References from Smart Boys, Bad Grades
© Julie Coates and William A. Draves Updated 2019
Plus new research
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity.” -Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972
There are millions more females enrolled in college, even though males are equally intelligent as females.
#1 US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72
Males are just as intelligent as females, every reasonable study shows. And boys test overall at the same level as girls, as numerous studies document.
#2Gender and Fair Assessment, Warren W. Willingham and Nancy S. Cole, Educational Testing Service, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, New Jersey, 1997, page 57.
Even the top 20% of successful males in the workforce got worse grades than the top 20% of successful females in the workforce
#3 Richard Arum, author of Academically Adrift, in an email to the authors, July 25, 2012. Arum provided the following GPAs for students in the top CLA quintile (top 20%): women, 3.52; men, 3.43
Women attain degrees at higher rates than men, and the gender gap in degree attainment has widened in the last decade.
#4 http://heri.ucla.edu/DARCU/CompletingCollege2011.pdf
“… just 32.9% of men earn a degree after four years as compared to 43.8% of women, a gap of 10.9 percentage points. As reported in Astin & Oseguera (2005) for the entering cohort of 1994, the gap in degree attainment at four years was 7.1 percentage points (32.6% vs. 39.7%). A good portion of the gender gap among the most recent cohort disappears by the end of the fifth year. At this point 59.7% of women have finished college, compared to 52.4% of men, a gap of 7.3 percentage points. Some of the shrinkage in this gap at five years is likely due at least in part to the higher proportion of men who graduate in fields such as engineering that traditionally take longer to degree. The gap in degree attainment shrinks further to 5.5 percentage points (58.1% vs. 63.6%) at the end of the sixth year, but was 4.4 percentage points (55.2% vs. 59.6%) for the entering cohort of 1994.”
We do not argue every student should study STEM, only that the STEM crisis is at the heart of the skilled worker shortage in society. However, a degree in a STEM area does help get a job more than a non-STEM degree.
#5 The Huffington Post, July 22, 2011 notes “A recent study of the U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA), STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future, reports that those who pursue a science career both enjoy lower rates of joblessness and earn 26 percent more than their non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) counterparts. STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future, By David Langdon, George McKittrick, David Beede, Beethika Khan, and Mark Doms, Office of the Chief Economist, July 2011. http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/documents/stemfinaljuly14.pdf
#6 Today, around 38% of graduates in higher education are male, yet there is no outrage. In fact, Caryn McTighe Musil of the Association of American Colleges and Universities celebrated this inequality inMs. Magazine by calling the gender inequality of 60% graduates being female “progress.”
“Caryn McTighe Musil of the Association of American Colleges and Universities analyzes Title IX’s effects on higher education, finding some remarkable progress: Women have not simply increased their numbers in academia (they’re now nearly 60 percent of undergraduates) but have also moved into fields once dominated by men, such as business.” Ms MagazineMedia Advisory, October 8, 2007, also in Ms. Magazine, Fall 2007 issue.
The gap in college attendance and graduation has widened.
#7 http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/college-02.html
Gender inequality against males is worse in the United States than most other post-industrial countries
#8 “The Reversal of Gender Inequalities in Higher Education: An On-going Trend,” byStéphan Vincent-Lancrin, OECD, 2008.
Males receive worse grades than females in college, and in high school.
#9 U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Transcript Study (HSTS), 2000.
The gender gap in grades never closes. , the gender gap for seniors was 3.13 for men and 3.39 for women
#10 Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Truman State University, Missouri. Truman GPA by gender for freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes for 1999-2000, 2000-2001, and 2001-2002 reprinted in Smart Boys Bad Grades, by Julie Coates and William Draves, LERN, 2006.
University of Cambridge concludes women learn differently than men
#11The authors have found only one university in a post-industrial country where male students received better grades than female students. It was the University of Cambridge in the U.K. The university commissioned a study on the gap, and the committee concluded that women learn different from men. The research supports this conclusion, and the authors argue that this would also mean that men learn differently from women.
Fewer boys expect to graduate from college than girls. This gap in expectations begins in middle school.
#12 “The Gender Gap in College Expectations” by John Reynolds, Florida State University quoting Monitoring the Future Survey. Chart of High School Seniors’ Educational Expectations by Gender, 1976-1999, reprinted in Smart Boys Bad Grades, by Julie Coates and William Draves, page 19.
#13 Leaving Boys Behind, Nicole M. Fortin, Philip Oreopoulos, Shelley Phipps, http://www.nber.org/papers/w19331, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2013
The study shows that boys’ expectations for attending college diminish beginning in middle school years.
This comprehensive study shows that boys’ behavior accounts for why boys receive worse grades than girls.
#14 Leaving Boys Behind, Nicole M. Fortin, Philip Oreopoulos, Shelley Phipps, http://www.nber.org/papers/w19331, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2013
There is no evidence of any consequential difference in the average test performance of young women and men.
#15 Gender and Fair Assessment, Warren W. Willingham and Nancy S. Cole, Educational Testing Service, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, New Jersey, 1997, page 57.
Males are not underachieving.
#16 American College Testing (ACT), http://www.act.org/news/releases/2004/8-18-04.html.
Parental expectations are just as high for their sons as for their daughters.
#17 “Gender and High School GPA, An Example of Correlational Research,” Alan E. Marks, Department of Psychology, Oglethorpe University, 2004, www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/.
While boys on average have lower verbal skills than girls, that even when boys score higher on verbal SATs than girls, their GPAs are still lower.
#17 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “SAT Scores (Recentered) and High School Grade Point Average for Entering First-Year Students by Gender, Fall 1993 – Fall 2004.”
There is no effort to find out why boys get worse grades than girls.
#18 National Center for Education Statistics. “We do have data that show lower grades for males than females in elementary and secondary schools, but we do not have reports at NCES that explore why there is an average grade differential.” Tom Snyder, NCES, email to authors, September 5, 2013.
In France, there is no attempt to pathologize normal boy childhood behavior. As a result, significantly fewer boys qualify for the ADHD diagnosis.
#19 Why French Kids Don’t Have ADHD,” by Marilyn Wedge, Phd., Psychology Today, March 8, 2012.Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D., is a family therapist and the author of Suffer the Children: The Case Against Labeling and Medicating and an Effective Alternative. Wedge writes, “To the extent that French clinicians are successful at finding and repairing what has gone awry in the child’s social context, fewer children qualify for the ADHD diagnosis. Moreover, the definition of ADHD is not as broad as in the American system, which, in my view, tends to ‘pathologize’ much of what is normal childhood behavior.”
Girls have always had higher language skills.
Every year the media goes gaga over the supposedly “new” finding that boys lag behind girls in language skills. This has been going on for 10,000 years. The testing service ACT scores for language skills for boys were lower than that for girls as far back as 1967. (3) We cannot find a year in which boys’ language skills were equal to or greater than girls’ language skills.
#20ACT statistics for 1969 show English scores at 17.0 for men and 19.4 for women. Science scores were 20.8 for men and 19.4 for women. ACT, Leonard L. Baird, Research Report Number 28, January 1969
One of the primary reasons why smart students are not entering college in sufficient numbers, and not graduating from college in sufficient numbers, is that teachers and faculty penalize students for late work, including homework and coursework.
#21.Nine Shift: Work, life and education in the 21stcentury, by William A. Draves and Julie Coates, Learning Resources Network (LERN), 2004.
The Toronto School Board District in 2008 approved a policy prohibiting teachers from penalizing students for late homework, and with “progressive” penalties for late coursework.
#22Toronto School Board District, April 16, 2008, http://www.tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/room.asp?show=allNews&view=detailed&self=11565
Grades don’t measure what students know
“Grades…. are often not accurate measures of what students know,” writes Dr. John Woodward, Director of Research and Development for the NCA Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. He writes, “In theory grades could be one of the best indicators of student learning, if certain conditions were met. However, in practice, teachers include many factors that are not related to what students know when grading those students.”
Woodward supports the contention that grades should not be based on behavior unrelated to learning and knowledge, recommending: Grades should not be based upon attendance, punctuality, or behavior in class. Grades should not be used to reward or to punish students. The purpose of the grade is to represent what students have learned. Homework completion should not be a part of the grade. For many reasons homework completion is not an indicator of what was learned.
#23. “Using Grades to Assess Student Performance,” John Woodward, University of Illinois, in Journal of School Improvement, Vol 2, No. 1, Spring. 2001.http://www.ncacasi.org/jsi/2001v2i1/using_grades.
In comparing grades and test scores, Educational Testing Service researchers Warren Willingham and Nancy Cole found: Boys Girls
Grades and test scores roughly the same 44% 47%
Grades are significantly better than test scores 20% 33%
Test scores are significantly better than grades 36%* 20%*
* This is where the problem is.
#24 Gender and Fair Assessment, Warren W. Willingham and Nancy S. Cole, Educational Testing Service, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, New Jersey, 1997.
Homework is a determining factor in the GPA gap.
#25 Gender Difference and Student Learning, Report to Edina Board of Education, April 2002, Yi Du, Ph.D, Director of Research and Evaluation. http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/news/reports/GenderReport.pdf.
There is no link between homework and test scores.
#26 “Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement?: A Synthesis of Research,” 1987-2003, Harris Cooper, Jorgianne Civey Robinson and Erika A. Patall, Duke University, Review of Educational Research, 2006.
Business and work is moving from measuring “inputs” (time, behavior, etc.) of the last century to measuring “outcomes” in this century in terms of productivity and work.
#27 See “A post-GPA world: Why Google doesn’t care about hiring top college graduates,” by Max Nisen, Quartz, February 24, 2014.
Teachers who have been grading without including behavior report positive results.
#28Interviews with faculty who do not penalize students for turning in homework late indicate there are no problems with the policy. Sissy Copeland of Piedmont Technical College has had this policy for several years without any problems. Bruce Jones of West Georgia College reported only one student out of 43 had academic problems with the no-penalty for late homework policy. Carol Ann Baily of Middle Tennessee State University provides bonus points for homework turned in on time, but does not penalize a student for late work. Robert O. Phillips of Eastern New Mexico University reports that students turn in homework in the same time pattern when there is no penalty as when there were late penalties. That is, most students turned in homework on time even when there was no penalty for late work.
Late wok penalties lead to inaccuracy, which distorts the students’ achievement and their true ability to meet the intended learning outcomes.
#29 Tom Schimmer, Enough with the late penalties, February 21, 2011, http://tomschimmer.com/2011/02/21/enough-with-the-late-penalties/
Denton, Texas, ISD has separated out giving a grade for behaviors that are not part of the standards.
#30 “DISD set to change grading system ,” by Britney Tabor, Denton Record-Chronicle, April 23, 2014
The solution works in admitting students to college as well.
#31 “At Colleges, Women are Leaving Men in the Dust,” by Tamar Lewin, The New York Times, July 9, 2006.
At Dickinson University,men and women were admitted at equal rates, with males again scoring slightly better on the SATs and women performing slightly better in class.
“Prior to my arrival in 1999, SATs played a smaller part in the admissions process at Dickinson (this was true in the nineties). Grades were by far the major criteria, and since girls have better high school grades than boys, a much higher percentage of women were being admitted than were men (in 1999, just before I arrived, 75% of the women were admitted vs 50% of the men, in spite of the fact that male accepts had significantly higher SATs — by about 30 points — than did female admits). For the first half of this decade, women were admitted to Dickinson at a rate that was between 4 and 8 points higher than men, but the SAT differential between male and female admits was much smaller –about 10 points in favor of the men, while the average class rank for women was top 13% vs top 18% for men). This past year, men and women were admitted at equal rates, with males again scoring slightly better on the SATs and women performing slightly better in class. The m/f ratio has fluctuated between 42% and 47% male since 2000. It fluctuated between 35% and 39% in the last half of the 90s.”
#32 Robert Massa email to the authors, August 1, 2006.
We predicted that by 2030 teachers will be prohibited by law from grading based on behavior. We affirm that prediction. But it would be better if schools and colleges just implement the solution without being mandated by the government to do so. One way or another, the solution will be implemented in our nation’s schools and colleges.
#33The Pedagogy of the 21stCentury, by William A. Draves and Julie Coates, LERN Books, 2011, page 191.
We’re teaching responsibility here. Teacher objections to not penalizing behavior
High school and college teachers claim to be teaching responsibility., as they do, (1) we need to understand that values and habits such as responsibility are learned much earlier in life, by age 10, 11 or as early as age 8. (2) Even driving habits are learned by this age, even though the child does not taking driving lessons until a teenager.
#34 When Denton, Texas, Independent School District decided not to penalize students for late work, Steve Sullivan of Denton wrote a comment to the local newspaper, saying in part, “This is lunacy. Years from now these students will enter college or the workplace with terrible habits established as a result. Who wants an employee who has learned being punctual is not important, incomplete work is not penalized or having multiple opportunities to “get it right” is expected?” From comments after the story “DISD set to change grading system ,” by Britney Tabor, Denton Record-Chronicle , April 23, 2014
Values and habits such as responsibility are learned much earlier in life, by age 10, 11 or as early as age 8. Even driving habits are learned by this age, even though the child does not taking driving lessons until a teenager. 2. Value formation in children. Every authority says it happens early in life. Here are just two of the references on value and habit formation in children.
#35 Research by Sociologist Morris Massey, “During our Imprint Period ages 0 to 7 we continue to soak up everything like a sponge; we pick up and store everything that goes on in our environments and from our parents and other people and events that occur around us. It’s imprinted into us.”
“From Massey’s research he suggests that our major values about life are picked up during this period about age 10. In addition he suggests that our values are based on where we were and what was happening in the world at that time.”
http://changingminds.org/explanations/values/values_development.htm.
From Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children, by Dr. David Whitebread and Dr. Sue Bingham, University of Cambridge, “The habits of mind, which influence the ways children approach complex problems and decisions, including financial ones, are largely determined in the first years of life.We explain how various cognitive and metacognitive processes emerge within the young child before the age of seven years, enabling them to learn about the world and their specific environment, and to develop as learners.” http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/kids-money/article321745/By-age-7-most-financial-habits-have-been-formed.html
If teachers were indeed teaching responsibility, then the GPA gender gap between boys and girls would close over a period of time. But the gender GPA gap never closes. That is, the so-called “responsibility” is never gained.
#36. Coates and Draves survey of teachers found that 84% of teachers say boys are more likely to turn their work in late than girls.
We’re preparing students for the workplace. Teacher objections to no penalty for late work.
There is no evidence to support this claim either. While workers do have to turn work in on time in the workplace, there is no gender problem in the workplace with regard to showing up on time and turning work in on time.
First, students who submit late work at school show up on time at their job. Some 71% of students in college also hold down jobs at the same time. Employers report males show up for work just as on time as girls.
There is no male gender problem at work with responsibility.
#37 A literature search found only one reference to the difference between work turned in on time, and that citation said that girls were equal to boys in work timeliness. Interviews were also conducted by the authors with executives of an Illinois human resources association and a Wisconsin human resources association. Both executives knew of no gender related problem in the workplace with boys. According to the owner and founder of a national employment agency and Kelly Girltemporary help, John Willetts of Fox Point, Wisconsin, over the course of several decades of observing young men and young women in the workplace, he cites no significant difference between the punctuality and on-time performance between young men and young women.
Actually, males show up more on time than females at work.
#38 Coates has discovered research that girls, deemed responsible in school, are actually “irresponsible” in the workplace in terms of absenteeism, dealing another factual blow that “teaching responsibility” and grading based on behavior has any positive effect. The evidence discovered is from the Bureau of Labor Standards, Department of Labor, under the leadership of Secretary Hilda Solis. The 2010 government study showed that women are 2-3 times more absent in the workplace than men. This discounts (takes into account) time spent on child care, health issues, and family. So even after subtracting absences due to health, child care and family, women are still 2-3 times more absent in the workplace than men. The study can be found at http://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat46.txt
Coates reports that two previous studies also reach the same conclusion, the earliest of which was done around 1990. All studies indicate that women perform at the same level as men in the workplace, just like boys perform academically at the same level as girls in school. For our purposes, what these workplace gender studies demonstrate is that faculty are not “teaching responsibility” and that grading based on behavior has no positive impact for either male or female students.
No change in on-time work when there is no penalty
From interviews with teachers who currently do not penalize students for late work, they report that most students still turn in homework and coursework on time
#39 Teacher and blogger Tom Schimmer writes, “The flood is a myth! No, not that flood. The flood of assignments at the end of the year that you think you are going to get; it won’t happen, at least that wasn’t my experience. In fact, in every school I’ve worked in where teachers eliminated their late penalties they did not experience the flood. As I said above, most students like deadlines and not having a late penalty doesn’t mean you don’t set deadlines and act when they are not met; just don’t distort their grade by artificially lowering it.” http://tomschimmer.com/2011/02/21/enough-with-the-late-penalties/
When change happens, boys and a few adult males are the first to adapt to the new environment, and the first to adopt the values and behavior of the new environment. The research suggests that with only one X chromosome, boys’ genes are more likely to mutate and adapt to the new environment first.
#40 See, for example, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/evolution-y-chromosome. “… most of the Y chromosome is inherited from father to son in a pattern resembling asexual, not sexual, reproduction. No recombination means no reassortment, so deleterious mutations have no opportunity to be independently selected against. The Y chromosome therefore tends to accumulate changes and deletions faster than the X.”
“Male Chromosome May Evolve Fastest,” by Nicholas Wade, January 13, 2010, The New York Times. “…. the Y chromosome is the fastest-changing part of the human genome and is constantly renewing itself……The hallmark of the Y chromosome now turns out to be renewal and reinvigoration…”
When a significant invention changes the workplace, boys adopt the new values and behavior that the new technology promotes. Initially the boys are often seen as wimps.
#41 See, for example, a web site about Charles Dana Gibson at http://cdgibson.com
Boys adopt the new values and behaviors first, well before most adults.
#42. See, for example, Excuse My Dust, 1951, plot summary at Internet Movie Database (IMDb), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043514/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
Adult males often accept new changes last, after boys, girls and then women.
#43 This happened in the last century when the family farm gave way to factories.
See, for example, the authors’ interview with Y.A. Taylor, Julie’s father, of Black Mountain, NC, July 2001, Smart Boys, Bad Grades
In the last century, boys chose the jobs of the new economy before others.
#44 See, for example, the authors’ interview with Y.A. Taylor, Julie’s father, of Black Mountain, NC, July 2001, Smart Boys, Bad Grades.
Like like today, 100 years ago boys were characterized as being “bad” for their Industrial Age behavior. In the famous musicalThe Music Man, Professor Harold Hill tells the parents of River City, Iowa, what they already know, that their young boys have been exposed to new and immoral influences.
#45 The Music Man, by Meredith Willson, music and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey, 1957.
Boys were punished for gender based behavior 100 years ago as well.
A Chicago social worker and child labor inspector, Helen M. Todd, went into the factories and surveyed over 500 children in the factory. She asked them if their family did not need the money, would they prefer the factory or school. Some 80% chose the factory.
As one young boy noted about school:
“They hits you if ye don’t learn, and they hits you if ye whisper, and they hits you if ye have string in yer pocket, and they hits you if yer seat squeaks, and they hits you if ye scrape yer feet, and they hits you if ye don’t stand up in time, and they hits you if yer late, and they hits you if ye forget the page.”
#46 United States Congress, House Committee on the Judiciary, March 28, 1924. Child Labor, compiled by Julia E. Johnsen, HW Wilson Company, New York, 1924, page 145.
Our son, William A. Draves V, or Willie, was born exactly one hundred years after his great grandfather, William A. Draves II. The other similarities between WAD II and WAD V are not coincidental, however.
Both were 14 at the turn of the century. Both were boys during the transition period from one age to another, and thus both have similar characteristics.
WAD II was a happy boy who loved to play. From his diary, we learn that he would often wake up late, by his own account, and he would often come home from high school and play with Dan, the family horse. He also liked to play and build with his “dynamo,” an early engine. So grandpa was into technology
#47 From the diary of William A. Draves II, 1904, unpublished, in the authors’ library.
History repeats itself
“Something happens at the end of a century. Rules are altered, boundaries are breached, and fundamental attitudes are changed.”
#48 From The Reckless Decade, America in the 1890s, by H.W. Brands, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1995, page 3.
Today’s Model Wimp
Between 1990 and 2010, Homer Simpson was the best recognized male personality on television in the country. Our son’s favorite emoticon is an image of Homer.(Homer is not a real person, but a cartoon character. He is not real bright. Looking over his son Bart’s shoulder as Bart types on his keyboard, he says things like, “Wow, the Internet is on computers now.” While this is technically true, we all can see that Homer doesn’t get it. His wife Marge is smarter than he is. His kids are smarter than he is. Most of all, however, Homer is a wimp.
#49 This is an emoticon of Homer Simpson: (_8^(1) To see Homer, hold the page sideways.
Why Women Don’t Go Into STEM
While females are a greater proportion of college graduates, and have been for the last thirty years, they have not become a significantly greater proportion of practicing STEM professionals.
#50 New Earnings Survey Data Set, 2001, Department for Skills and Education, United Kingdom.
Women are 2.8 times more likely than men to leave science and engineering careers.
#51 The Sexual Paradox, by Susan Pinker, Scribner, New York, 2008, pages 64-65.
When the United States issues a special H1-B visa to skilled STEM workers in other countries to come to the United States, some 73% of those H1-B visa workers are college-educated males, not females. These professions include nursing, so the male percentage without nursing would be even higher
#52 Data on H1-B visa entrants to the United States provided to the authors by the Commerce Department, United States Government.
Single men and single women with PhDs participate about equally in the scientific workforce. But a married female PhD is 11% less likely to work full time than a married male PhD. If the woman is married with young children, then she is 25% less likely to be fully employed in science or technology than a married man with young children.
#53 “Structural differences/choices,” MIT Technology Review, Jan/Feb 2008.
“In normal young men and women, spatial ability is systematically related to testosterone (T) levels.”
#54 Sex and Cognition, by Doreen Kimura, page 122.
Kimura’s work is supported by others.
#55 Dahlia W. Zaidel, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA reviewed Kimura’s work and writes, “Her laboratory has consistently formulated interesting and critical questions in this field, and has generated the best, most reliable studies.” http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/kimura.html
Zaidel also provides clarification and elaboration on Kimura’s spatial ability findings, noting “With paper and pencil tests, men score consistently higher than women on items that tap visuo-spatial abilities and this outcome is used to explain why men are better than women when navigating their way around in outdoor space. But, as Kimura points out, women have very good visuo-spatial memory for items located in space close to the body. They know the location of items in the home, office, car and so on, better than men. This is not because women have better memory in general then men; it is because there is space and there is space, and women do better in personal- rather in extra-personal space. Unfortunately, this ability is not tapped in standardized tests.”
The percentage of engineers who are women varies by country based on the level of democracy and economic prosperity of the country. In less democratic and less economically prosperous countries, the proportion of female engineers was greater than 20%. In more prosperous and democratic countries, the proportion of female engineers was lower, around 20%. Interestingly, when East Germany merged with West Germany the proportion of female engineers in Eastern Germany dropped from 50% down to the proportion in the former West Germany. Independently, another researcher, Susan Pinker, agrees, concluding, “the richer the country, the more likely women and men choose different types of jobs.”
#56 Data researched by Julie Coates for faculty development seminar for the School of Engineering, University of Kansas, January 19, 2009, Lawrence, Kansas.
A National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study of why female engineering graduates do not become practicing engineers found the top reasons were related to the women’s choices rather than any male chauvinism or sex discrimination in engineering
#57 Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering, by Nadya A. Fouad, Phd, and Romila Singh, Phd, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Women comprise more than 20% of engineering school graduates, but only 11% of practicing engineers are women, despite decades of academic, federal, and employer interventions.”
Complicating things further is that too many well educated women are simply leaving the workforce. Between 1993 and 2006, one study says that 0.1% of women in the workforce left it, amounting to a loss of 1.6 million skilled workers.
#58 “Women leaving the workforce when husbands earn more,” Tiziana Barghini, Reuters, March 8, 2012.
The cost of educating a part-time doctor is the same as the cost of educating a full-time doctor.
#59 Dr. Karen S. Sibert, writing in The New York Timesand then interviewed by Tom Ashbrook for OnPoint Radioon June 16, 2011, raised the issue of whether doctors who complete their education with taxpayer support have a moral obligation not to work part time, given the growing shortage of doctors. Sheargues that not working full-time is a waste of a medical education and a disservice to both patients and the profession.
STEM camps make no difference. That is, the same proportion of girls who attend STEM camps go into STEM as in the general public, not more
#60 “Long-Term Effects of a Middle School Engineering Outreach Program for Girls: A Controlled Study,” by Jeanne Hubelbank, WPI Evaluation Consulting, AC 2007-1106. American
Society for Engineering Education, 2007, http://www.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/News/1106_LONG_TERM_EFFECTS_OF_A_MIDDLE_SCHOOL_ENG.pdf
We’re doing gender diversity recruitment all wrong
#61 LERN Magazine, Fall 2013, page 16.
The origin of the terms first wave, second wave, and third wave feminists
#62 Marsha Lear, writing in The New York Times Magazine, fromNot My Mother’s Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism, by Astrid Henry,Indiana University Press, 2004, page 58.
Gloria Steinem stating boys should be raised like girls
#63 The Steinem quote appears in many places and sources, including: http://www.pbs.org/kued/nosafeplace/interv/steinem.html
Raising boys like girls has not happened. Yet he myth continues.
#64 See for example, “My 4 Year Old Loves Toy Guns and I don’t Know How to Parent That,” by Zsofia McMullin, The Washington Post, July 29, 2014.
But along the way society embraced the notion that female traits were better than male traits
#65 For example, here is one reaction: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/981375/posts “The next step in feminist thought was that women were not just equal to men, they were better than men.” “Gender crusaders believe that if they can influence little boys early enough, they can make them more like little girls.”William Pollack, Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998), 94. The entire quote is from Don Closson, The Feminization of American Schools, http://www.probe.org/docs/fem-schools.html
Even advocates for boys believe the myth that there is no biological difference in hormonal and neurological brain make-up between the sexes that affects learning and ability.
#66 In 2014 The Boys Initiative web site at www.theboysinitiative.orgpromoted the myth that the male brain is as adept at language as the female brain, lamenting, “One of the most startling findings in national assessments of student achievement is how far behind boys are in reading and writing.”
The myth that schools shortchange girls
#67 Del Meyer,Md., www.delmeyer.net/MedicalLiterature/bookshelf/bkrev_WarAgainstBoys.htm
Even efforts to help African American males, the most underrepresented sector of society in higher education, are attacked by third wave feminists.
#68“The Girls Obama Forgot,” by Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, The New York Times, July 30, 2014. In opposing the initiative to assist African American young men she writes, in part, “Perhaps the exclusion of women and girls is the price to be paid for any race-focused initiative in this era….Gender exclusivity isn’t new, but it hasn’t been so starkly articulated as public policy in generations…It amounts to abandonment of women of color….” Steinem herself wrote a scathing letter to the editor in support of Crenshaw’s position, and The New York Times felt compelled to accompany the letter with a drawing of a ladder with easy short steps for the boy climbing up and difficult wide steps for the girl on the other side of the ladder.
Third-Wave feminists seek to defend their myths. See, for example,
#69 “Who Is a Feminist Now?” By Marisa Meltzer, The New York Times, May 21, 2014.
First writing, in 1920, about teen brain development.
#70 The Trend of the Teens, by M.V. O’Shea, Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co., 1920.
Women are no longer discriminated against by schools. By the start of this century there was no difference between what women could choose as a career and what men could choose.
#71 Digest of Education Statistics, Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Education, 2007.
The idea that some of our behaviors are still guided by primitive structures deep in our brains was a revolutionary idea.
#72 The Dragons of Eden, by Carl Sagan, Ballentine Books, New York, 1977.
There is no brain that is wholly masculine or feminine, but there is a huge spectrum of difference between the male and female brains
#73 Boys and Girls Learn Differently, by Michael Gurian, San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2001.
What is most important to understand is that there are measurable, quantifiable differences in how most men and women respond to the same stimuli, and this is biologically based, not culturally determined
#74 BBC Science and Nature. Retrieved September 22, 2010, from BBC : http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml.
Women, on the other hand, outperformed men on tests of spatial memory
#75 Ibid.
A University of Cambridge study found that 17% of men have a ‘female’ empathizing brain and 17% of women have a ‘male’ systemizing brain.
#76 http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/articles/empathising_systemising.shtml
At birth female infants look more at a face and male infants look more at a mobile.
#77 The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain, by Simon Baron-Cohen, London: Penguin Books, 2004.
Characteristics of the male brain.
#78 What Could He be Thinking?: How a Man’s Mind Really Works, by Michael Gurian, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.
Differences in the male brain that neuroscientists have discovered and that can have a tremendous impact on learning
#79 Gurian, 2001.
Women not only hear better, but the ear responds more quickly
#80 Reclaiming Kindergarten:Making Kindergarten Less Harmful to Boys, by Leonard Sax, Psychology of Men and Masculinity Vol. 2, No. I,, 3-12, 2001.
Boys hear loud and low sounds better than high-pitched or soft sounds
#81 Ibid.
Testosterone production varies throughout the year, and it is lowest in the spring. Some educators have speculated that this may in part account for lower ACT and SAT scores reported for males who take their tests in the spring.
#82 Gurian, 2001.
Language and fine motor skills mature 6 years earlier in girls than in boys
#83 Reclaiming Kindergarten:Making Kindergarten Less Harmful to Boys, by Leonard Sax, Psychology of Men and Masculinity Vol. 2, No. I,, 3-12, 2001.
Girls are much quicker on timed tests than boys.
#84 Girls Have Big Advantage Over Boys on Timed Tests.Kennedy Research Center for Human Development, Vanderbilt University, 2006.
Gender characteristics are tendencies associated with one sex or the other
#85 Hall, J. A. (1978). “Gender Effects in Decoding Nonverbal Cues.” Psychological Bulletin, v85 n4, p845-57.
#86 Mehrabian, A. (1971). Silent Messages.Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
#87 Svoboda…, B. J. (2000). Mensight Magizine.Retrieved 06 23, 2008, from http://mensightmagazine.com/reviews/Svoboda/boysandgirls.htm
Male students are far more likely to turn work in late
#88 We surveyed teachers about whether their boys or girls were more likely to turn work in late. Some 84% of the teachers said boys, just 4% said girls, 8% said both, and 4% did not know.If teachers answered either girls or boys, they were then asked if turning homework in on time would improve (help) their grade. 96% of teachers replied ‘Yes’ and only 4% said ‘No.’
While males may turn in work late and do less course work, they test the same as female students.
#89 Gender Difference and Student Learning, Report to Edina Board of Education, April 2002, Yi Du, Ph.D, Director of Research and Evaluation.
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/news/reports/GenderReport.pdf
Males do about one-third less homework than female students do.
#90 Gender Difference and Student Learning, Report to Edina Board of Education, April 2002, Yi Du, Ph.D, Director of Research and Evaluation.
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/news/reports/GenderReport.pdf
High achieving boys do less homework than high achieving girls
#91 “Gender differences in approaches to studying for the GCSE among high achieving pupils,” Lynne Rogers, Open University, and Sue Hallam, University of London, in Educational Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1, March 2006, pages 59-71.
Girls consider homework less boring
#92 “Gender and Homework Management Reported by High School Students,” Xu, Jianzhong, Educational Psychology, Volume 26, Number 1, February 2006, pp. 73-91.
High achieving boys have better studying strategies than high achieving girls
#93 “Gender differences in approaches to studying for the GCSE among high achieving pupils,” Lynne Rogers, Open University, and Sue Hallam, University of London, in Educational Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1, March 2006, pages 59-71.
Boys and girls approach homework diferently.
#94 “Gender and Homework Management Reported by High School Students,” Xu, Jianzhong, Educational Psychology, Volume 26, Number 1, February 2006, pp. 73-91.
Male teachers, when they become learners, also do 30% less coursework than their female counterparts.
#95We studied in our online courses for faculty how many times males and females took our unit quizzes. The unit quizzes have a pass rate of 80%, and can be taken as many times as the learner wishes. There is no extra reward for scores above 80%. For the four unit quizzes, female teachers took them an average of 11 times, while the male teachers took them an average of 6 times. What happens is that when male teachers reach the pass rate, they tend to stop taking the quiz. However, even after reaching the pass rate, female teachers tend to keep taking the quizzes until the reach or approach 100%.
Smart male students often simply reject or refuse to do work which they regard as busy work. “I preferred to endure all sorts of punishments rather than learn gabble by rote,” is how Albert Einstein as a student phrased it.
#96 Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, “The Private Lives of Albert Einstein,” NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1993
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, noted that as a university student “after six months I couldn’t see the value in it.
#97 The Sexual Paradox, by Susan Pinker, Scribner, New York, 2008, page 34.
Males are motivated by new challenges, where females are far less so. Utah State University instructor Jennie Chamberlain once experimented in her class by giving homework to students for a chapter they had yet to read or cover in class. All of the boys completed and turned the homework on time, while many of the girls had problems doing work that had not yet been covered in class, she reported
#98Interview with Coates and Draves, Orlando, Florida, 2002.
Punishment for late work doesn’t work for males.Julie Jorgensen, a mother and CEO of her own company, decided with her husband that they would penalize their son for late homework by taking something out of his bedroom each time he turned in his work late. After two weeks, the only things left in his bedroom were his bed and his books, Ms. Jorgensen reported.
#99 Interview with William A. Draves, 2005.
This attribute apparently does not change even in adulthood
#100 http://www.fairtest.org/individual-acts-resistance. North Carolina special educationteacher Doug Ward could no longer bring himself to give the state’s alternative assessments to his students with severe disabilities. He was fired for his act of civil disobedience. Ward, who had been teaching special needs students for three years, said he did not want to give a test to his students that was invalid and that they could not pass. “Someone needs to use a little common sense and say, ‘I am just not going to do it,’” Ward said.
The measure of productivity in the work world is changing from time you put in to outcomes and results. As we note:
“In the last century, what you put into your work mattered. How much time you put in, how much energy, how much devotion, even pain was a highly respected input. And if you put your time in, and if you were busy and active, you were declared productive.”
#101. Nine Shift: Work, life and Education in the 21stCentury, William A. Draves and Julie Coates, LERN Books, 2003, page 210.
“In this century, conserving time is rewarded. If a project is accomplished in less time, the worker is rewarded by having additional time. It is a win-win situation as the organization gets the task accomplished sooner, and the worker gets extra time to either produce more, or have as leisure time.
Getting work done in a shorter amount of time is good. Getting work done quickly is rewarded.”
#102 Nine Shift: Work, life and Education in the 21stCentury, William A. Draves and Julie Coates, LERN Books, 2003, page 213.
“They instinctively know that they will be rewarded for the opposite behavior in the workplace, and that in the workplace they will be rewarded for learning something quickly and moving on. So smart boys often will do poorly on a homework assignment yet do well on the test. They understand the test is the measurement of whether they learned something.”
#103. Nine Shift: Work, life and Education in the 21stCentury, William A. Draves and Julie Coates, LERN Books, 2003, pages 213 – 214.
Susan Pinker writes that Dr. Doreen Kimura, Canadian neuroscientist, Simon Fraser University, and the researcher who proved that testosterone difference explains spatial ability between the sexes, is “baffled as to how any serious scientist could deny the biological triggers of male-female differences.
#104 The Sexual Paradox, by Susan Pinker, Scribner, New York, 2008, page 149.
Why do girls study more?
Studies done by Dr. Yu of Edina School District and others indicate that female students study more than male students. A Canadian study agrees, saying about males that “They hand in less homework, are less likely to get along with teachers, and are less interested in what they are learning in class.”
#105Cit 16 Statistics Canada, “The Gap in Achievement between Boys and Girls,” March 9, 2006, www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/81-004-XIE/200410/male.htm.
“Women, on average, showed more activity in the more recently evolved part of the limbic system, the cingulated gyrus (where Tania Singer found evidence of individual differences in empathic reactions to pain in others).”
#106 The Sexual Paradox, by Susan Pinker, Scribner, New York, 2008, page 118.
The work of Simon Baron-Cohen provides a biological explanation for why females rank meaningful work and contributing to the benefit of others so highly, and power and money lower on their list of goals than males do.
#107Simon Baron-Cohen, “Sex Differences in Mind: Keeping Science Distinct from Social Policy;” quoted in Pinker, The Sexual Paradox, by Susan Pinker, Scribner, New York, 2008, page 199.
“Women are more likely to define competence as perfection,”
#108New Girl on the Job,by Hannah Seligson, page 158.
For too many women, everything is important. “You just need to get 80% of everything done” maintains Seligson, who interviewed over 100 successful career women on why many women do not do as well as men on the job.
#109New Girl on the Job,by Hannah Seligson, page 160.
One female college instructor reflected, “We have two goddaughters in Texas who, on paper, are doing quite well in school. One of them will graduate from high school with a B- C report card, and she’s quite frankly functionally illiterate in both math, writing and basically anything you would consider academic. But her grades do not reflect it. She is a very nice child – she attends every day and turns her work in on time – but basically has not learned anything in three years. And that’s scary, that’s very scary.”
#110College instructor from LaCrosse, Wisconsin on Wisconsin Public Radio, May, 2009.
In Israel, for example, girls who are enrolled in the lowest level of math necessary to qualify for studying science and engineering, even though they could have been successful with more demanding courses.
#111“A Call for K–16 Engineering Education,” byJacquelyn F. Sullivan, The Bridge, Volume 36, Number 2 – Summer2006.
Young women do not earn more getting into a good college, they earn more going into fields that pay more.
#112http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/11/where-to-go-to-college-if-you-want-the-highest-starting-salary/?hpid=z4
“Males like abstract arguments, philosophical conundrums, and moral debates about abstract principles,” says educator and author Michael Gurian
#113Boys and Girls Learn Differently, by Michael Gurian, San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2001.
page 45.
Failure is learning misspelled, says Laura Burkey
#114 Laura Burkey, http://www.positivepath.net/ideasLB3.asp
“Educators who hold high expectations for their students tend to convey these through complex and subtle patterns of interaction, which commonly result in the learners living up to these expectations, and in the process, developing a more positive image of themselves.”
#115 Self Direction for Lifelong Learning, by Philip C. Candy, Jossey Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1991, page 391.
When a student expresses frustration:
- Don’t contradict the person’s views;
- Don’t use logical explanations;
- Don’t ridicule the person’s view;
Convey your positive regard for the person
#116 Advanced Teaching Online, by William A. Draves, LERN, Fourth Edition, 2013, page 133.
For male students, with fewer emotional tools to draw upon, your emotional response may be reframed as a threat or aggression, which is the cue to turn off the cognitive brain for a male.
#117 Advanced Teaching Online, by William A. Draves, LERN, Fourth Edition, 2013, page 136.
The college classroom is one of the most stressful places and times in life for most male students. In a study of Carleton College alumni recollections, nightmares about college was the most commonly cited way that alumni said provoked memories of student life.
#118 Study of Carleton College Alumni comments from 2004 reunion book for the Class of 1971.
Allow and encourage male students to play computer games and online games. Explore whether an assignment could involve playing a video game. Video and online gaming is almost certainly an important work skill that your students will use in their professional work. For example, Dr. James Rosser, a surgeon, plays video games between surgeries. He did a study of other doctors who play video games and found that surgeons who play video games make 37% fewer mistakes than surgeons who do not play video games.
#119 “We Have to Operate, but Let’s Play First,” by Michel Marriott, New York Times, February 24, 2005.
But now more educational researchers are now investigating the issue of boys and grading.
#120 See, for example, “The Boys Are Back,” by Christina Hoff Sommers, The New York Times, February 2, 2013, citing “Non-cognitive Skills and the Gender Disparities in Test Scores and Teacher Assessments: Evidence from Primary School,” Christopher M. Cornwell1, University of Georgia, David B. Mustard, University of Georgia and IZA, and Jessica Van Parys, Columbia University, Journal of Human Resources, Winter 2013.
#121 “Gender Differences in Scholastic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis,” Daniel Voyer and Susan D. Voyer, University of New Brunswick, Psychological Bulletin, American Psychological Association, 2014, Vol. 140, No. 4, 1174–1204
Supplementing the research into grading is more research into the brain, how the genders learn differently, and the implications for helping our boys and girls learn and succeed more.
#122 See, for example, “High levels of physical activity are associated with better reading and arithmetic skills in the first three school years among boys,”Timo A. Lakka, Professor of Medical Physiology, Specialist in Internal Medicine, MD, PhD, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, September 11, 2014.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that boys who misbehave in school actually earn more than others. They conclude that school policies which reduce penalties for male behavior increase both educational attainment and earnings.
#123The Economic Value of Breaking Bad Misbehavior, Schooling and the Labor Market, Nicholas Papageorge, Johns Hopkins University, Victor Ronda, Johns Hopkins University, Yu Zheng, City University of Hong Kong, Social Science Research Network, September 30, 2014,http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2503293
There is even evidence that links sexual assault on campus to the dearth of males on campus. Colleges with a greater percentage of male students on campus report much lower sexual assault rates than campuses with lower percentages of male students. Robert Massa of Dickinson University was even quoted in The New York Timesas saying that was one outcome of increasing the percentage of male students on the Dickinson University campus.
#124 Robert Massa, quoted in The New York Times, July 9, 2006
The greatest loss for young women is that they do not learn more. By refusing to understand that males and females learn differently, our educational institutions and teachers miss the opportunity to help females learn more.
#125As far as what would help, Cornwell says “there’s probably no substitute for having a teacher being sufficiently aware of students as individuals and their individual needs.” From “Why Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys, It’s soft skills, not test scores, says a new study,” by Anna North, BuzzFeed Staff, January 4, 2013, http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/why-girls-get-better-grades-than-boys#2wveef7
LATEST RESEARCH
Why recess is important to boys’ learning
Six states, New Jersey starts mandatory recess in the fall of 2019
Recess offers cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits that may not be fully appreciated when a decision is made to diminish it. Recess is unique from, and a complement to, physical education—not a substitute for it. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons.
The American Academic of Pediatrics says “it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons.”
#126 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183
How men’s and women’s brains are different
Sex, Gender and Medicine, Stanford Medical Journal, Spring 2017
#127 https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html
Boredom and boys
The experience of boredom with easy and repetitive tasks, such as homework, is actually painful to boys.
See: The cognitive differences between men and women, By Bruce Goldman,Illustration by Gérard DuBois
#128 https://jhu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/boredom-in-young-adults-gender-and-cultural-comparisons?fbclid=IwAR0FBkvi-c_XmARiBduwrLCDsmrfjESJPSYPHflLrrCc8rMI-PpmCD2j4j4
Boys and reading, hearing, reading left to right, etc.
#130 http://www.teacher-support-force.com/gender-differences-in-learning.html?fbclid=IwAR0o_pjOA0aYsuJx-qx5_ycKO5Ws7_TVx1_4eO_VcolpzmPT-xvSM5YzoGI
Physical activity and reading
Teachers often do not realize how critical physical education is to reading. For kids who are cross and mixed dominant and for those who have trouble at the midline, the work of physical education teachers is absolutely essential.
#131 http://www.teacher-support-force.com/physical-coordination-and-reading.html