Gender Equity #7

I started out researching gender equity in today's schools and I came across this huge report by the American Association of University Women. It was written by Christianne Corbett, Catherine Hill, Ph.D Andresse St. Rose and published in May of last year. The study looked at scores from standardized tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the SAT and ACT college entrance examinations, as well as others. It was pretty in-depth and difficult to read in its entirety, but it showed no alarming trends as far as a gender gap in education. I was going to post the report but it is 124 pages long. I wanted to find something dramatic and exciting to blog about but the report showed a just the opposite in regards to gender equity. I figured that a study put out by a women's group might be trying to call attention to a negative trend in educating females. I was surprised that the numbers were so close. The report instead showed that there are huge gaps when it comes to race and income level in both sexes. The article is summarized at the end and is consistent with the data in the report. The summary says, "Overall and within racial/ethnic groups and family income levels, girls and boys are improving by most measures of educational achievement, and most achievement gaps are narrowing. The past few decades have seen remarkable gains for girls and boys in education, and no evidence indicates a crisis for boys in particular. If a crisis exists, it is a crisis for African American and Hispanic students and students from lower-income families—both girls and boys."