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Figure 1.5: Reflection on disparities in gender achievement gap across contexts.
Evidence Challenging a Gender Gap in Mathematics
The following is evidence that challenges the notion of a gender gap in mathematics. Specifically, we highlight marginal differences between boys’ and girls’ mathematics achievement scores and student confidence levels impacting mathematics achievement.
Marginal Differences Between Boys’ and Girls’ Mathematics Achievement Scores
As previously indicated, some data challenge the presence of a mathematics gender achievement gap. For instance, Jennifer E. V. Lloyd, John Walsh, and Manizheh Shehni Yailagh (2005) conducted an analysis of grades, standardized test scores, and self-efficacy responses among sixty-two fourth graders and ninety-nine seventh graders and conclude that “girls’ mathematics achievement met or exceeded that of boys’” (p. 384).
The NCES (2017) report of NAEP data for 2003–2017 indicates that there is not a mathematics gender achievement gap except for grade 4, as we previously outlined. Although NCES (2017) reports the presence of the gap for just one grade, that is one grade too many! Why this phenomenon exists for grade 4 in particular is a point for further study. A variety of factors, such as grade 4 mathematics curriculum, assessment item structures, and much more, could influence this outcome, and researchers continue to explore it (Reardon, Kalogrides, Fahle, Podolsky, & Zarate, 2018). Nonetheless, it is clearly important for educators to take a closer look at the mathematics experiences of girls in elementary school, which is why we chose to focus this book on grades K–5.
Student Confidence Levels Impacting Mathematics Achievement
There are other variables that need examination. For instance, what we tell students about their mathematics performance or about anticipating their mathematics performance really matters. How can we encourage students? How can we empower students to be successful in mathematics, simply by what we say to them? How can we even the playing field for boys and girls in mathematics? Perhaps there are many answers to these questions and to the previous questions. Here is one simple answer: “When test administrators tell students that girls and boys are equally capable in math, … the difference in performance essentially disappears” (Hill et al., 2010, p. xv). So, what we say to students can have a great deal of influence on how they perform in mathematics. To send direct messages about the nature of intelligence as dynamic and to reduce stereotypes, teachers and administrators can:
■ Teach students that intellectual skills can be acquired—Explain that, like muscles, the more we use our brains, the stronger they become. Help students learn that their brains form new connections as they stretch themselves and work hard to learn something new.
■ Praise students for their effort (not their outcomes)—Give feedback about students’ processes and how they arrive at conclusions.
■ Highlight the role of struggle in education—Help convey to students that challenges, hard work, and mistakes are valuable and admirable. Explain to them that the process of struggling and overcoming challenges has been at the core of most scientific and mathematical contributions in our society.
Use figure 1.6 to rate your confidence teaching and learning mathematics.
Figure 1.6: Educator reflection on anxiety toward mathematics and its impact on students.
Considering the Impact of Teachers’ Mindsets
We briefly mentioned the teacher’s influence in the previous section. Here we deal with this topic in a bit more detail. Elementary mathematics teachers play an important role in the mathematics learning experiences of young girls. Interestingly, studies even suggest that teachers may impact girls’ perceptions of and achievements in mathematics beyond the mathematics lessons taught in the classroom, especially if that teacher is a woman (Beilock et al., 2010; Klass, 2017). Regardless of teacher effectiveness, girls’ mathematics achievement may actually be lower in classrooms where a woman teacher has mathematics anxiety, meaning that she is not confident in either her own mathematics abilities, her ability to teach mathematics, or both (Beilock et al., 2010). Young girls may implicitly be forming a gender stereotype since they assume the teacher’s knowledge and ability to learn applies to them.
Teachers’ perceptions of student achievement in mathematics also offer potential for gender gaps. Joseph P. Robinson-Cimpian of Economics and Education Policy at New York University Steinhardt and colleagues Sarah Theule Lubienski, Colleen M. Ganley, and Yasemin Coper-Gencturk (2014) explore how teachers engage in unintentional “differential ratings,” comparing teachers’ projections of their students’ mathematics achievement scores to their actual scores (p. 1264). In their findings (Robinson-Cimpian et al., 2014), teachers perceived boys’ mathematical performance to be higher than their girl counterparts, even when boys and girls perform the same. Gender stereotypes and bias that impact teachers’ perceptions of their students’ mathematics performance, achievement, and aptitude may drive the process of differential ratings.
In general, trends suggest that as early as second grade, girls are less confident in their ability to engage in mathematics tasks and are more anxious than boys about mathematics performance (Casey, 2017; Ganley & Lubienski, 2016a; Post, 2015). These gender differences in self-perceptions are larger than actual achievement gaps, however, as highlighted by the NAEP self-concept in mathematics achievement data and other examples shared earlier in this chapter. How are mathematics teachers and teams contributing to these young students’ individual beliefs? Ganley and Lubienski (2016c) suggest that girls’ attitudes toward mathematics should receive greater emphasis in day-to-day classroom experiences with teachers rather than in the short, out-of-classroom experiences and interventions such as camps and after-school programs that are often developed to increase the representation of girls and women in STEM. This position leads to placing great value on the teacher-student relationship and the way this relationship can influence students’ learning.
Conclusion
In our society, gender is a factor in many situations that dictates who can do what, who can learn what, who can have what, and so on. This perspective is also present in schools and classrooms. In the context of this book, it is present in the form of the mathematics gender achievement gap. When there is one instance in which girls do not receive support to achieve in mathematics in the same ways as boys do, this is one instance too many. Whether the achievement gap is real or perceived is not the issue. The fact of the matter is there are girls in our schools who are not engaging, excelling, or both to their potential in mathematics. We have an opportunity and responsibility to improve on this issue. That is the singular aim of this book.
Use figure 1.7 to determine what actions you can take to help parents and guardians do their part to close the gap.
Figure 1.7: Actions to improve parents’ and guardians’ perspectives about girls learning mathematics.
Reflections
Answer the following five questions independently or in your book study to further
