That’s the conclusion of new research from University of Texas researchers, which suggests that the teachers of today are just as convinced that white girls can’t do math as their 1950s predecessors.When I first read about this article over at Joanne Jacobs' site, I was convinced that the focus of these stereotypes had to be elementary teachers--cue Barbie's "math is harrrrrrd." Imagine my shock to learn that the problem is with high school teachers.
Researchers looked at student grades, test scores and how teachers rated their students’ abilities. They found that while on average teachers rate minority students lower than their white male counterparts, these differences disappear once grades are taken into account. (Those findings are consistent with decades of research on the minority gap in math achievement.) The new research, however, found bias against white girls that can’t be explained by their academic performance.
Wow.
As a white girl who's good at math, can I just say I think this is a lame study report? It doesn't say the teachers acted in any biased way against the girls, just that they thought the white girls didn't find math as easy as the white boys. And having seen plenty of slacker white guys who grok math when it's test time and plenty of studious white girls who conquer math through dint of diligent effort, I don't have a problem with teachers holding that opinion.
ReplyDelete"this statistical study brought to you by a group of white female researchers"
ReplyDeleteAs I posted on Joanne Jacobs, my older kids attended a deservedly top-reputation HS with great honors and APs. In the 3 sections of AP calc BC (AB wasn't offered), the students dozing in the back rows but getting As on the tests and quizzes were all boys, who were most grateful that the teacher didn't count homework because they did only as much as they thought they needed. Those guys were very likely to have had 800s on the level II SAT II math test and 5s on the AP calc exam.
ReplyDelete"And having seen plenty of slacker white guys who grok math when it's test time and plenty of studious white girls who conquer math through dint of diligent effort, I don't have a problem with teachers holding that opinion."
ReplyDeleteExactly. The study is crap.