Teachers are more lenient in their grading of girls’ schoolwork according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) summarized by the BBC and forwarded by a Chandler parent this past week. The study concludes that differences in school results sometimes have little to do with ability. Teachers can be biased toward giving girls higher grades than boys even when they have produced work of the same quality. From a young age boys are less likely to raise their hand in class to ask to speak. They are worse at waiting their turn, and they are less likely to listen and pay attention before starting a project. As they get older boys are more likely to start withdrawing in class and becoming disengaged.
“Teachers hold stereotypical ideas about boys’ and girls’ academic strengths and weaknesses,” said the report. “They reward organizational skills, good behavior and compliance rather than objectively grading students’ work. Teachers need to be aware of this gender bias.”
Chandler faculty read the OECD summary. Kindergarten teacher Cara Gancedo wrote: “I wonder if lower end girls are more fragile and lacking in confidence and end up being pushed less than a boy might be pushed.”
Jill Bergeron, Chandler’s Middle School tech integration teacher wrote: “ I wouldn’t doubt the results, but I would be curious to know the historical trend in this data, beginning with the introduction of public schooling in the US when girls were deemed the weaker sex. I wonder if this is just the pendulum swinging the other way.”
The pendulum may be swinging but according to an Israeli study published by the National Bureau of Econmomic Research, summarized on the Today website and forwarded by a Chandler parent, it needs to swing further. The report says that many teachers still harbor unconscious biases that dissuade girls from going into the fields of math and science. The results suggest that teachers are part of the problem. Teachers are discouraging girls and encouraging boys to get to higher levels of math and science because of the gender gap in the teachers' perceptions of their students.
The study found gender bias by comparing the results of tests scored by teachers who knew the children and their names, to those graded by outside scorers who were not told anything about the identity of the test takers. When teachers knew the children’s names and identities they graded the girls lower in math than the outside grader, while scoring the boys higher. The same bias was not occurring in other school subjects.
“Parents should advocate in a respectful and diplomatic way when they think their children are not getting the opportunities they should because of gender,” wrote Carolyn Parker, a Johns Hopkins professor who reviewed the study.
Gender has an impact on learning at every school. Chandler is no exception. These studies encourage us to reflect on our practices as we fulfill our mission by providing each boy and girl with the highest quality and most academically challenging education in a nurturing, balanced and diverse environment.
