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Report cards are a must in our education system. But this method of evaluation is far from being a consensus. It would even be biased, if we are to believe researchers at the University of Trento.
Ilaria Lievore and Moris Triventi looked into the evaluation system by rating by conducting a survey of nearly 40,000 Italian students in second. They compared the results they obtained during standardized tests in languages and mathematics, with the marks they obtained during their end-of-year exams. The goal: to show that the attribution of a mark to any school production contributes to reinforcing a systemic problem.
Indeed, researchers have found that teachers tend to give higher grades to girls than to boys in all subjects. The performance gaps between the two sexes are more marked when looking at the results of standardized tests. Girls performed better in humanities, languages and reading, while their male counterparts performed better in mathematics.
Previous scientific work confirms the conclusions of Ilaria Lievore and Moris Triventi, which were recently published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education. Developmental psychologist Jean-Paul Fischer and demographer Xavier Thierry found in a study published in May in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, that a gap between the two sexes is widening in first grade. In the middle section of kindergarten, girls and boys have the same performance in mathematics. However, the level of the boys turns out to be higher at the end of CP.
School rewards with many implications
But how to explain that the teacher evaluation system seems to favor girls? The two researchers from the University of Trento tried to understand this preference by taking into account factors such as the type of school or the size and composition of the classes. They also sought to find out whether certain characteristics specific to teachers, such as their seniority, their experience or even their gender, could justify this rating bias.
Only two factors were found to have an effect on the marks of girls and boys, and only in mathematics. These are class size and school type. Thus, the gender gap in math scores was greater when classes were larger. Girls also scored higher than boys in technical and academic schools than in vocational ones.
According to the authors of the study, it is possible that teachers subconsciously reward students who are calmer and more disciplined, who make their lives easier. Another theory put forward: inflating the grades of girls in mathematics is a way of encouraging them to turn to science courses.
Be that as it may, these grading biases in the Italian education system are considerable. Worse still, they could have long-term consequences. “There is a strong correlation between having high grades and desirable academic outcomes, such as being admitted to good colleges or being less likely to drop out of school.“said Ilaria Lievore, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Trento, in a press release.
Students’ academic performance has, in the long term, an impact on having higher incomes, a better professional situation or even greater satisfaction in life.