Saturday, July 26, 2008

Gender and Math: Quiz

Jim scored a 97, Bob scored a 76, Dan scored a 45.

Jane scored a 81, Barb scoed a 78, Dana scored a 66.

Who is better at math, the boys or the girls?

Which gender has the worse performer?

Which gender has the top performer?

Originally posted in comments over at the Core Knowledge Blog.

Aim low, avoid disappointment

Alaska thinks(pdf) that 81.7% of its 4th grade students in 2007 were advanced/proficient in reading.

The NAEP says that only 29% of Alaskan public school 4th graders were at or above proficient. In fact the NAEP shows that only 62% of it's public school 4th graders were above basic, which is still a pretty big difference.

The NAEP expects 4th graders to read three syllable words; Alaska only expects 4th grades to read two syllables.

I didn't look at math scores, but I am guessing its the difference between counting to 10 and counting to 5.