Gender gaps in early educational achievement

Abstract

Educational achievement is often surprisingly gendered. After all, legislators, policymakers, and educators have worked for more than a generation to encode a principle of equal opportunity in education. Boys and girls generally attend the same schools, sit in classrooms alongside one another, and learn the same lessons. Why then do gender disparities in achievement persist? This question becomes all the more perplexing when one considers that it is not a simple matter of one gender having an overall edge in terms of achievement. This paper decomposes the sources of the gender gap in third grade numeracy and reading using unusually rich panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children in which information on child development reported by parents and teachers is linked to each child's results on a national, standardized achievement test. We find that girls in families with low and middle socio-economic status have an advantage in reading, while boys in families with high socio-economic status have an advantage in numeracy. Girls score higher on their third grade reading tests in large part because they were more ready for school at age four and had better teacher-assessed literacy skills in kindergarten. Boys' advantage in numeracy occurs because they achieve higher numeracy test scores than girls with the same education-related characteristics.Our results lead us to three important conclusions. First, we find that gaps in educational achievement are linked to children's socio-economic status. Second, the source of the gender gap in achievement differs across domains. For example, girls score higher on their third grade reading tests because they have better endowments of the things associated with higher educational achievement. Third, while we cannot definitely rule out gendered educational practices as a source of the gender gap in children's standardized test scores, this seems unlikely to be the full story, particularly in the case of reading achievement.Our results add to the small body of evidence showing that achievement gaps exist in early primary school, before children have been exposed to long periods of gender-biased schooling. Moreover, girls score higher on their third-grade standardized tests largely because of the skills they already possessed in kindergarten and before entering school. The pattern of achievement gaps across domains and family circumstances is complex, making it unlikely that a single overarching process drives the relationship between gender and educational achievement. We need to do more to identify which mechanisms are more important and in which circumstances. advantage in numeracy occurs because they achieve higher numeracy test scores than girls with the same education-related characteristics. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Do Executive Functions Mediate the Link between Socioeconomic Status and Numeracy Skills? A Cross-Site Comparison of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom

“…Here, two points deserve note. First, with regards to the UK dataset, the finding that EF performance varies significantly with SES for males but not females is consistent with the wider view that educational effects of social disadvantage might be especially marked in males (e.g., Cobb-Clark & Moschion, 2017;Ridge et al, 2017). However, the follow up analyses indicate that both males and females from the UK show indirect effect from SES to EF through general cognitive ability.…”

“…However, these differences did not carry over when looking at those with mathematical difficulties. However, in the UK at least, societal concerns about academic under-achievement in children from low-income families typically focus on males (e.g., Cobb-Clark & Moschion, 2017).…”

Do executive functions mediate the link between socioeconomic status and numeracy skills? A cross-site comparison of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom

“…Here, two points deserve note. First, with regards to the UK dataset, the finding that EF performance varies significantly with SES for males but not females is consistent SES EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS AND MATH 31 with the wider view that educational effects of social disadvantage might be especially marked in males (e.g., Cobb-Clark & Moschion, 2017;Ridge et al, 2017). However, the follow up analyses indicate that both males and females from the UK show indirect effect from SES to EF through general cognitive ability.…”

Gender gaps in cognitive and social‐emotional skills in early primary grades: Evidence from rural Indonesia

“…Research has shown that gender differences in educational achievement emerge in the early years of school (Cobb‐Clark & Moschion, ) and can persist into adulthood (Anderson, ). There is also a growing body of evidence suggesting that social‐emotional skills observed in early childhood affect academic performance and labor market outcomes in later years (Cunha & Heckman, ; Cunha, Heckman, & Schennach, ).…”