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##  Gender Differences in Educational Achievement within Racial and                 Ethnic Groups. ERIC Digest Number 164.                                       

The effort to provide an equitable education to all students has led            to extensive research on the effects of racial and ethnic                       differences, and of gender, on access, learning, and achievement. It            has also led to great debate about which student population has been            most shortchanged, with the argument about gender inequities perhaps            most fierce. The impact of ethnicity on gender differences had been             only minimally considered by researchers, however, until the                    Educational Testing Service (ETS) began looking at the topic several            years ago, first with a study on test taking (Willingham & Cole,                1997) and now with a report on a variety of education and employment            measures (Coley, 2001). 
The ETS publications, while demonstrating             generally that there are "more similarities than variations in                  gender differences among racial/ethnic groups" (Coley, 2001, p. 3)              present statistics showing some interesting twists in the way the               differences are manifested. They also raise some questions about                educational equity that transcend the issue of gender fairness.                 Thus, as part of an ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education series                consisting of facts about specific student groups, this digest                  presents highlights from the education findings in Richard Coley's              Differences in the Gender Gap: Comparisons Across Racial/Ethnic                 Groups in Education and Work. 
RESEARCH FINDINGS

National                   Assessment of Educational Progress
ETS's review (Coley, 2001) of               gender differences in elementary and secondary education within                 racial and ethnic groups covered student results on the various                 tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in              several years over the last decade, administered to a nationally                representative sample of students at three grade or age levels. The             gender gap varied only slightly across the three years reviewed.                These are the findings from the most recently administered                      tests: 
* Reading: Grades 4, 8, and 12: In 1998 females scored                 higher than males across all racial and ethnic groups, with the gap             widening for most groups as the students progressed through                     school. 
* Writing: Grades 4, 8, and 12: Again, females scored                 higher than males across all racial and ethnic groups in 1998. 
*              Science. At age 9, there were no statistically significant score                differences in 1996 between males and females in all ethnic groups:             black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and white. At age 13, white            males scored higher than white females, while the other groups                  demonstrated no gender difference. At age 17, white males again                 outscored white females, Hispanic males outscored Hispanic females,             and blacks and Asian/Pacific Islanders still exhibited no gender                gap. 
* Mathematics. At grade 4, white males scored higher than                white females in 1996; there was no gender difference within the                other groups. At grades 8 and 12, no group demonstrated a gender                gap. COLLEGE PREPARATIONThe information about gender                      differences presented in the section below on high school course                taking is based on a sample of high school students who intended to             enroll in college; the findings, therefore, are not reflective of               the U.S. student population at large. The data on students in                   advanced placement classes cover all high school students. 
* High             School Course Taking. Among high school students who took the ACT               college admissions test in 1999, more females than males in all                 racial and ethnic groups (a difference of between 1 and 3 percentage            points overall) took a core college preparatory curriculum, with the            greatest difference between black males and females (a difference of            7 percentage points). 
Similarly, among high school seniors who                took the SAT I: Reasoning Test for college admission in 1999, 55                percent of females and 46 percent of males overall took 20 or more              years of courses in six core academic subjects. The gender                      difference was greater among American Indian, Asian/Pacific                     Islander, and white students; smaller among Hispanics and blacks.               The gender gap in mathematics course taking has virtually closed for            all groups except Hispanics; Hispanic males still took more math                than females but the difference has been lessening over the last                decade. The findings for natural science course taking are similar.             Further, among Hispanics (who are dis-aggregated into three groups              for this survey), the gap closed between Mexican males and females;             within the other two groups--Puerto Rican and Latin American, South             American, Central American, or Other Hispanic--more males than                  females took four years of science. 
* Advanced Placement. The                 Advanced Placement (AP) Program, which enables high school students             to take courses that earn college credits, has grown dramatically.              Moreover, student participation across all racial and ethnic groups             has increased in excess of group growth in the U.S. population at               large, most dramatically for Chicano/Mexican American females (308              percent). White male participation has increased least (79 percent).            Female participation in the program is increasing, and the gender               gap is widening; over the last decade, across all ethnic groups,                more females have taken AP examinations than males. In 1999 the gap             was greatest for blacks and least for whites, American Indians, and             Asians. 
The male/female ratio differs substantially according to              subject, however. For example, males were overwhelmingly represented            in computer science and physics courses in 1999, while females were             much more likely to take French language and psychology courses.                With regard to scores on AP examinations, the gender differences                across ethnicity varied considerably: there was little gender                   difference in the English literature and composition exam scores,               but considerable difference in the scores for the biology and                   calculus exams, with males scoring higher. The gap was greatest on              the biology exam for Hispanics. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT* High              School Completion. The overall high school completion rate for                  adults age 25-29 was 88 percent in 1998, up from 38 percent in 1940,            75 percent in the '60s, and 85 percent at the end of the '70s. The              rate in 1998 for females was 90 percent; for males, 87                          percent. 
Since the early 1980s, more white females than males                 completed four or more years of high school. The trends for other               racial and ethnic groups have been less clear. Gender differences               have shown little consistency in the ratio of black males to females            since 1974, with no difference at all in 1998, when both males and              females had an 88 percent completion rate. For Hispanics, the                   pattern has also been erratic, but since the early 1980s more                   females than males completed high school, and, in 1998, 66 percent              of females did so, as contrasted with 60 percent of males. 
*                  Completion of Four Years of College. In 1998 the completion rate was            27 percent of all adults age 25-29, 29 percent of females, and 26               percent of males. This rate compares with 6 percent in 1940 and 21              percent in 1974. The increase for females over the past 25 years was            very substantial--almost 12 percentage points--whereas the increase             for males was only 2 percentage points. Moreover, any previous male             advantage--nearly none for blacks, slight for Hispanics, and fairly             large for whites--has been erased: black females have a 3 percentage            point advantage; Hispanic females, 2 percentage points; and white               females, 4 percentage points. 
There is still a substantial race               and ethnicity gap, however, with the completion rate for whites at              28 percent; blacks, 16 percent; and Hispanics, 10                               percent. CONCLUSIONThe issue of gender difference in academic             outcomes, as demonstrated by Coley's analysis reported above (as                well as his additional findings on employment and earnings not                  summarized in this digest), is quite complicated. The lack of                   conclusive findings about a gender gap in achievement, as measured              by standardized tests, suggests that there is no systematic                     disenfranchisement of students of either sex, although traditional              gender differences in both course selection and subject-specific                achievement persist. Differences in educational access and                      attainment among students of different ethnicity and races are more             clear cut, however. Whites are still far more likely to take college            preparatory courses in high school and to complete college, and thus            to have advantages that other students do not have. 
Efforts to                ensure the fairness of some measures, such as standardized tests, in            determining the knowledge and skills of all students have increased             in recent years. Nevertheless, student differences--the result of               the interplay of numerous factors, including but not limited to                 gender, race, and ethnicity--inevitably render some tests unfair to             some students at some times. Further, even standardized tests                   intended to measure specific student outcomes fairly may not render             an accurate assessment of a student's overall competency in general             or his or her full mastery of the subject tested. Therefore, to                 increase the likelihood that the assessment of each student will be             fair, and will reflect the student's performance as it relates to               overall educational objectives, several different types of measures             should be used and considered together (Willingham & Cole,                      1997). 
While attempts are being made to eliminate educational                 inequities, the findings in the two ETS studies suggest that more               intensive effort is needed, particularly with black and Hispanic                males whose lag behind females in college completion is notable. In             addition, since males and females are still choosing courses in                 sexually stereotyped ways, limiting their higher education and                  career options, all students need to be helped to make their                    selections with a more open mind. Thus, while educators need to take            remedial action when a preponderance of students in a single ethnic             or gender group are lagging behind students in other groups, it is              perhaps even more important for them to assess the strengths and                weaknesses of students individually. Such personal attention can                help ensure that each can successfully take advantage of all                    available educational opportunities. REFERENCESColey,                     R. (2001). Differences in the gender gap: comparisons across                    racial/ethnic groups in education and work. Princeton: Educational              Testing Service, Policy Information Center. Available:                          http://www.ets.org/research/pic 
Willingham, W.W., & Cole,                     N.S. (1997). Gender and fair assessment. Mahwah: NJ: Erlbaum. (ED               416 293) 
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 
Differences in the Gender Gap                 cites several publications that also report on gender differences in            education: 
Kimura, D. (1999). Sex and cognition. Cambridge: MIT               Press. (ED 438 909) 
U.S. Department of Education, National Center             for Education Statistics. (2000). The condition of education,                   2000 (NCES 2000-062). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing                  Office. (ED 437 742) 
U.S. Department of Education, National Center            for Education Statistics. (2000). Trends in educational equity of               girls and women (NCES 2000-030). Washington, DC: U.S. Government                Printing Office. (ED 440 210) 
The following web sites provide a               list of print and Internet materials on gender equity in                        education: 
U.S. Department of Education:                                      http://www.ed.gov/offices/ODS/g-equity.html 
American Association              of University Women:                                                            http://www.aauw.org/1000/geneqrsc.html 
Education Week:                        http://www.edweek.org/context/topics/issuespage.cfm?id=34 
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This Digest was developed by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban                  Education, with funding from the Office of Educational Research and             Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no.                   ED-99-CO-0035. The opinions in this digest do not necessarily                   reflect the position or policies of OERI or the Department of                   Education.                                                                   **Title:** Gender Differences in Educational Achievement within Racial and                 Ethnic Groups. ERIC Digest Number 164.                                       **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, Institute for Urban and                  Minority Education, Box 40, Teachers College, Columbia University,              New York, NY 10027. Tel: 800-601-4868 (Toll Free); Web site:                    http://www.eric-web.tc.columbia.edu.                                         **Descriptors:**  Academic Achievement, Advanced Placement, College Preparation,                 Course Selection (Students), Educational Attainment, Elementary                 Secondary Education, Equal Education, Graduation, Higher Education,             Minority Group Children,  Racial Differences,  Sex Differences,                 Standardized Tests, Test Bias                                                **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests                                                                 
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