Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/LauraLoGerfo

Gender differences in academic achievement have long fascinated researchers and policy-makers alike. In this paper we analyze differences in math and reading test score growth rates by gender for four different race and ethnic groups -- white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students -- for six different time periods. Our data cover both the earliest years of education and the crucial years of adolescence. In addition, we have data bracketing one non-schooling period. Together these data enable us to get a very complete picture of how gender gaps evolve over the course of early elementary and high school years and how these trajectories differ by race and ethnicity. While the gender gaps are not always statistically significant, they are for 15 of 48 comparisons made, all during school. In addition, all of the statistically significant results suggest that males learn more math and females more reading during early elementary school and again during high school.

This study estimates the typical grade-to-grade learning achievement in the United States of different type of students (race/ethnicity, gender, LEP status, disadvantaged) from pre-K through grade 3 with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) and from grade 8 through grade 12 with the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS). We specifically focus on differences in learning rates for different students at different grade levels. The study commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics was intended to provide benchmarks for learning gains and to suggest what effects might be reasonably expected from interventions. Not surprisingly, the study shows large gaps in learning levels and learning rates across different subgroups of students. Achievement gaps exist at the start of kindergarten, typically increase across the first few grades, then become more stable in later years. Given these findings, we suspect that interventions targeted at early grades may produce a "bigger bang for the buck" than interventions targeted for later grades.

This study investigated gender differences in kindergarteners' literacy skills, specifically, whether differences in children's classroom behaviors explained females' early learning advantage. Data included information on 16,883 kindergartners (8,701 boys and 8,182 girls) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 1999 (ECLS-K). The ECLS-K directly assessed children's cognitive skills and collected extensive data on children's sociodemographic and behavioral backgrounds through structured telephone interviews with parents and written surveys with children's teachers. Findings suggested that not only did girls enter kindergarten with somewhat stronger literacy skills but also learned slightly more than boys over the kindergarten year. Taking into account teachers' reports of girls' more positive learning approaches (e.g., attentiveness, task persistence) explained almost two-thirds of the female advantage in literacy learning. Accounting for boys' more prevalent external behavior problems, thought by many to explain girls' advantage in literacy development, did little to diminish the gender gap. (The Elementary School Journal 106(1): 21-38, September 2005.)

This study examined the relationship between collective efficacy and high school student achievement in a state with an accountability system heavily focused on achievement, measured by mandatory assessments in multiple content areas. Using social cognitive theory, a theoretical model was developed linking school context and collective efficacy to differences among schools in 12th-grader student achievement. Structural equation modeling was used to test the fit of the model to data drawn from students and teachers in 96 state high schools. Collective efficacy was positively influenced by past mastery experience and negatively related to school socioeconomic disadvantage. Additionally, after accounting for the influence of several aspects of school context, collective efficacy remained a significant positive predictor of student performance across all content areas tested by the state. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for social cognitive theory and school improvement in an era of school accountability for student performance on subject-specific achievement assessments. (Education Policy 18(3): 403-25, July 2004.)

Sociologists suggest that children from socially advantaged families continue to learn during the summer, whereas children from disadvantaged families learn either little or lose ground. This disparity in summer learning is hypothesized to result from differential participation in educationally beneficial summer activities. In this article, we test this theory with current and nationally representative data, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort. We examine how children's socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with their learning of literacy, mathematics, and general knowledge over the summer between kindergarten and the first grade. We also explore whether social-background differences in learning are explained by differential participation rates in summer activities. Our analytic models adjust for discrepancies between the timing of assessments and the timing of schools closing for the summer and opening in the fall. Much of the observed gain results from time in school. Nonetheless, social stratification characterizes summer learning between kindergarten and the first grade, with higher-SES children learning more. However, these social-background differences are only modestly explained by the activities in which children participate during the summer months. (Sociology of Education 77(1): 1-31, January 2004.)

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