Former teacher Liam Day examines the achievement gap in education that is leaving boys behind.
There are two academic achievement gaps in this country. One, the racial achievement gap, has received a great deal of attention from media and public policy experts. Rightly so. Unfortunately, the other, which is no less dire, is less commented on.
By almost any measure of academic performance, girls in this country outperform boys. The proportion of students enrolled in a 2 or 4-year college in the United States who are male is roughly 43%. So too the proportion who go on to graduate from college.
The gap in high school graudation rates is similarly significant. 74% of girls graduate, only 67% of boys.
But the gender achievement gap isn’t unique to the United States. The data appear to be consistent with trends in the United Kingdom, where a new study from the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics has just been released. The study identifies as a possible culprit for boys’ poor academic performance a lack of male teachers.
In the UK, only 25 percent of all teachers are male. In primary schools, that percentage falls to 15%. Here in the United States the proportion is only slightly higher. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 18% of all elementary and middle school teachers are male.
Frankly, none of this comes as a shock. All one has to do is walk into an elementary school anywhere in the country to see the imbalance. When I taught 6th grade in a grade 5-6 building, I was one of 9 males out of a total of 70 faculty and staff. A good friend who has served as a recruiting officer for both Teach for America and a charter management organization complains about the proponderance of young white women he interviews for teaching and administrative positions in predominantly black and Latino schools.
Of course, there are historical reasons – both pernicious and persistent – for this. 60 years ago, education was one of the few professions it was acceptable for an educated woman to pursue. Today, the gender stereotype lingers at the elementary level.
Neither should we be surprised at the potential damage this imbalance is wreaking. Yes, it is only one study and more research needs to be done, but there’s existing data that help tell part of the story. For instance, boys in grades K-3 are four times more likely to be identified with a learning need of some kind and placed on an individualized education plan. Do boys really have neurological or physiological problems at rates four times higher than girls? I can’t imagine.
Anti-intellectualism isn’t a new strain of the American male psyche. There has always been the perception of a divide between those who do and those who think, the jocks and the nerds, the freaks and the geeks, for those of you who remember the too-short lived TV show.
This perceived divide is at least partly due to the belief that doing well in school is somehow to be feminine, to act like a girl, and I can’t help but wonder whether this belief isn’t due to the preponderance of female role models in our elementary schools. When you’re 6, 7 or 8 years old and all your teachers are women, it isn’t exactly unreasonable to assume that school is for girls.
What do you think? Is it “girlie” to achieve in school these days? How can we change this male:female teacher ratio to help boys get back on track?
Photo courtesy of hoyasmeg
Liam, from your bio, it’s not clear if you’re a licensed teacher in any state of the U.S. or not, but if you are, forgive the forthcoming background. Becoming a licensed teacher in most states in the U.S. has become an ordeal, with the majority of studies and testing revolving around – not the subject matter – but state and national law and regulation, educational studies and brain learning studies. We eat academic studies for lunch. There are myriad academic studies of all kinds perpetually generated about education and when you break down and discuss the data – as teachers… Read more »
CW, there is something else to consider. Young girls now regularly do typically boy-oriented games and activities as well as traditionally girl-oriented activities, such as sewing, crafts, and cooking. These “girl” activities require very specific skills and thinking that can be applied to other kinds of later learning. So girls who engage in both gender-typical activities gain a wider knowledge base to draw on as they grow, and boys exposed to dual-gender activities also. But I’m guessing most boys do not have as much of those dual experiences because their parents are nervous about raising a “cissy” or retaliation from… Read more »
You go with that. I’ll stick with the growing body of credible research that points to disparate treatment leading to disparate educational outcomes between boys and girls.
CW, specifically, what kind of specific treatments (on an individual level) do you think leads to disparate gender outcomes? Scoring in science and math classes is mostly numerical, true or false, or multiple choice. There is tremendous focus on objectivity in scoring, as historically grading has favored white boys. There is no emphasis on downgrading boys’ scores. The most serious current problem is the inflated grades of special ed students, who are never failed and often are awarded one or two letter grades above what they’ve earned. In response, teachers grade hard-working good students As instead of Bs, because poor… Read more »
And now we’ve come full circle- I refer you back to the study referenced above. The study found disparate grading based on gender. Positive bias for like genders for men and women. Neutral bias when men were grading girls. Negative bias when women were grading boys.
CW, I can assure you that is not the case. If boys are not achieving at the same level as girls, there are several factors that could contribute to that. 1. Obsession with video games. Girls do not spend nearly as much time here, where boys often game three-six hours a day. 2. Girls are engaging in traditional boys activities as well as traditional girls activities, giving them a broader base of knowledge and an advantage. 3. Bullying. Although girls are bullied also and perhaps with the same frequency and viciousness, the bullying boys experience is often more physical. The… Read more »
Katie, Thank you for your interest in both the article and the topic of education generally. I’ve been following the discussion between you and CW and I wanted to jump in to reiterate CW’s previous point. The study I cite pretty clearly points to a grading bias. The only way you can assure CW that it isn’t the case is if you detected a methodological flaw in the study that was large enough to warrant its dismissal. One could conceivably argue the study pertains to the English educational system and, thus, the data have no bearing on the American educational… Read more »
Liam, besides the comment below, teachers are required to provide each student with visual, charted rubrics for every major assignment breaking down exactly the grade percentage for each value included in the assignment. That’s right, besides creating a class lesson plan (by day), teaching a subject, creating a test, project or paper, grading their work – we have to adhere to a static charted rubric, which some kids follow more closely than the assignment, finding ways to scam the rubric. When you pass this out, some kids spend more time – waste everyone’s time – questioning the minutiae of the… Read more »
CW. The overlap is not relevant in this discussion. Raw numbers above or below a number considered importatn are important, as is the mean above or below.
Hi Richard- we’re in agreement. I was referring to the fact that 2 distributions can be significantly different (in terms of central tendency) even if there is overlap of the tails.
Good story. The shortage of male teachers probably contributes to the comparatively lower results* of boys, but it’s one of many reasons. Yes, I’m a teacher. First, teaching is a low-paying job with huge responsibility for all the kids under your supervision in classes and study halls, so fewer men are interested when they can get a job for more money and less responsibility. I can practically guarantee that if two equally qualified candidates (or even if the male is less qualified) apply for the same job, the male will get the job because there is general agreement that there… Read more »
Lots of words but nothing that explains the bi-modality of educational success at the terminal level.
CW, read it again. 1) All kids will not achieve at the same level in the same subjects at the same time. That also includes WITHIN the boys demographic and WITHIN the girls demographic as well as boys/girls. The emphasis on comparative evaluation is misdirected. 2) It’s unhealthy to force boys to try read when their brains are not properly developed yet. It leads to misbehavior and then their parents medicate them, which makes the situation worse. There are plenty of other things they can be learning at that time. 3) Providing kids (including boys) core classes in which they… Read more »
1. The emphasis on comparative evaluation is not misdirected when the overall performance of boys vs. girls is reasonably consistent across all grades, socioeconomic classes and racial groups.
2. I agree.
3. I agree.
forgot one point- the existence of variation within subgroups does not preclude variation between subgroups. Distributions have tails and two unequal distributions can have significant overlap. Central tendancy is the name of the game.
The study has 4 interesting findings: 1. Male teachers are biased in favor of boys when compared to an objective standard. 2. Female teachers are biased in favor of girls when compared to an objective standard. Taken alone this could create major difficulties for boys in education. Obviously, with more women than men the female bias is magnified. Here is where it gets interesting. 3. Male teachers show no bias against girls when compared to an objective standard. Basically, Men tend to make boys a little better than they deserve and mark girls exactly where they deserve to be marked.… Read more »
Point 4 is scary and shockwaves need to be sent throughout the entire system. Why would females mark boys lower, when males don’t mark girls lower than the standard? What is biasing their views and marking? That is what truly makes me worried that there is some form of bias being passed along and being more prevalent in the female teachers against male students as it doesn’t seem to apply for the reverse as you say.
what just fries my circuits- this study is a strong statistical indication of a systemic bias against boys in western education and all it rates is 16 comments. Most of the commentators haven’t even read the study as you can so clearly see from their comments. Here is problem solving 101- if two groups show disparate impact in the same system the solution is NOT FIXING THINGS FOR EVERYBODY. FIRST- do some root cause analysis- identify and correcting the reasons for bi-modality. Address the greatest pain points first. I guess the readers and writers here would rather go on and… Read more »
See my comment above. It’s been intentionally made to be politically incorrect to address an issue where boys are on the short end, which includes education and other issues.
The lack of response here mirrors the reality. Nobody with influemce cares risk being called a sexist by of the movement that claims to be for equality but denies, ignores, or fights progress on addressing issues where boys are disadvantaged, via political pressure and by any means necessary to ensure the status quo is maintained, which means the edication gap will continue to widen.
cracks are starting to appear. People who ignore this information or try to explain it away are starting to look pretty stupid. On this thread alone I picture a few of the commentators looking like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAmPIq29ro
Remain Calm! All is well!!!
I believe that study also shows female teachers award females higher marks, and male teachers award males higher marks so due to there being far more female teachers…the bias will harm the boys. Other theories I’ve seen have mentioned the feminization of learning, bias in teachers towards genders, ie Expecting boys to misbehave more and thus being more critical on them for their behaviour (which for me made me shut down in school more). I noticed when I was in school I was bullied quite a bit for being “smart”, doing good, answering questions and participating in class, I was… Read more »
Archy, your information is way off. There is no reputable study relevant to the U.S. with these results.
I’m reasonably comfortable extrapolating UK results to the US given the high degree of similarity between the systems and their products. At least I would recommend a immediately commissioning a similar study. The methodology were not all that complex and it shouldnt be too difficult.
OR we could hide our heads in the sand and say “your information is way off….”
I’m not a teacher but I do know a thing or two about research.
The UK and US educational systems are very different, not really comparable. For starters, they graduate at 16. The U.S. would be smart to adopt that plan, and at that point students would either be routed to a rigorous pre-college program or a trade school. There are too many kids mucking about as juniors and seniors in high and in college, taking remedial courses and getting special ed and they really don’t belong there.
explain to me the relevance of graduating at 16. OK- boys are underperforming girls at 16 in our current system. problem perpetuated. nothing solved.
Find me a difference that is relevant.
Which parts in particular? Some of what I said was opinion and may not have clearly indicated. Pedophile hysteria has been talked about though in Australia, the UK, and I’m sure even the US. ht tp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-443552/Paedophile-hysteria-putting-men-teaching-says-Boris-Johnson.html As for the results, above commenters discussed it and this article too http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/female-teachers-accused-of-giving-boys-lower-marks-6943937.html “It also shows their suspicions are correct – female teachers did, on average, award lower marks to boys than unidentified external examiners. Male teachers, by contrast, awarded them higher marks than external examiners.” “It also revealed that girls tried harder if they had a male teacher because they believed they would… Read more »
Thanks for writing this, but sadly I hold out little hope that there will be any acknowlegement of even the existence of the education gap as a problem by anyone with power to effect equality. It’s politically incorrect to acknowelge the gender education gap because boys are on the short end of the stick. Acknowledgement of the education gap being more than a curiosity, and actually doing anything to address it would be considered sexist discrimination and the feminist movement would be sure to raise cane about it with the policians. As a result, nobody with any power dare mention… Read more »
Eric, more extreme than the gender statistics are the racial statistics, where black boys and girls fail and drop out at an alarming rate across the board, much more than any other demographic.
Actually the broadest gender education gap is between black girls and boys, with black boys far behind girls. As if young black men didn’t have it hard enough, we are intentionally further disenfranchising them by standing by idly while they grow up to be under- or un-educated, which will make for a generation of frustrated and angry under- or un-employed young black men who WILL be fathers for the next generation, where things (based on the current trend) will be even worse.
There are 1000 related reasons. This is just one of them. Boys are failing because our government engineers them to fail.
Strange thing, I think, happened last week. We were vacationing at a condo with my son and his family. My older granddaughter is a very bright, extraordinarily beautiful girl of four and a half. Her proportions are ahead of her age– leg vs. torso length, etc–so that she seems older than her age. A boy from another family, age eight, who could swim like a fish, asked her to throw certain rings into the water so he could swim down and get them for her. That went on for twenty minutes. I was wondering if he’d offer to buy her… Read more »
Sorry, but I don’t think it’s too much for a grown woman to step outside the box and learn about boys. I’d be willing to do the same if I were a male teacher for girl students.
I’m not really sure the gender of the teachers enters into this at all. Back in 2006, Goldin, Katz, and Kuziemko presented pretty convincing evidence that there were three principle determinants of whether or not someone would complete high school and attend college: their scores on standardized reading tests their scores on standardized math tests the number of math and science class they took All three variables were positively correlated, so the higher the score, or the more classes the student took, the more likely they were to finish high school and go to college. Historically (and continuing to a… Read more »
Mike, I agree with you that the gender of the teacher does not really affect grades, although more male teachers might help boys relate better. Most boys develop reading skills later and girls develop math skills later (see my post below), and the perception that there is a standard all kids must achieve in every subject year by year is seriously flawed. Schools need to develop the whole student, especially now with single parents and two working parents. Art, music, gym and shop are essential to student development and should be regarded as core curriculum – not elective, or worse,… Read more »
Another great article by a male teacher addressing why we need more male teachers.
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/put-your-hands-up-and-step-away-from-the-child/
I don’t know. I’ve learned a lot BECAUSE of some male teachers. And I’ve learned DESPITE some other male teachers.
It’s like the question of being raised by two people or one person. Having no father around is better than having a terrible father around. Same with teachers.
First of all, I don’t see how it could *hurt* boys’ educational achievement to have more male teachers, so that’s not inherently a bad idea, in my opinion. (The downside to that is that if you make some sort of pro-male affirmative action program, you may get perfectly qualified female teachers passed over for mediocre male ones. That’s hardly a winning strategy.) One could actually get a handle on how much it matters by comparing different subjects or different classes at the individual student level. Look at how an individual boy performs in classes with male teachers compared to the… Read more »
“(The downside to that is that if you make some sort of pro-male affirmative action program, you may get perfectly qualified female teachers passed over for mediocre male ones. That’s hardly a winning strategy.)”
Sounds familiar with reverse genders:P
Archy, have no fear. There are unofficial pro-male affirmative actions programs in place in most school systems and teaching colleges, even for sub-par male candidates. The quality of the entire candidate pool continues to drop because of the growing inverse relationship between job responsibilities and salary.
Actually, colleges are trying to not allow the gap to spread beyond 60/40 or 65/35. If they didn’t it would be 70/30 or 75/25 by now. However, their concerns are social campus life not boys’ education. They believe that it makes for a less inviting environment for girls if there is a 70/30 or higher spread.
Eric, teaching colleges are jumping through hoops trying to attract prospective male teachers and can guarantee multiple job opportunities. There just aren’t that many young men interested in teaching.
Due to 3 factors, money vs responsibility, “woman’s job”, and the new pedophile hysteria which is a major reason I myself didn’t want to be a teacher and find it hard to work with kids at all due to the public perception of men with kids in Australia at least. Personally I believe many men are scared off from the profession, and in fact any role with kids. I know quite a few guys who are nervous around children because of the hysteria. It seems we’re getting worse in stereotypes of the genders in an age that is meant to… Read more »
I am raising an 11 yo son who has ADD, dyslexia and learning disability…that said, he is the sweetest, loveliest kid ever…he loves making stop-action videos starring his LEGO dinosaurs on his NINTENDO-3DS…he loves LEGO Robotics and is under the tutelage of an an Ivy League computer guy and an international venture capitalist, who travels between the Asia and America looking for the next big thing….he loves Greek mythology and the Percy Jackson series and spinoff series ….along with Harry Potter… My son is so different from me and my husband when we were growing up (although maybe not so… Read more »
The solution for the gender divide in academic performance is to have separate schools for boys with male teachers and girls with female teachers.
How does that knock down the public perception of molestation? Is it a chicken or egg? Are men de-emphasized because they are seen as kinda creepy, or do men see the writing on the wall and just avoid the profession? Out of what woodwork will these male teachers suddenly appear? The lack of male achievement is the lack of male teachers as role models and the lack of male teachers is because most parents would rather deal with the non-threat of a woman teacher. The lack of male teachers starts in kindergarten and is rampant through grade school. So what… Read more »