

Closing the Math Gap for Boys - wallflower
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/opinion/sunday/intense-tutoring-can-close-the-math-gap.html

======
gwern
> Here’s why you should pay close attention to this experiment. After just a
> single year in Chicago’s intensive tutoring and mentoring program, known as
> Match, participants ended up as much as two years ahead of students in a
> control group who didn’t get this help. A report that is being released
> Sunday by the University of Chicago Crime Lab also finds that they performed
> substantially better on the Chicago school system’s math test; their scores
> on the N.A.E.P. math exam reduced the usual black-white test score gap by a
> third. This success carried over to nonmath classes, where these students
> were less likely to fail. Greater success in math also helped get them on
> track to graduate. It also led them to become more engaged in school, and
> they were 60 percent less likely than members of the control group to be
> arrested for a violent crime.

> I know of no initiative for disadvantaged young men of color that comes
> close.

Neither do I. I look forward to the post-mortem explaining why this program
will turn out to be a failure like all the others.

~~~
ccvannorman
Programs that seek to better explain math will not last, I agree.

What is needed is to change the kids' MINDSET about math. How do we make them
WANT it? They've already decided it's boring and difficult.

~~~
chii
they didn't 'decide' it was boring, it was taught without any context, and the
average kid did not have the imagination to be able to know how useful math is
going to be.

Basically, instead of teaching, i think the school ciriculunm should try to
pique the interest of the students, and make them intrinsically motivated to
find out more. How to do this depends on how good their teachers are, and atm,
not many teachers can do this even if they want to, because they are required
to teach a certain amount of 'standard' stuff, and leaves not much room for
the teacher's own brand/style.

------
sandworm
Does anyone really find it surprising that close instruction by people of
similar age, who actually know math, made a difference? I remember my math
teachers. I remember them talking down to us. I remember teaching myself how
to handle quadratic equations after being made to look a fool in class. I also
remember the joy of programming my first HP-48sx graphing calculator (donated
to me when I got into an AP math 11 course). Like the old speak-and-spell,
that little machine never insulted me, never said I wasn't trying hard enough.
Math became easy. I still miss R-P notation.

Look at this from the UK a few years ago. Most teachers were found to lack
basic math skill. I doubt US/Canadian teachers are any different.

"Only one third of the teachers tested for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary
were able to calculate that 1.4 divided by 0.1 is 14, while only four out of
10 could work out that 2.1 per cent of 400 is 8.4. "
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7236780/P...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7236780/Primary-
teachers-fail-basic-maths-test.html)

"Fewer than four out of 10 of those who sat the test – designed for 11-year-
olds – could calculate 2.1% of 400, and only a third answered correctly that
1.4 divided by 0.1 was 14. Overall, four out of ten scored 40% or below, only
one got all the answers correct and the average mark was 12 out of 27 or 45%."

[http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/feb/14/primary-
tea...](http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/feb/14/primary-teachers-
fail-maths-tests)

------
hurin
I wonder if the `control group` were students that did not want to be enrolled
in the program (introducing significant bias into the results) or students
selected randomly to be tracked and not enrolled or given such an opportunity
(the ones 60% more likely to commit a violent crime).

~~~
m_mueller
I wanted to say that as well - however in this particular case I'd say the
ends justify the means if they get funding for more tutoring, even if their
statistical methods are unsavoury.

~~~
tracker1
Many schools see a ratio of teachers to students around 25:1 (or higher)..
they're talking about getting a ratio of 2:1 for even 1/6 of the school day...
that's roughly the need for double the number of teachers/tutors over current
needs. Of course there are other offsets.

I'm not sure I'm completely with the economists on this one, but I can
definitely see some of the points. I think doing something like this in the
K-8 years would be far more effective than in the H.S. years where kids should
start to be more independent.

If cities could work with local businesses to allow STEM employees to
volunteer (paid by the company) a couple days a month at a local school, in
addition to getting parents to volunteer 2-3 days a month, this could get the
coverage needed and starting at much younger ages before a lot of the issues
start to settle in.

~~~
m_mueller
> If cities could work with local businesses to allow STEM employees to
> volunteer (paid by the company) a couple days a month at a local school, in
> addition to getting parents to volunteer 2-3 days a month, this could get
> the coverage needed and starting at much younger ages before a lot of the
> issues start to settle in.

I think that's a great idea. Some management types can checkmark 'social
responsibility' that someone added to the company's mission statement, and
employees get to have some mini sabbatical and feel good about themselves,
probably come back with more energy.

------
ps4fanboy
Not just minorities the gap between boys and girls in education increases
every year.

~~~
zxcdw
Have you, or someone else, got a source for this or articles/studies done?

Not questioning it, just curious.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
PISA is a long term comparative study of child education in about 60-70
countries including USA;
[http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/](http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/)

The 2012 results for USA,
[http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm](http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm),
for Maths, Reading and Science show the gender gap to be better than the
average with a trend towards constancy; ie contrary to the GP's claim.
However, I wouldn't want to say on my cursory view of their summaries that the
GP was wrong.

------
CmonDev
It's a glaring case of gender inequality! They should obviously use positive
discrimination to make sure that average grades are equal.

------
m3talridl3y
We should just let the math gender gap go until it counteracts the gender gap
in STEM employment.

~~~
unknownian
The gender gap in certain sectors is a problem, but this is also a problem. I
have no doubt that strong feminists don't want to see boys (even white ones)
doing worse as a whole from a young age.

~~~
golemotron
This is more of a problem than the gender gap. The gender gap is largely due
to differences in interests. You'll see the same sort of gap in nursing, auto
repair, primary education, construction and number of other occupations. If
it's down to interests it's not clear it will ever be solved completely. Maybe
that's okay.

~~~
jacalata
Why is this gap more of a problem? Maybe boys just aren't interested in math,
the same way they are naturally not interested in nursing.

~~~
jamestnz
One difference that seems relevant is that math is a general
discipline/skillset that has applicability to a variety of career paths and
industry sectors, and also can be a base/prerequisite requirement when
pursuing further education in fields that don't necessarily seem very "mathy".
In other words, one often doesn't necessarily study math to become a
professional mathematician, but as a means to another end, such as providing a
grounding to enable meaningful study in another area (a psychology degree
requiring study of statistics would be one example).

Nursing, on the other hand, is in itself a vocation. One studies nursing,
presumably, to become a nurse, and not usually as a means to some other end.

Therefore, a lack of boys' interest in math would be potentially different
from a lack of boys' interest in nursing, in that innumeracy (just like
illiteracy) tends to limit individual outcomes much more severely than lack of
interest in a particular vocational path such as nursing.

