Word: mathes
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...findings showed that in some ways the American public school classroom is a feminine domain. Nearly three-quarters of teachers are women. Though the sexes do equally well in math and science grades, girls outperform boys overall. In verbal skills, girls move into the lead around Grade 5 or 6 and thereafter do better than boys in writing and, by most measures, reading. Females constitute less than a third of students identified as emotionally disturbed or learning disabled. Despite teen pregnancies, girls are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to attend college...
...what's the problem? For one thing, there is a gap in scores on standardized tests, especially in math and science, which the report blames partly on lingering bias in both testing and curriculum. On Advanced Placement tests, which enable students to earn college credit during high school, boys outperform girls in math, physics and biology. On the SAT test, that ubiquitous measure of alleged merit, in 1991 boys beat girls by 8 points in the verbal score and 44 points in math...
Susan Bailey, the report's chief author, says differences persist in math because "girls are still not participating in equal proportion to boys in advanced-level courses." Specifically, 7.6% of boys choose calculus, compared with 4.7% of girls. As for science performance, Bailey says, "the gap may be getting wider." A fourth of high school boys take physics, but only 15% of girls...
Even girls who take the same math and science courses and do just as well on standardized tests are far less likely to consider technological careers. A study of Rhode Island high school seniors, for instance, found that 64% of boys but only 19% of girls taking physics and calculus planned to pursue science or engineering in college. Last week's report contends that girls' aversion to these fields limits their career options and future income...
...A.A.U.W. proposals offered last week lean toward such predictable remedies as improved teacher training or further studies and avoid bold proposals suggested by the research, such as sex-segregated math and science classes. Diane Ravitch, an Assistant Secretary of Education, complains that much of the report "is just special pleading and, frankly, whining." Opportunities are opening up, she says, and girls should be urged to take advanced courses, not told that they are victims. Chester Finn, director of Vanderbilt University's Educational Excellence Network, thinks disparities simply show that students have different interests and abilities. He considers gender complaints...