The Gap in Teacher-Assigned Grades Between High School Freshmen Boys and Girls

• In Event: 31.036 - The Role of Gender in Shaping Mathematics Trajectories

Abstract

Background
Gender gaps in students’ educational outcomes have been documented, and the educational and social implications of these gender gaps are great. Examples of girls outperforming boys on various measures include the following. In nearly every district in the country, boys and girls scored similarly on math tests, with any differences being associated with school district contextual factors, while girls consistently scored higher than boys on English tests (Reardon et al., 2018). Additionally, girls graduate from high school at higher rates than boys (Stetser & Stillwell, 2014) and more women than men have earned college degrees since the 1960s (Diprete and Buchman, 2013).
Objectives
Researchers have paid less attention to gender gaps in grades. Grades have often been criticized as being subjective and unreliable measures of student success. Yet research increasingly points to the importance of teacher-assigned grades. A recent comprehensive review of research on grades concluded that teachers are accurately measuring important skills and attributes of students in addition to subject matter content knowledge (Brookhart, et al. 2016). A recent study in Chicago demonstrated the power of freshman GPA to predict subsequent test score gains, high school graduation, and college enrollment and retention more accurately than test scores (Easton et al, 2017).
Methods and Data Sources
This study is about the gender gap in ninth-grade algebra grades in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). We analyze administrative data, including demographics (race, gender, and neighborhood poverty level); test scores; high school grades; and college enrollment and retention. Over 180,000 students from eight entering cohorts (fall 2006 to fall 2013) are included in the study. We use these data to investigate factors that contribute to the gender gap in math grades and in GPA more broadly. Of particular importance in this study is electronic grade book data for ninth-grade math courses, specifically algebra, which allows us to examine how differences between boys and girls in class participation, assignments, quizzes, tests, and homework contribute to differences in final grades.
Results and Significance
Girls earned higher GPAs than boys. Almost one half of girls had freshman GPAs of A or B, whereas fewer than one-third of boys did. Fewer than one-quarter of girls had freshman GPAs of F or D, whereas more than one-third of boys did. While we report these gaps in grades across subjects, the pattern persists when we look at individual subjects, including ninth-grade algebra. The gap in grades between male and female students is particularly problematic, as we find that ninth-grade GPA is predictive of subsequent educational outcomes. The study interrogates these gender differences in detail, examining a range of factors that may contribute to the GPA gap, including schools and teachers, the types of assignments that comprise final grades, and reports of peer and teacher support for learning.

Authors

• John Q. Easton, University of Chicago

• Lauren Sartain, Consortium on Chicago School Research At The University of Chicago