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Gender Patterns in School Performance – Comparative Evidence
Draft paper for presentation at a seminar organized by the Equal Opportunities
Commission, Hong Kong SAR, November 2001
Tony Gallagher, Graduate School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast
am.gallagher@qub.ac.uk
In the United Kingdom free and compulsory post-primary education was established at
the end of the Second World War. Although the UK is a single political unit, different
education arrangements operated in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
However, despite this, the form of post-primary education was largely the same in each
place. That is, primary education operated up to age 11 years at which point pupils could
take tests. On the basis of their test results a proportion of the pupils were selected to
attend academic grammar schools while the rest went to secondary schools.
In the 1950s it was common practice to treat boys and girls as separate populations for
the assignment of transfer test grades. The rationale for this was that girls tended to
achieve better results on these tests as age 11 years, but it was argued that this higher
attainment was largely due to the fact that girls matured at a faster rate than boys. Once
all pupils had gone through the point of maturity then, it was argued, boys’ educational
attainments ‘caught up’ with that of the girls so that by age 16 years both groups were
achieving their ‘normal’ levels of achievement. It was further argued that if allowance
was not taken of the differing rates of maturity of boys and girls at age 11 years, then this
would unfairly disadvantage the boys in the assignment of transfer grades and restrict
their opportunity to attend grammar schools.
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In England, Wales and Scotland the selective arrangements of grammar and secondary
schools were largely abandoned in the 1960s and 1970s in favour of comprehensive
schools which took in pupils of all abilities. Thus, the issue of gender differences at age
11 years became moot as no selective decision was taken at that age. In Northern Ireland,
however, the practice of academic selection continued and, in fact, continues to this day
although it has been subject to a major review and significant changes have been
proposed. In addition, until the 1980s Northern Ireland also continued the practice of
treating boys and girls as separate populations on the same basis that they had differing
rates of maturity.
In the 1980s the Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research (NICER) initiated a
major research programme into the selective system of education1. NICER’s main
interest lay in the dynamics of the system as a whole and, in particular, the way in which
transfer test performance and later educational performance was mediated by social class.
However, the data collected by several of the NICER studies suggested that by age 16
years there was no evidence that boys and girls of the same transfer grade had equal
levels of academic performance. In fact, the evidence suggested that the performance of
girls was higher than that of boys, thus casting doubt on a central justification for treating
them as separate populations for the assignment of transfer grades.
Although the government of the day showed no interest in pursuing the implications of
this research, the Equal Opportunities Commission in Northern Ireland decided to support
as court-case brought by the parents of some girls who had taken the transfer tests2. These
parents claimed that the practice of treating boys and girls as separate populations for the
assignment of transfer grades discriminated against girls as they had to achieve higher
results than boys in order to gain the same transfer grade. The NICER evidence had
1
Gallagher, AM (1988) Transfer Pupils at 16. Belfast: Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research;
Sutherland, AE and Gallagher (1987) Pupils in the Border Band. Belfast: Northern Ireland Council for
Educational Research; Sutherland, AE and Gallagher, AM (1986) Transfer and the Upper Primary School.
Belfast: Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research; Teare, S and Sutherland, AE (1988) At Sixes
and Sevens. Belfast: Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research; Wilson, JA (1986) Transfer and
the Structure of Secondary Education. Belfast: Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research.
2
Gallagher, AM (1989) The relationship between research and policy: an example from Northern Ireland.
The Psychologist: Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 2, 62-63.
Page 3
removed the main basis on which the Department of Education had attempted to justify
this practice and, perhaps not surprisingly, the Department of Education lost the legal
battle. The practice of treating boys and girls as separate populations in the award of
transfer grades was deemed to be illegal and the Department of Education was told to
cease the practice. From that point on all pupils were treated as a single population for the
assignment of transfer grades.
In the period before the court case boys had comprised a majority of the pupils given the
top grade in the transfer tests. In the years immediately following the court decision the
situation changed so that girls formed the majority of pupils given the top grade.
However, from the early 1990s, and for reasons unconnected to the gender issue, the type
of tests used to assign grades was changed. Up to then the transfer tests were verbalreasoning-type tests, with some items included to assess ability in mathematics and
English. This was changed to the use of attainment tests, where each test contained three
sections with questions on English, mathematics and science – for the present this
remains the basis for the tests. In the years that followed there was no consistent
relationship between gender and transfer grade. Thus, in some years girls comprised a
higher proportion of the pupils given the top grade, in other years boys comprised the
majority of these pupils, while in some years an even pattern was found. However, it is
perhaps noteworthy that this inconsistency did not so much spark a debate about the
relationship between gender and transfer test performance3, but rather heightened
concerns about the reliability of the tests used to assign transfer grades and the
appropriateness of a ‘high-stakes’ test for 11 year old children.
I will return to this issue later in the paper but for the moment I would like to broaden the
discussion by looking at patterns in attainment data in Northern Ireland and England,
before going on to illustrate some common themes in attainment data in other countries.
Although it does potentially raise a question on what a ‘fair’ distribution of grades by gender ought to
look like.
3
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Figures 1 and 2 shows the pattern of qualifications of school leavers in Northern Ireland
from 1963 to 19994. Figure 1 shows the proportion of school leavers with the equivalent
of five good GCSE qualifications or better. Figure 2 shows the proportion of school
leavers with two or more A Levels, the minimum criterion normally required to gain
entry to higher education.
Figure 1: leavers with %5+ GCSEs A*-C, 1963 to 1999
70
60
50
40
30
20
Boys
10
Girls
4
1998/99
1995/96
1992/93
1989/90
1986/87
1981/82
1976/77
1973/74
1970/71
1967/68
1964/65
0
The graphs are based on data derived from Statistical Bulletins produced by the Department of Education
in Northern Ireland and earlier reports from the Ministry of Education: current and recent versions of these
statistical bulletins are available at the Department’s website www.deni.gov
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Figure 2: leavers with 2+ A Levels 1963 to 1999
50
40
30
20
10
Boys
1997/98
1994/95
1991/92
1988/89
1985/86
1979/80
1975/76
1972/73
1969/70
1966/67
1963/64
0
Girls
Both figures show a steadily increasing level of qualifications among school leavers over
time (the blip on both graphs was caused by the raising of the school leaving age). Both
figures also show that a higher proportion of girls than boys achieved both these criteria
from the mid-1970s onwards, and that the extent of the achievement gap between girls
and boys has steadily widened over the years since.
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Figure 3: Grammar leavers 5+ GCSEs A*-C
100
95
90
85
1998/99
1999/00
1999/00
1997/98
1996/97
1995/96
Girls
1998/99
Boys
1994/95
1993/94
1992/93
1991/92
1990/91
1987/88
1986/87
80
All
Figure 4: Secondary leavers 5+ GCSEs A*-C
50
40
30
20
Boys
Girls
1997/98
1996/97
1995/96
1994/95
1993/94
1992/93
1991/92
1990/91
1987/88
1986/87
10
All
Figures 3 and 4 show the gender patterns for school leavers from grammar and secondary
schools separately – these data were only available from 1986 onwards. From figure 4 we
can see that the gender gap in favour of girls in secondary schools has widened over time,
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while that for leavers from grammar schools has narrowed. Throughout this period there
was a slightly higher proportion of girls among school leavers from grammar schools,
but, as the table below shows, this did not increase over the period even though the total
number of leavers coming from grammar schools did increase:
Boys
1986/87 grammar
Girls % Boys % Girls % Boys % Girls
All
3,805 4,358
28
33
47
53
100
secondary
9,708 8,927
72
67
52
48
100
all
13,513 13,285
100
100
50
50
100
4,651
5,034
36
41
48
52
100
secondary
8,245
7,149
64
59
54
46
100
all
12,896 12,183
100
100
51
49
100
1999/00 grammar
Thus far the data point to an increasing gender gap in favour of girls that seems to be
increasing over time. That this is only part of the picture is revealed by the next two
figures5. Figure 5 shows data for individual grammar schools with the proportion of boys
and girls in Year 12 (16 year olds) who achieved five or more good GCSEs. Figure 6
shows the equivalent data for boys and girls in the Year 12 of secondary schools. The
overall pattern revealed by these data is consistent with the earlier data, that is, a higher
proportion of girls tend to meet this criterion across all the schools as compared with
boys, and this is true for grammar and secondary schools. However, figures 5 and 6 also
show a high degree of overlap, that is, while girls generally get higher achievement than
boys, this is not so for all girls and for all girls. In other words, there are other factors at
play in explaining these patterns of performance as opposed simply to gender issues.
5
The data on these graphs are derived from the School Performance Tables produced by the Department of
Education: these are available on the Department’s website at www.deni.gov.uk
Page 8
Figure 5: grammar schools, 5+ good GCSEs
100
90
5acboys
5acgirls
80
73
65
57
49
41
33
25
17
9
1
70
Figure 6: secondary schools 5+ good GCSEs
100
80
60
5acboys
5acgirls
40
20
155
141
127
113
99
85
71
57
43
29
15
1
0
Another dimension of the complexity that exists within these data is illustrated by recent
information on A Level performance among boys and girls in England6. In most, but not
all, subjects the data show a higher percentage of girls achieving success in comparison
with boys, but the implications of this is related not only to success rate but also to
participation rates. Take, for example, the patterns for some specific subjects:
6
DFES, 2001: National Statistics: First Release SFR 41/2001
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English
Mathematics
Physics
French
Boys aged
17-18
Candidates
22,628
33,543
21,991
4,637
Success rate
93
87
89
93
Girls aged
17-18
Candidates
53,077
20,024
5,988
10,651
Success rate
94
91
92
91
On the basis of the success rates for these individual subjects we can see that girls do
better at English, Mathematics and Physics, while boys do better at French. However,
quite apart from the fact that the difference in success rates is quite small, this immediate
judgment takes no account whatsoever of the differing level of participation in the
subjects. Thus, in Physics, for example, although girls do better overall, they comprised
only 22 per cent of those who achieved success in Physics. In the same way, although
boys did better overall in French, they comprised only 31 per cent of those who
succeeded in French. It would seem, therefore, that one could conclude that either boys or
girls did better on Physics or French, depending on the basis upon which this judgment is
made: if the basis of judgment is overall success rate then girls do better at Physics and
boys do better at French. On the other hand, if the basis of judgment is on the overall
proportion who succeed then boys do better at Physics and girls do better at French.
Data from the United States on gender patterns in education also illustrate the complex
nature of the issues involved7. Thus, for example, in the 1970s there were large gaps in
the educational performance of boys and girls, but these had largely disappeared by the
1990s: in particular, the proportion of young women attending college after high school
graduation was on a par with that of young men, and they were as likely to have
completed a bachelor’s degree. The US National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) has assessed the knowledge of 9-, 13- and 17-year olds in maths and science
since the early 1970s. For maths there had been a gap in favour of girls for the young
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cohorts in the 1970s, and in favour of boys for the oldest cohort in the 1970s. Over time
this difference has reduced. For science, on the other hand, there is evidence of a gender
gap in favour of boys at age 13 years and, more particularly, at age 17 years. This science
pattern for the older cohorts is mirrored also in TIMSS data which suggests that older
boys tend to out-perform girls on science: for example, the third international TIMSS
study found that 16 year old boys outperformed girls in 16 of the 38 countries in the
study, and that this difference was most apparent among high-performing students. In the
US similar patterns are also found in achievement tests linked to the SAT and College
Board AP tests where either boys take more of these tests, or a higher proportion score
above the success threshold, or both.
The NCES reports go on to examine some of the factors that appear to be linked to these
differences. Although there have been changes in attitudes towards maths and science
(whereas in the past boys at all ages tended to be more positive towards both subjects)
there is continuing evidence that positive attitudes are linked to participation in maths and
science activities, and that boys are more likely to have these opportunities:
…boys were more likely than girls to have talked to a scientist or attended a computer
club, or to have used a computer for a significant amount of time during the week, or to
have a computer or microscope at home. By 10th grade, boys were more likely than girls
to have conducted their own science experiments, to have a computer or calculator at
home, or to have used a computer more often during the week. In contrast girls were
spending more time on mathematics or science homework. (NCES 1997: 10).
The NCES report also shows that there are divergent career expectations and aspirations,
even among very young children, with boys much more likely to aspire to be scientists or
engineers. In the past the differing performance levels of US boys and girls was linked to
differing patterns of participation in advanced maths and science subjects. By the 1990s
this difference in participation had largely disappeared, except for Physics which retained
a higher level of participation by boys. In addition, although there had been marked
increases in the College participation rates of young women, there remained significant
7
NCES (1995) The education progress of women: findings from the Condition of Education 1995.
Washington DC: US Department of Education; NCES (1997) Women in Mathematics and Science:
findings from the Condition of Education 1997. Washington DC: US Department of Education.
Page 11
differences between men and women in the fields of study they took while in College.
NCES (1997), for example, show the probable fields of study of College freshmen in
1996 as:
Source: NCES 1997
Arts and humanities
Biology
Business
Education
Engineering
Physical sciences
Professional
Social sciences
Technical
Computer sciences
Other
Undecided
Men
9
7
18
6
15
3
10
6
4
4
11
7
Women
11
7
14
14
3
2
20
12
1
1
7
9
Remaining differences in participation rates have implications for future employment
prospects. In fact, the NCES report shows how, despite the rapid improvements in
educational participation and performance by women over time, they remain behind in
terms of employment status and remuneration. Overall, NCES (1997) found that the
average 1996 median starting salaries of College graduates was $26,122 for men and
$21,990 for women. This difference was found also for College graduates in the natural
sciences and maths where the median starting salary for men was $21,833 while that for
women was $20,508.
These US patterns mirror almost exactly the results of a series of studies carried out in
Northern Ireland. In one set of studies the A Level subject choices and performance of all
students in a sample of grammar schools were identified in 1985 and followed-up ten
years later in 1995. One of the more striking changes over that period was that the
proportion of girls taking Chemistry A Level had increased from a third to a half of the
total: in contrast, the proportion of girls taking Physics A level had stayed stable over the
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period at a little over a quarter8. Qualitative data collected during focus groups of
students suggested that the main reason for this change lay in the career aspirations and
expectations of the young women. Thus, the main reason offered by women students for
taking Chemistry was that they sought entry to higher education courses in medical and
related areas. By the same token, their view was that Physics was needed only for entry to
engineering and related areas, and they were generally uninterested in this career route.
What was also interesting, however, was that change in participation was related not only
to career aspirations, but also appeared to have an impact on gendered perceptions of
specific subjects: thus, the young women we talked to expressed no stereotypes or
perceived constraints with regard to Chemistry, but did express a view that Physics was a
subject that boys were ‘naturally’ better at than girls.
Another series of studies had examined patterns of participation in higher education by
surveying all young people from Northern Ireland who entered higher education in 1991.
Since then follow-up surveys have examined aspects of their higher education experience
and the early years of employment. Although there has been an increasing pattern of
participation among young women, who now comprise a majority of those entering
higher education, there remains significant gender differences in the types of courses
taken in university and, more particularly, in the starting salaries after graduation.
A further important aspect of this issue is provided by Murphy and Elwood9 (1998) who
went beyond patterns of participation to examine patterns of choice and the role played
by gender in mediating choice and interests. Their analysis pointed to a number of factors
which influenced performance patterns. They found that familiarity with the context of a
task could often influence performance in the task itself. This links to the earlier point
regarding the greater familiarity of boys with scientific equipment: Murphy and Elwood
show how boys could out-perform girls on a scientific task if the participants were left to
select the equipment for carrying out the task, but that the differences disappeared when
8
Gallagher, AM, McEwen, A and Knipe, D (1996) Girls and A Level Science 1985 to 1995. Belfast: Equal
Opportunities Commission.
Page 13
they were asked to use specific equipment in order to carry out the task. Similarly,
student confidence can mediate successful completion of a task, and confidence is linked
to familiarity with the parameters within which a task is located. Thus, for example, they
show how boys and girls can react to the same content differently irrespective of the task
involved:
Questions that involved content related to health, reproduction, nutrition and domestic
situations were generally found to show girls performing at a higher level than boys
across the ages. It was also the case that more girls than boys would attempt such
questions. Hence the gender gap in performance arose because of the increased
confidence of girls combined with the lower response rate of boys. In questions where the
content was more overtly ‘masculine’ the converse occurred. Typical ‘masculine’
contents included cars, building sites, submarines, machinery, etc. Talking to students
revealed that they had definite views about content areas where they expected to be
competent and content areas where they anticipated failure. (Murphy and Elwood, 1998:
102).
The more general point here is that task familiarity is closely related to the socialization
undergone by young children outside school and the opportunities provided by play.
When children are faced with tasks in school with which they are familiar, they tackle
these with confidence, but the converse is also true in that they may withdraw when faced
with tasks with which they lack experience. For Murphy and Elwood, however, this
pattern of behaviour may go unremarked by teachers who themselves share gendered
assumptions about appropriate and inappropriate contexts of tasks. On a broader level,
Murphy and Elwood suggest that attainment may often be related to perceived relevance
rather than competence.
Other factors which influenced gendered performance included differences between
presentation styles of girls and boys, and the link between this and preferred presentation
styles within particular subject areas. Thus, for example, boys tended to be prefer a
presentation style that was factual, to-the-point and reflected certainty. By contrast girls
preferred a presentation style that was reflective, critical and circumspect, and which
Murphy, P and Elwood, J (1998) Gendered experiences, choices and achievement – exploring the links.
International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2(2), 95-118. See also Epstein, D, Elwood, J, Hey, V and
Maw, J (Eds) (1998) Failing Boys? Issues in gender and achievement. England: Open University Press.
9
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recognized the uncertainties that lay behind a conclusion. The approach favoured by boys
was that also favoured by science and technology teachers, while the approach favoured
by girls was that more usually favoured by humanities and arts teachers. Murphy and
Elwood also suggest that boys are often more prepared to be risk-takers and to offer
answers to questions even when they are not sure they are correct, whereas girls are more
likely to remain circumspect when they are unsure. At times, they suggest, teachers may
interpret these preferred performance styles as reflecting different dimensions of ability:
thus, the higher performance of girls is sometimes attributed to their diligence rather than
their ability. All of this reflects the importance of contextual dimensions of teaching,
learning and performance, and reminds us that the attributions of meaning in these
contexts can vary. One of the dimensions along which meaning can vary is related to
gender.
Much of this discussion echoes earlier work, but the context within which it was written
has changed. Murphy and Elwood were writing at a time in Britain when there had been
an extraordinary ‘moral panic’ about gender patterns of performance which had led some
to speculate on ‘what had gone wrong for the boys’. A simplistic argument had surfaced
that boys’ educational performance had somehow or other collapsed while the
performance of girls was suddenly, and by inference inappropriately, ahead. Some
suggested that this turnaround had occurred due to changes in the curriculum or
examinations, or because of a broader crisis of masculinity, or because of the
feminization of the teaching workforce.
Contrast this with the context of an earlier study which identified many of the same
themes highlighted by the Murphy and Elwood. In this earlier study Hanson10 (1992) was
examining the mix of factors that had led to girls consistently achieving lower
attainments than boys in mathematics and argued that removing these constraints was not
simply a priority on the grounds of equity, but also a priority on the grounds of economic
imperative as a contribution to increasing the size of the country’s mathematically and
10
Hanson, K (1992) Teaching mathematics effectively and equitably to females. US: Education
development Center. Available on: http//:eric-web.tc.Columbia.edu/monographs/ti17_index.html
Page 15
technologically skilled work force. Central to Hanson’s analysis is the role of sex
stereotypes in defining appropriate and inappropriate orientations towards disciplines and
skills and, more generally, the way gender mediates the attribution of meaning in
particular contexts:
For those women who attempt to enter into the discourse as equals by adopting a male
discourse model, the response is no better. Women are often penalized for attempting to
participate in the ‘male domain’. Often the perception of behaviour is confused with
actual behaviour, based on sex-role stereotypes. While a male might be called ambitious,
assertive, and independent, a woman displaying the same behaviour is often labeled
aggressive, pushy, and argumentative. Studies continue to show that when woman and
men exhibit the same behaviour, that behaviour is devalued for women. (Hanson, 1992).
It was due to longer-standing constraints on the progress of women that the United States
enacted Title IX in 1972 to prohibit institutions that receive federal funding from
practicing sex discrimination in educational programmes or activities. Other legislation
operates to promote gender equity, including the 1974 Women’s Educational Equity Act
which provides for financial and technical support to local efforts to remove barriers for
women in all areas of education, Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and 1976
amendments to the 1963 Vocational Education Act which requires affirmative action
towards the elimination of sex bias, stereotyping and discrimination in vocational
education. Hanson’s recommendations are largely focused at the role parents, teachers
and schools can play in promoting practices which work against the socialization of
young people into gender roles and modes of learning which actually act to constrain
participation. In other words, the main thrust of this analysis has been to highlight the
sociocultural factors which influence educational performance. Indeed, the patterns of
change, which have been so evident over recent years, highlight the social aspect of these
issues: if biology was the predominant factor then the patterns should have been much
more stable. In fact, most analyses of educational performance and gender emphasise the
role of social and cultural factors, as opposed to biological factors11.
11
See also articles in Husen, T, Postlethwaite, TN, Clarke, BR and Neave, G (Eds) (1995) The
Complete Encyclopedia CD-ROM (The International Encyclopedia of Education and The
Encyclopedia of Higher Education). Elsevier, especially: Baker, CD: Analysis of School Texts and
Page 16
Just to illustrate aspects of these changes, consider some of the consequences of Title IX
in the United States. First, there had a marked increase in the participation and
completion rates of young women in college education: in 1973 43 per cent of female
high school graduates aged 16-24 were enrolled in college, but this figure had increased
to 63 per cent in 1994. Second, whereas in 1972 only 9 per cent of medical degrees went
to women, but by 1994 this had increased to 38 per cent; in dentistry the proportion of
women with medical degrees increased from 1 to 38 per cent over the same period; and
the proportion of women with law degrees increased from 7 to 43 per cent. In addition,
whereas 25 per cent of doctoral degrees went to women in 1977, this had increased to 44
per cent in 1993/94. And third, we can see change sin other areas of education life as
well, such as participation in athletics. In 1997 some 100,000 women participated in US
intercollegiate athletics, a fourfold increase form 1971; in 1972 women comprised 15 per
cent of college student athletes, but by 1995 this had increased to 37 per cent; between
1971 and 1995 there has been an eight-fold increase in the participation of young women
in high school athletics; and all of this perhaps helps to explain by US women won a
record 19 gold medals in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
This represents an entirely different perspective from which to analyse the recent patterns
that show such improvement in the academic performance of women across so many
domains. Rather then representing some dramatic collapse among boys, these data should
be seen as the culmination of the efforts towards equity which have been pursued over
recent decades. It is in this context, for example, that the gender patterns in Northern
Ireland identified at the beginning of this paper have been analysed. Thus, it has been
pointed out that, far from demonstrating a regressive pattern for boys, the Northern
Ireland data show that the measured performance levels of all pupils have increased over
time. The gender difference has arisen because the rate of increase among girls has been
Gender; Farrell, JP: Social Equality and Educational Expansion in Developing Nations; Keeves, JP
and Kotte D: Sex differences and educational outcomes; Martin, CL and Levy, G: Gender Roles;
Sadker, D and Sadker, M: Sex Equity: Assumptions and Strategies; Stemmler, M and Petersen, AC:
Sex Differences in Behavior and Behavioral Development; Weiner, G: Gender and Racial
Differences Among Students in Classrooms.
Page 17
higher in comparison with that of boys. This has led me to conclude that a series of
factors have influenced these changes12. The rapid rate in increase in the performance of
girls seems to me to be best explained by the consequences of the equality environment
so assiduously promoted since the 1970s. The ten year study of A Level students in
grammar schools showed compelling evidence of the extent to which the career
expectations and aspirations of girls influenced the curriculum areas within which they
felt able to operate. By contrast, some of the factors which have helped to restrain the
academic performance of boys remain unaffected by policy initiatives. Indeed, the
perception of despair, which sees education as worthless since economic and social
prospects remain so poor, remains a factor for pupils in some of the inner city areas of
Belfast13 and may even be exacerbated by the effects of the selective system which.
Intentionally or not, labels two-thirds of pupils as failures at the age of 11 years14. The
end of traditional engineering and factory work into which boys could obtain
apprenticeships through family and friendship networks has played a role here as well.
This analysis suggested that some of the factors affecting the performance of boys and
girls operate independently. In other words, part of the increase in performance levels of
boys and girls is probably best explained by the efforts of the education system in
general, and schools and teachers in particular, to promote higher standards. In addition,
the performance level of girls has been boosted by the removal of constraints which, in
the past, have held them back, as a consequence of the equality policies pursued over
recent years. In this context boys may well constitute an increasing proportion of the
pupils who still face particular and severe problems within education, but the total
number of pupils in this situation is declining. And while some of the measures necessary
to tackle this problem will involve targeted measures to re-engage the interest of boys in
schooling, some of the problem relates to the conditions of inner-city poverty and
disadvantage from which both boys and girls suffer. In other words, the problem is due to
12
Gallagher, AM (1997) Educational achievement and gender: a review of research evidence on the
apparent underachievement of boys. Research Report No.6. Bangor: Department of Education for Northern
Ireland.
13
Gallagher, AM, Shuttleworth, I and Gray, C (1997) Educational Achievement in Northern Ireland:
Patterns and Prospects. Research Monograph 4. Belfast: Northern Ireland Economic Council; Gallagher,
AM, Shuttleworth, I and Gray, C (1999) Improving Schools in Northern Ireland. Research Monograph.
Belfast: Northern Ireland Economic Council
Page 18
a combination of social, economic and educational circumstances, rather than biological
circumstances, and the solutions must be found in these contexts as well.
In the opening section of this paper it was mentioned that the variable gender patterns in
transfer test performance, once combined papers with questions in Mathematics, English
and Science were used, have provoked concern more about the reliability of the tests
rather than any specific concern about the gender patterns per se. There has always been
controversy about the selective system and, in particular, the use of such a ‘high stakes’
instrument for pupils who are so young. In response to this controversy the present
government instituted a major research project into the effects of the selective system of
secondary education which reported in 200015. The report was highly critical of the
consequences of the selective arrangements and the way it exacerbated the mediating role
of social background on educational performance. Following the publication of the
research the Minister of Education established a Review Body on Post Primary Education
to consult on the future of the system and bring forward recommendations for the future.
Interestingly, in the research and the subsequent debates, the issue of gender and
performance has played a much less substantial role that that of social background and
performance. In November 2001 the Review Body16 published its report which
recommended the end of academic selection and its replacement by a system of formative
assessment, parental choice and the creation of collaborative networks of post primary
schools. One element behind these recommendations is that many of the problems of a
selective system, particularly one that selects so early, lies in the very fact of
institutionalizing a high stakes selective decision in the first place. On that basis, key
parts of the problem can be removed simply by removing the need to select in this way.
Pupils will still move from primary to post-primary school at age 11 years, but it is
recommended that, in future, this should be a low stakes decision, amenable to change
later in a young person’s educational career.
14
Gallagher, T and Smith, A (2000) The effects of selective system of secondary education in Northern
Ireland: main report. Bangor: Department of Education (available at www.deni.gov.uk )
15
Gallagher, T and Smith, A (2000) op. cit.
Page 19
16
Burns Report (2001) Education for the 21 st Century: Report of the Review Body on Post Primary
Education. Bangor: Department of Education (available at www.pprbsni.gov.uk and www.deni.gov.uk ).