The Gender Gap in Academic Achievement among Primary-School Children: Test Scores, Teacher Grades and the Importance of Non-Cognitive Skills Chris Cornwell, University of Georgia David Mustard, University of Georgia Jessica Van Parys, Columbia University

‘The challenge for all of us is how to engage these guys at a younger age,’ said Nancy Beane, a college counselor from the Westminster Schools in Atlanta.

Motivation Today, females are more likely than males to … – Graduate high school – Enroll in college immediately following high school – Graduate from college within six years Measure M/F undergraduate ratio M/F ratio graduating from 4-year schools Source: Goldin, Katz and Kuziemko (2006)

Why do gender differences matter? Implications for the functioning of … – Labor markets: labor-force participation, wage gap, within-industry and occupation diversity – Marriage markets: matching, fertility rates, family structure Implications for human-capital policy – Single-sex classrooms? – Same-sex teachers? – Gender-based college admission?

The gender-gap literature Higher Education – Jacob 2002; Goldin et al. 2006; Dynarski 2007 – Find gender differences in college enrollment are a function of high-school academic preparedness and female expectations for future work K-12 Education – Fryer and Levitt 2009; Husain and Millimet 2009; Lavy 2008 ; Lavy and Schlosser 2007; Anderson 2006; Holmlund and Sund 2006 – Report gender differences in reading and math test scores as early as kindergarten – Possible explanations include teacher gender, ratio of boys to girls in a classroom, and pre-school attendance

Our contribution Examine gender differences in test scores and teacher grades Link classroom behavior to grades Why teacher grades are important – Determine class-level placement, HS graduation and college admissibility – Feedback to student influences academic choices

The questions we address 1.Do gender differences in academic achievement emerge in children ages 5-12, and, if so, in which subjects? 2.Are differences in teacher grades consistent with test-score differences? 3.How do the differences – in test scores and grades – change over time? 4.To what extent can non-cognitive skills explain the differences?

Data Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) Tracks a nationally representative sample of students from kindergarten to fifth grade – Begins with 10,604 students – Ends with 6,496 students Records test scores (IRT scores) and teacher grades (ARS scores) in reading, math, and science, teachers’ behavioral assessments of students (SRS scores) Rich information on family, teacher and school characteristics

Personal & family characteristics Personal CharacteristicsKFirstThirdFifth Male (0.50) Black (0.34)(0.32)(0.29)(0.28) Hispanic (0.34)(0.35) (0.36) Family Characteristics WIC Benefits (0.48)(0.47)(0.46) Teenage Mom (0.42)(0.41)(0.39) Mom > 30 years old (0.33)(0.34)(0.35) Age at K entry (4.13)(4.15)(4.19)(4.17) # Books in the home (60.18)(152.56)(185.52)(178.60) SES Index (0.77)(0.78)(0.77)(0.79) Observations

Teacher & school characteristics Teacher CharacteristicsKFirstThirdFifth Teacher experience (7.61)(10.09)(10.07)(10.22) Teacher education (0.90)(0.93)(0.92) School Characteristics Public school (0.40)(0.41)(0.42)(0.41) Urban school (0.48) (0.47)(0.48) Rural school (0.43)(0.42)(0.44) Southern school (0.47)(0.48)(0.46)(0.45) % Minority (0.29) (0.28)(0.27) % Minority > (0.39) (0.37)(0.39) Observations

Measures of academic achievement IRT Scores – NCES develops and administers tests – Tests based on standard curriculum in reading, math and science – Intended to test the same skills assessed by teachers ARS and SRS Scores – NCES administers questionnaires to the teachers – Teachers rate child’s knowledge and ability on specific components of the reading, math, and science curriculum – From these questionnaires NCES creates a composite score, which is the “teacher grade” in our analysis – Teachers do not know the test score when they answer questions about academic ability

ARS and SRS examples ARS Scores On a scale of 1-5 where 1 implies the child has not yet demonstrated the skill and 5 indicates proficiency … (1) “This child reads words with regular vowel sounds.” (2) “This child reads first grade books independently with comprehension.” (ECLS-K First Grade Teacher Questionnaire Part C for language and literacy) SRS Scores The “Approaches to Learning” scale measures behaviors that … “affect the ease with which children can benefit from the learning environment. It includes six items that rate the child’s attentiveness, task persistence, eagerness to learn, learning independence, flexibility and organization.” (ECLS-K First Grade User Manual)

Score, ARS and SRS data FemaleMale Reading ScoresMeanStd. Dev.MeanStd. Dev. Fifth Reading Grades Fifth Math Scores Fifth Math Grades Fifth Science Scores Fifth Science Grades Fifth SRS Score for ATL Fifth

Baseline achievement regression Outcomes – test scores and teacher-assigned grades for a given student (i) in a particular subject for a certain grade level OLS estimation by grade-level cross section: spring K, first, third and fifth grades Use ECLS-K sample weights

Reading Scores (Male – Female) Test scores Girls outperform boys in every case Grades Girls receive higher grades in every case, but the disparities are greater GroupK135 W B H GroupK135 W B H Also, observables explain more test-score than grades variation.

Math Scores (Male – Female) Test scores White boys outperform white girls in every grade For blacks and Hispanics, no clear evidence of a gender gap Grades White boys and girls receive roughly similar grades Some evidence that black boys receive significantly lower grades Disparity between test-score and grade gaps rise with grade level GroupK135 W B H GroupK135 W B H

Science (Male – Female) Test scores Through 1 st grade, small and imprecisely estimated differences favoring boys After 1 st grade, boys generally outperform girls by at least.25 sd Grades Boys generally receive lower grades Disparity between test-score and grade gaps rise with grade level GroupK135 W B H GroupK135 W B H

Reading grades, test scores and behavior scores: whites WhitesFirst Grade (Spring)Third Grade (Spring)Fifth Grade (Spring) (a)(b)(c)(a)(b)(c)(a)(b)(c) Male-0.247*-0.161*-0.089*-0.258*-0.171*-0.087*-0.285*-0.185* (0.032)(0.023) (0.040)(0.032)(0.030)(0.057)(0.045)(0.046) Test Score t 0.672*0.609*0.674*0.586*0.617*0.518* (0.014) (0.019)(0.020)(0.025)(0.030) SRS Score t *0.235*0.244* (0.013) (0.018) (0.032) R2R N

Math grades, test scores and behavioral scores: whites WhitesFirst Grade (Spring)Third Grade (Spring)Fifth Grade (Spring) (a)(b)(c)(a)(b)(c)(a)(b)(c) Male * * (0.032)(0.028) (0.042)(0.038)(0.040)(0.063)(0.052)(0.048) Test Score t 0.491*0.414*0.601*0.521*0.604*0.541* (0.016)(0.017)(0.022)(0.025)(0.035)(0.037) SRS Score t *0.204*0.149* (0.017) (0.024) (0.030) R2R N

Science grades, test scores and behavioral scores: whites WhitesFirst Grade (Spring)Third Grade (Spring)Fifth Grade (Spring) (a)(b)(c)(a)(b)(c)(a)(b)(c) Male * * * (0.033)(0.031)(0.032)(0.042)(0.040)(0.041)(0.074)(0.069) Test Score t 0.422*0.335*0.435*0.372*0.543*0.446* (0.025)(0.024)(0.023)(0.024)(0.049)(0.051) SRS Score t *0.245*0.250* (0.018) (0.023) (0.041) R2R N

Instrumenting behavior scores Current behavior scores potentially endogenous Instrument current SRS score with past SRS score Assume past behavior score affects current teacher grades only through its relationship to current behavior First-stage regression shows strong partial correlation of past SRS score on current score

Reading, IV estimates: whites WhitesFirstThirdFifth Male * (0.023)(0.030)(0.052) Test Score t 0.488*0.460*0.479* (0.018)(0.022)(0.036) SRS Score t 0.503*0.515*0.539* (0.034)(0.035)(0.072) R2R N

Math, IV estimates: whites WhitesFirstThirdFifth Male0.222*0.180*0.150* (0.033)(0.045)(0.059) Test Score t 0.276*0.424*0.482* (0.023)(0.030)(0.040) SRS Score t 0.599*0.443*0.369* (0.045)(0.047)(0.074) R2R N

Science, IV estimates: whites WhitesFirstThirdFifth Male0.188*0.143*0.178* (0.037)(0.042)(0.073) Test Score t 0.212*0.304*0.399* (0.027)(0.024)(0.048) SRS Score t 0.627*0.486*0.522* (0.043)(0.041)(0.080) R2R N

Summary (1/2) 1.Do gender differences in academic achievement emerge in children ages 5-12, and, if so, in which subjects? YES Girls of all races outperform boys on reading tests. White boys outperform white girls on math and science tests. There are no gender differences in math test scores for black and Hispanic children. After 1 st grade, boys generally outperform girls in science by at least.25 sd 2.Are differences in teacher grades consistent with test-score differences? NO Girls receive higher reading grades than test scores would suggest. There is no statistically significant difference in math or science grades for white children. Black and Hispanic boys receive lower grades in math and science, despite their equivalent or higher test scores.

Summary (2/2) 3.How do the differences – in test scores and grades – change over time? The reading test score gap is constant over time for white students, but increases for black and Hispanic students. The math test score gap increases over time for white students, but is constant for black and Hispanic students. 4.To what extent can non-cognitive skills explain the differences? Classroom behavior explains the gender differences in test scores and grades. When boys and girls have the same test scores and exhibit the same classroom behavior, boys earn higher grades.