Ohio PSAT Data Shows Girls Still Behind in Math

The College Board recently released state reports on PSAT data, with Ohio's report showing that college-bound juniors still show a gender gap in math.

The PSAT is a test that most college bound students take in the fall of their junior years, both to prepare for college boards and to compete for National Merit status. Some students take the PSAT at earlier grades as well, but it is standard for students to take it during the fall of their junior year.

I have to confess, I was looking at the report primarily to support my hypothesis that girls' reading skills tend to be better than boys', which contributes to the higher college graduation rates from women that we are seeing in Ohio and across the country. I've looked at enough district report cards and data reports over the years to know that girls consistently score higher, sometimes much higher, in reading and writing, while scores in other areas are more mixed. Since the PSAT is given relatively soon after the Ohio Graduation Test in the 10th grade, the scores might be meaningful.

I also found that engineer is still a heavily male-dominated college major.

Findings below.


What I found wasn't earth shattering, but among college bound juniors taking the PSAT, there doesn't seem to be an achievement gap between boys and girls (in fact, boys are slightly ahead). BUT, there is one in math. While the scores are fairly close in reading, with girls slightly ahead in writing, boys outperform girls in math on the PSAT by a relatively wide margin. Here are the mean scores for 2007:

Reading: Girls, 48.0; Boys 48.3 Boys win by .3!!!
Writing: Girls, 47.6; Boys 46.6 Girls win by 1.0!!
Math: Girls 48.0; Boys 51.3 Boys win by a whopping 3.3!

Just to get a sense of trend lines, the 2006 results are fairly similar:

Reading: Girls, 49.0; Boys 49.5 (slightly wider gap than 07)
Writing: Girls 46.6; Boys 46.2 (smaller gap than 07)
Math: Girls 48.1; Boys 51.2 (smaller gap than 07)

So the gap between boys and girls in math got even wider in 07 than in 06.

Recent reports suggest that girls are closing the gap in math and science, and I don't doubt that's true. But obviously the gap is still real, and measurable, in spite of the concious efforts of many.

Another data piece from the PSAT state report was disturbing. While 15% of college bound junior boys considered engineering as a probable major, only about 2% of girls did. Meanwhile much higher percentages of girls than boys considered education and health care as potential majors. It's almost as though the persistent gender stereotypes that educators have been fighting for the last 20 years or so haven't really changed at all.

I'm hoping this data is telling me that even though the gender gap is still real, it's getting smaller--but I feel like inroads just are not being made fast enough.

I also remain concerned that not enough attention is focused on the real gender gap (even though it doesn't show up in PSAT data) in reading. But initiatives like Guys Read from our new literacy ambassador give me hope.

By the way, if you are interested in looking at your own district's report card go here and select your own district or school. Test scores should be broken down by gender as well as other ethnic/minority groups.