The Gender Gap in Secondary School Mathematics at High Achievement Levels: Evidence from the American Mathematics Competitions

This study aims to review the instruments of mathematics teaching practice among secondary school mathematics teachers. A total of 100 mathematics teachers were involved as respondents in this study. The data were analyzed descriptively by access to Alpha Cronbach's reliability and EFA analysis using SPSS software. The results of the analysis show that the Alpha Cronbach value is 0.934 which is more than 0.60. Results from the exploration factor analysis show four factors with Eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The KMO value (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) 0.867 > 0.6 indicates the items in the variable of attitude towards math are sufficient for inter-correlation. While the Bartlett Test was significant (Chi-Square 1521.621, p <0.05), an anti-image value (Measure of Sampling Adequacy, MSA) for items correlation exceeded 0.6. However, there are three items that need to be removed because the values obtained are less than 0.60, which were the items G11, G14, and G18. The value of the total variance explained by these three factors was 62.76 percent. Therefore, the overall findings indicate that the items for mathematics teaching practice instruments can measure and answer the study objectives.

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First‐year secondary school mathematics students’ conceptions of mathematical proofs and proving

Educational Studies ◽

10.1080/03055690903424964 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 283-298 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Savas Basturk

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

School Mathematics ◽

First Year ◽

Mathematics Students ◽

Secondary School Mathematics ◽

Mathematical Proofs

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The Gender Gap in Secondary School Mathematics at High Achievement Levels: Evidence from the American Mathematics Competitions

The Journal of Economic Perspectives ◽

10.1257/jep.24.2.109 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 109-128 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

Author(s):

Glenn Ellison ◽

Ashley Swanson

Keyword(s):

High School Students ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Unobserved Heterogeneity ◽

High Achievement ◽

School Students ◽

Standard Data ◽

Small Set ◽

Data Source ◽

Almost All ◽

Achievement Levels

This paper uses a new data source, American Mathematics Competitions, to examine the gender gap among high school students at very high achievement levels. The data bring out several new facts. There is a large gender gap that widens dramatically at percentiles above those that can be examined using standard data sources. An analysis of unobserved heterogeneity indicates that there is only moderate variation in the gender gap across schools. The highest achieving girls in the U.S. are concentrated in a very small set of elite schools, suggesting that almost all girls with the ability to reach high math achievement levels are not doing so.

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