Gender differentials – see I was right!
I predicted some headlines yesterday and blogged about the use of MEANs to represent data sets. (See GCSE results: are they Mean?)
Having looked at the headlines from various papers and online communities, I think I can sigh and say “told you so”.
Let’s have a look at some of the nonsense that’s put out as “data” -
The Guardian
“The gap between girls and boys receiving grades A*-A is at it’s widest since the top grade was introduced in 1994 – 26.5% of girls achieved A*-A compared to 19.8% of boys” (Full article here)
So what?
- Knowing the percentages doesn’t matter — what where the cohort sizes of each?
- More boys might have achieved B and C grades, meaning that Boys did better at passing
- What was the innate ability of the cohorts? Value adds for boys might be far better than for girls
- “Is at it’s widest” — so what – what was it before, and how much has it grown?
South Wales Argus
Boys fall behind again THIS year’s GCSE results show boys are falling further behind girls, particularly in top grades. (Full article here)So what?
- “Boys are falling further behind” implies that Boys are failing in some way. Maybe they are doing exceptionally well given their innate abilities
- What subjects are we talking about? GCSE only – what about vocational courses?
- Are more boys defined as AEN than girls?
6 Comments to “Gender differentials – see I was right!”
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Glen says:
Hi Chris
Love the articles – we live in a manipulated world.
Can I guest host your blog post on Physics / Edexcel and the question(able) use of statistics?
Cheers
Glen
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Chris Pitcher says:
Feel free.
Chris-
Hi Chris
Thanks — a useful post to get out there, so I will do.
Cheers
Glen
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Katie says:
I am not stalking you (well maybe just a little – i’m addicted to your thinkings!) Ref your girl boy thing and AEN. At the PRU, we defo have a larger % of boys to girls. but am quite surprised at the (small) number of statements. (i beleive the LEA’s have a big influence here). What about Emotional literacy??? And if AEN learners are getting their additional support, should they then be able to achieve as well as non-aen-ers? you have made my brain ache – i like it
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I like the idea of having a stalker – and I couldn’t ask for a nicer one.
What I need to look at from a “completeness” sake is exactly what you raise – that of support / intervention. However, I suspect that the quantity of intervention is small — but if I could compile a “is intervention significant” kind of fact –….mmm
Interestingly, looking at other “odd” facts – left/right handed (lefties always do worse statistically – here at least) or the even bizarre (odd numbered houses fair worse that even) – can produce some insight into just how silly arbitrary segmentation of the data is.
Glen
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Hi Glen,
I think this is on-topic, and given your physics background you might be interested in the analysis I did about claims made surrounding science subjects last week… See the last two articles on my blog:
http://edukating.blogspot.com/
Chris