Wednesday, February 2, 2011

AAUW ED responds to NYT article

Linda Hallman, AAUW E.D.
To the [NYT] Editor:
According to “Man or Male?” (Education Life, Jan. 9), which compares men’s studies and male studies, both fields agree on something that is, fortunately, not true — that “academically at least, young men are in trouble.”
As our report “Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education” explains, there is no “boys’ crisis.” Boys continue to outscore girls, on average, on many standardized tests, including the SAT math and critical reading tests. And according to the United States Department of Education, 41 percent of both girls and boys who graduated from high school in 2007-08 were attending a four-year college in the fall of 2008.
Certainly, some young men are in trouble, as are some young women. But whether we measure by test scores in elementary school, high school graduation rates or college enrollment, the differences in educational achievement are much greater between students from different income levels and different racial/ethnic backgrounds than between girls and boys.
Linda D. Hallman
Executive Director
American Association of University Women
Washington, Jan. 12, 2011

2 comments:

  1. How can you honestly say that men are not in trouble in the education. Step foot on any college campus. If men represent 51% of the population of the college age group (check your census figures), then 51 % of those attending college should be male and not the approximately 35 %. This represents gross inequity by ANY standards !

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  2. Please read the study "Where the Girls Are" (see post for link), which is based on an analysis of data from standardized tests, college enrollment figures, and other relevant measures. To be sure, as Hallman notes, "the differences in educational achievement are much greater between students from different income levels and different racial/ethnic backgrounds than between girls and boys."

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