CSAP and the math gap (or lack thereof)
Thursday, July 31, 2008Written by: Uncle Charley
Before we can move on to more earth-shaking matters, here’s another interesting side note from Tuesday’s release of CSAP results: The lack of a math gap between boys and girls at nearly every grade level.
This comports with a recent in-depth study from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that found no difference in mathematical ability between the sexes. Of course, stereotypes die hard, but we need to move beyond this notion when crafting education policy here in Colorado and abroad.
One noteworthy thing NSF researchers stumbled upon concerns the quality of math assessments:
Again, the effort uncovered little difference, as did a comparison of how well boys and girls did on questions requiring complex problem solving. What the researchers did find, though, was a disturbing lack of questions that tested this ability. In fact, they found none whatsoever on the state assessments for NCLB, requiring them to turn to another data source for that part of the study.
As usual, the best take on the subject comes from The Onion (H/T Joanne Jacobs), with a “man-in-the-street” survey to gauge opinion of the NSF’s findings. Pick your favorite answer.
One final note: The female advantage on CSAP reading assessments far outstrips the tiniest male edge in the subject of math. Maybe the NSF or another group could take a look at comparative skills in this area.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Take a look at this article. This results of this study are not being accurately reported. The study confirms once again that males have a higher variance than females and that variance is repsonsibile for many more males being high performers and low performers.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Above comment is (perhaps unfortunately) dead on. Here is another, slightly broader, take:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/07/summers-vindica.html