Girls scored lower than boys on fifth grade Numerical Operations, with the gap smaller in earlier grades, but no sex difference in fifth grade word reading¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2018: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Girls answered on average 2.31 fewer Numerical Operations problems correctly than boys in fifth grade, with the difference significantly smaller in earlier grades; no fifth grade sex difference in word reading. → Li Y 2013

Evidence¶

Li Y 2013¶

Li Y, Geary DC (2013) Developmental Gains in Visuospatial Memory Predict Gains in Mathematics Achievement. PLoS ONE 8(7): e70160. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070160

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Multilevel model sex contrasts (Table 3) in the 177-child sample. For word reading there was no fifth grade sex difference (p = .3536), but girls had an advantage in third grade and earlier (slope p = .0084).

"girls answered, on average, 2.31 fewer problems correctly than did boys in fifth grade. The girl vs. boy on slope effect indicates that the difference found in fifth grade is significantly smaller in earlier grades."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Gender — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause

Related Claims¶

• Across nations, boys outperform girls in mathematics by a small average margin while girls outperform boys in reading by a margin three times larger — a broader claim this one bears on
• The reading sex difference favoring girls grew over the decade and was driven by very poor performance of boys at the low end — related
• The mathematics sex difference favoring boys is more consistently found among higher-achieving nations, with considerable variability among lower-scoring countries — related
• Boys scored significantly higher than girls on IQ in the sample (p=.001) — related
• SAT scores underpredict the academic performance of high school girls, who average lower scores than boys despite higher grades — related
• Boys received more process praise and scored higher in 4th grade math than girls in this sample — related