Gender and Student Achievement in English Schools

By Stephen Machin, S. Mcnally. 2005

154 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The widening gap between the average educational achievement of boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. This gap is especially controversial for students taking national exams at the end of their compulsory education. However, the gender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages of education. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in the gender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsory education in English schools. We first use a combination of data sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolved over time and in what context they are most marked. Then we consider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps. We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice, and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. We also discuss the potential influence of wider social and economic changes as reflected, for example, in the much higher education levels of mothers relative to those of previous generations. Analysis of this issue is important in the context of research on the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevant issues in relation to whether changes in the school system can effect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement.

Subfields: Education, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/775f1105cd0f2a1e952d5469382211cc8dd25a7e

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Citations in the corpus

Sex differences in academic achievement are not related to political, economic, or social equality (2015, background): “Issues related to the overall achievement gap have been examined previously (Gorard, Rees, & Salisbury, 2001; Hodgetts, 2008; Machin & McNally, 2005), but surprisingly (given thewealth of data) have received little attention in the context of PISA data.”
Leaving Boys Behind (2015, background): “The gender gap in GPA from the MTF match (within standard errors) the numbers from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study for 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2009, reported in Perkins et al. (2004), as well as the numbers reported in Cho (2007) for 1984 from the Hi”
Gender differences in educational attainment: influences of the family environment (2010, background): “Gender differences in educational attainment are seen at the foundation stage of primary education (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2008 ) and continue through to the GCSE examinations taken at the end of compulsory education at age 16 (Machin & McNally, 2005 ; Department for Educat”
The Reversal of Gender Inequalities in Higher Education (2008, background): “It could be attributed to the change in the form of examinations at the end of secondary school (again favouring girls) (Machin and McNally, 2006).”
Tackling low educational achievement (2007, background): “9 McIntosh (2002) fi nds that the returns to Level 1 and 2 NVQs by themselves are negligible – they have no effect on adult earnings.”
Boys lag behind: How teachers’ gender biases affect student achievement (2020, unknown): “Machin and McNally (2005) suggests that the mode of assessment could affect the gender achievement gap.”
Gender, Single-Sex Schooling and Maths Achievement (2012, background): “…(Bernie & Lall, 2008); policies aimed at increasing the amount of time devoted to maths during school time, such as the ‘numeracy hour’ in the UK (Machin & McNally, 2005); the introduction in 2012 of bonus points for higher level maths when determining admission to university in Ireland; and…”
Top of the Class: The Importance of Ordinal Rank (2018, background): “In the case of gender, a gap occurs by subject, where males are overly represented in STEM subjects by the age of 18, despite girls outperforming boys at early ages in these subjects but in particular in languages (15; 44).”
Girls get smart, boys get smug: Historical changes in gender differences in math, literacy, and academic social comparison and achievement (2017, unknown): “…differences are in the same direction as gender differences in achievement (Falch, Torberg, & Naper, 2013; Hyde & Mertz, 2009; Lietz & Petra, 2006; Machin & McNally, 2005; Machin & Pekkarinen, 2008; Marsh & Yeung, 1998; Reilly, Neumann, & Andrews, 2015; Voyer & Voyer, 2014) as would be…”