Achievement in education - a study of senior high school achievement results based on genderv

Abstract

Gender inequality is a global issue. Although it is more commonly discussed in the context of social affordances, it is also prevalent in education. A secondary data analysis is used to interrogate differences in gender achievement using publicly available English and Mathematics data from 2012 to 2019. The study focuses on students studying in their final two years of schooling in government schools in South Australia, Australia. The paper considers both historical and international perspectives, and analyzes the publicly available senior secondary assessment data for South Australia, one of Australia's major educational jurisdictions. While data regarding achievement in gender-related differences in schooling remains contested, findings from this study suggest that, in the South Australian context, girls are outperforming boys in both Mathematics and English subjects.