What Are the Gender Differences in Mathematics Achievement?
Exhibit
1.5 presents average mathematics 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 good news that in mathematics at the eighth grade, the TIMSS
1999 Benchmarking Study shows relatively equivalent average achievement
for girls and boys in each of the Benchmarking jurisdictions. The
United States as well as a number of other countries around the world
appear to be making progress towards gender equity in mathematics
education. On average across all TIMSS 1999 countries, there was a
modest but significant difference favoring boys, although this varied
considerably from country to country. The only countries with differences
large enough to be statistically significant were Israel, the Czech
Republic, Iran, and Tunisia.
Although achievement differences between the
genders are becoming smaller in mathematics, research indicates that
they still exist in those areas involving the most complex mathematical
tasks, particularly as students progress to middle and secondary schools.(8)
Thus, Exhibit
1.6 provides information on gender differences in mathematics
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.
On average across countries, 23 percent of girls compared with 27
percent of boys reached the upper quarter level, and 49 percent of
girls compared with 51 percent of boys reached the median level. These
gender differences, although small, were statistically significant.
In all but four countries, however, the percentages reaching the upper
quarter and median levels were not significantly different, indicating
that gender equity exists in most countries at these levels. Even
though the four countries with significant differences did include
the United States (as well as Israel, the Philippines, and Tunisia),
this was not reflected in the results for the Benchmarking jurisdictions.
Michigan was the only Benchmarking jurisdiction to show a significant
gender difference favoring males among high-performing students.
