<p>shows that boys overall have a higher CR score (500 vs. 496). And while girls had a slightly higher number of 800’s (about 3% more), around 14% more girls than boys took the test. So a smaller %age of girls got an 800.</p>
<p>I think that some kids don’t take tests well or could do well if they were given more time to finish the test. There are more ways of showing mastery of the subject matter than the 1 hour timed test that the teacher may give at the end of the chapter. I think that homework should be able to bring a C up to a B to give those people a break–agree that someone who can get an A on the test shouldn’t be dropped down to a C because he or she didn’t turn in homework.</p>
<p>But even in college, professors often assign a certain % of the final grade to problem sets in addition to points given for quizzes and tests.</p>
<p>“When someone who is getting C’s on tests can get a B in a subject because they did the homework, but someone getting A’s on tests can get a C in a subject because they did not hand in the homework, some of which they probably did, there’s something wrong, imho.”</p>
<p>Depends what the homework is. If it’s busywork, maybe it shouldn’t be assigned in the first place. But when it is, a willingness to jump through hoops and meet deadlines shows preparedness for college and the workplace. It’s reasonable to me that course grades aren’t 100% about “mastery of the material,” even in science and math. Bluntly put, part of the grade is for following instructions.</p>
<p>But there’s a separate issue, in that in a good college prep class in English, social studies, language, etc., “mastery of the material” doesn’t really exist. No one has ever “mastered” writing research papers and analyzing texts – further practice on good assignments always improves skills. Reading and writing more makes you a better reader and writer. Just acing in-class tests can never show “mastery” of U.S. Government. In the humanities and social sciences, substantive homework is critical to progress. (Busywork English homework, though, is just a hoop-jumping test as it would be in other fields.)</p>
<p>"shows that boys overall have a higher CR score (500 vs. 496). And while girls had a slightly higher number of 800’s (about 3% more), around 14% more girls than boys took the test. So a smaller %age of girls got an 800. "</p>
<p>I was only looking at how many scored 800s without the percentages since the discussion centered the top of the of the class, not the median.</p>
<p>This thread is fascinating to me. I have two girls who were excellent students followed much later by a boy who tests well and is beloved by his teachers but sometimes has trouble remembering to remove the diligently-prepared homework from his backpack. He will be starting high school in the fall and I’m getting a great sense of boy things.</p>
<p>I think that sometimes the problem for boys is the assignments that are given that they choose to blow off. My 3 sons all took AP US history…two received 5s on the exam, one recieved a 4. None achieved higher than a B in the class, although excelling on the in class exams and the DBQs.</p>
<p>They lost points for not turning in weekly posters (!!!)…and for the posters they did turn in, they lost points for them not being pretty enough (“lack of effort”…Sam, do you see how Samantha used puffy paint and rick rack around her boxes?"), for not dressing in costume on various days, etc. One son lost points in class when the soccer team was excused from school early to play in the state semi-finals and FINALS…but a girl was excused for the extra orchestra rehearsal on the day of the big concert (teacher said it was because it was an in-school activity).</p>
<p>I read a study that was a follow-up to The Bell Curve study that concluded that students do better on testing if they are led to expect they’ll do well and worse if they are told they probably won’t do well. This study compared white students with black students (as The Bell Curve study did) but I’d think it could be true when comparing genders.</p>
<p>Fascinating to me, too. My kids didn’t have anything like the experience people were describing. The top students in their high school classes were evenly split between boys and girls, and a boy was always #1. Anyone who knows my kids knows that my daughter is more intellectual and analytical than her brother, but he had more success in school because he was good at managing teacher expectations and doing what he was told, it didn’t occur to him to work less hard on some subjects than others, and he didn’t get into fights with teachers so much (because he didn’t live and die by any particular subject). He was also significantly more driven by fear of losing his top-student status.</p>
That is the absolute truth. My D1 is a teacher, in addition to personally being a girl who likes sparkle. My son is creative and bright but he doesn’t like sparkle. Last year in his social studies fair project, she told him that he would lose points if he didn’t “prettify” the showboard. He didn’t, so she snuck down after he was in bed and sprinkled it with glitter. He had a fit but got 100 and chosen for the science fair. This year’s project was just as thoughtful, worked on for months. He warned dire consequences if sister prettified. She didn’t. He lost points on the showboard for not making enough effort to make it attractive and he wasn’t chosen for the fair. I don’t recall a single boy (other than a member of a group containing girls) who has won an award at either the science or social studies fair in his three years of middle school.</p>
<p>bethievt, I’d love to see those studies, but I have a real-life breathing example in my home in ds2. I’ve always told him that he excels at test-taking, especially after having a fourth-grade teacher who absolutely drilled into the kids HOW to take a standardized test. Anyway, so much for him is mental. He has to feel confident going in. Before taking the SAT in January, he had a good practice test and said he didn’t want to do another one, that he wanted to leave it on a high note, just like in a sports practice. So I listened to him and let it lie, and he knocked it out of the ballpark. Same thing with Math II, where he way overperformed based on his practice tests. He has to FEEL like he’s going to do well.</p>
<p>“They lost points for not turning in weekly posters (!!!)…and for the posters they did turn in, they lost points for them not being pretty enough”</p>
<p>Sounds like the problem is idiotic time-wasters…I’d be just as PO’d if I had a daughter in this class rather than a son. I don’t want her spending her “academic” time gluing rickrack to a board, even if she’s great at it.</p>
<p>I don’t know that the SAT is gender biased or if it just shows the difference between male and female brains. Males were the hunters and therefor are slightly better at watching “objects travel through space” i.e. math. Girls were the hunter-gatherers and therefor talked more, i.e. English. I believe it is thought that these differences are very slight and that there is a lot of overlap.</p>
<p>I have also read that there is a difference in the standard deviations of average intelligence when it comes to boys and girls. Boys (like girls)average 100 but are more spread out than girls. We should therefor see more boys at the top and the bottom.</p>
<p>Boys, in general, also mature later than girls. This would effect their ability to see long term value in homework, teacher pleasing, or setting practical goals. It might also hinder them in seeing that “pretty” projects are important. Maybe not puff paint and glitter but eye-catching is important.</p>
<p>Schools are set up to favor girls: sitting for long periods of time, taking notes, writing papers, class discussions, etc. Most teachers are female and they tend to value these same traits; this is unfair to boys! A lot of homework assignments also appeal more to girls and their way of learning. So maybe boys do need a “leg up” in the admissions process since they are up against obstacles that don’t affect most girls.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t equate a bias for writing ability and attention span in admissions as a bias against one gender or another. These are perfectly reasonable factors to include in an admission system, and frankly, as a guy I never had any problem in either department. My other male friends didn’t know we were supposed to be handicapped in that area, either.</p>
<p>I also think it’s absurd to say the SAT math is gender-biased. </p>
<p>I don’t agree with this social engineering at all, and even moreso, the ideology behind it.</p>
<p>When I submit a paper electronically to a scientific journal, I <em>always</em> mail 3 copies to the editor also, so that I can add glitter and puffy paint!</p>