Education

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Boys vs.girls in school

Who has the edge?

By Amy BentleyPublished: April, 2008

The education community and parents everywhere were startled a while back when the California Postsecondary Education Commission issued a well-publicized report, “The Gender Gap in California Higher Education.”

The report outlined statistics with major implications about the success of boys vs. girls in higher education. Many educators had suspected that girls were surpassing boys in college enrollment and were earning more college degrees than males, but few had given much thought to the achievement gap between boys and girls at any grade level, until some of these statistics hit the national press.

By 2004, female enrollment in California’s public universities had exceeded male enrollment in all ethnic groups, even though boys comprised 51% of the college-age population. Males made up less than 44% of the total enrollment in the University of California and California State University systems.

Women gain ground

Only 42% of the bachelor’s degrees from UC or CSU colleges went to males in 2004, while 58% were awarded to women. In 1981, it was a 50/50 split, while back in 1976, men earned 55% of the UC and CSU bachelor degrees.

Nationwide in 2003, women earned 60% of all associate degrees, 58% of all bachelor’s degrees and 59% of all master’s degrees, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

Between 1994 and 2004, the number of male full-time graduate students nationwide increased by 25%, compared with 66% for women, who now comprise the majority of graduate students.

High school drop-out rates in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as statewide, are higher today for boys than girls, according to the California Department of Education’s website.

Is there a “boy crisis” in education?

Most educators don’t think so. “The gender gap is not a myth. The reality is that this country now has committed itself to gender equity,” says Douglas Haynes, a history professor and director of UC Irvine’s ADVANCE Program, which promotes gender equity by increasing the representation and advancement of women faculty on campus.

“This is a natural swing of the pendulum, and we’re seeing the fruits of our labors in achieving equality for women,” adds Dr. Frank Frisch, a physiology professor and scientific director of the STAR Institute at Chapman University, which promotes science, math and technology education in the K-12 schools.

Many educators say boys are not failing in the K-12 grade levels. In fact, male college enrollment did grow nationwide between
1994 and 2004 – just not as much as female enrollment. Undergraduate male enrollment in degree-granting institutions rose 16%, while the number of women enrolled jumped 25%, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Are girls smarter than boys?

Experts say there is no research or data suggesting that girls are smarter than boys – or vice versa. And not all statistical measures of academic advancement indicate that girls are ahead; statistics alone don’t tell the tale.

For example, in Orange County during the 2004-05 school year, the average SAT score for boys (1,106) was 40 points higher than the average SAT score for girls (1,066). The same was true that year in Riverside County, where the average SAT score for boys was 991, compared with 947 for girls, a 44-point difference.

While girls are enrolling in college and earning degrees in greater numbers than boys, boys still dominate the technical fields, such as computer science, engineering and math – fields the federal Department of Labor says are the fastest growing in America. It’s the boys who have emerged as the best-prepared for jobs of the future, most of which will require high-level math, computer and technical skills.

One person who is seeking to put girls on equal footing in math and science is Dr. Pamela S. Clute, a longtime math professor at UC Riverside. The majority of college students today are women, but fewer than 1/3 are majoring in math, science, engineering or another technical field, she notes with concern. Women tend to gravitate instead toward the humanities, she says.

“The girls have the ability, but they don’t have the interest. Our ladies are not being prepared for the future,” Clute says.

Ten years ago, Clute founded the ALPHA Center, and she serves as its executive director. The ALPHA Center (Academy of Learning through Partnerships for Higher Achievement) is a UC Riverside-based clearinghouse that puts educational research into practice in the K-12 schools throughout inland Southern California.

Girls Excelling in Mathematics for Success (GEMS) is an ALPHA Center summer program held at 11 sites, from Ontario to the Coachella Valley, for girls entering middle school and grades 7 and 8. Created to empower girls and build confidence, the program focuses on mathematics as it relates to college and business.

Amy Bentley is a contributing writer

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Successful sons

Tips for parents and caregivers

Help keep your son happy and on track in elementary, middle and high school with tips from Dr. Lucy Vezzuto Anderson, coordinator of the Orange County Department of Education’s Research and Development for the Instructional Services Division:

>> Pay attention to what is happening with him at school.

>> Pay attention to his emotions. Learn about the emotional life of boys.

>> Talk to your son’s teacher, and get to know him or her.

>> Become familiar with his curriculum.

>> Advocate for high-level vocational education that is academically rigorous, in areas such as the construction trades, plumbing and the computer industry.

>> Encourage your son to read and write about topics that interest him. To foster this, provide reading materials sensitive to boys’ needs and interests.

>> Provide a safe home environment for him.

>> When he hits the difficult pre-teen and middle school years, be especially sensitive to helping ensure that he is comfortable at school. Look out for bullying.

Other helpful boy-rearing tips:
>> Acknowledge the high level of energy in boys and direct it into positive things, such as homework assignments. Help boys to harness their energy in productive ways.

>> Provide strong male role models for boys to help them identify the line between strong self-assertion and violence.

>> Talk less, listen more.

>> Understand that male bonding often involves physical roughhousing. Don’t prohibit all of this, but help boys understand what is appropriate, and what is not.