 1.6 shows that in 21 countries the
percentage of boys reaching the upper quarter level was significantly
greater than the percentage of girls, whereas this was the case in
13 countries at the median level. In no country did the percentage
of girls reaching either level significantly exceed the percentage
of boys.
The gender differences found among the Benchmarking
states are consistent with the results of TIMSS in both 1995 and 1999,
which showed a pervasive difference in science achievement favoring
boys, far more evident than in mathematics.(8)
They are also consistent with the results from
the second iea science study conducted in 1983-84, which for 14-year-olds
found standard score differences favoring boys in all 23 of the participating
countries.(9)
| 8 |
Beaton, A.E., Mullis, I.V.S., Martin,
M.O., Gonzalez, E.J., Kelly, D.L., and Smith, T.A. (1996), Mathematics
Achievement in the Middle School Years: The IEA’s Third International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston
College; Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Gonzalez, E.J., Gregory,
K.D., Garden, R.A., O’Connor, K.M., Chrostowski, S.J., and
Smith, T.A. (2000), TIMSS 1999 International Science Report:
Findings from IEA’s Repeat of the Third International Mathematics
and Science Study at the Eighth Grade, Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston
College. |
| 9 |
Postlethwaite, T.N. and Wiley, D.E.
(1992), The IEA Study of Science II: Science Achievement in Twenty-Three
Countries, New York, NY: Pergamon Press. |
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