… looking for gender gap data. Today’s event: The New York State reading and math scores for grades 3-8 released Monday. Maybe you saw the prominent story in the NYTimes earlier this week about those scores surging.

 Here’s what State Education Commissioner Richard Mills had to say:

  The achievement gap narrowed in both Math and English. Across grades 3-8, the number of black students achieving the English standards increased from 45 percent last year to 53 percent this year. The number of Hispanic students achieving the English standards increased from 46 percent last year to 53 percent this year. White students increased from 76 to 79 percent. In math across grades 3-8, the number of black students achieving the standards increased from 55 percent last year to 66 percent this year. The number of Hispanic students achieving the math standards increased from 61 percent last year to 71 percent this year.

Sounds like good news, and it is good news, as far as we know. But it also proves the simple maxim: If you’re not looking for something, you’ll never find it. Did these soaring test scores erase gender gaps?

The crack data folks in Albany assisted me briefly before they tore off to crunch numbers for the upcoming state report cards, but from the data they sent me I learned two key things:

– Girls are outperforming boys in both reading and math. (click forward to see math)

– African American boys are falling farther behind black girls. Take a look at these 8th grade reading numbers (the only ones that count, considering this is the jumping off point for high school). Aside from the dismal performance by black boys, check out the gender gap: Between 2006 and 2008, the gap widened by near four points. See slide 10.

There’s more to be learned, and when the data gurus resurface I’ll get trend data on all students. But again, the lesson is: You don’t find what you’re not looking for. No Child Left Behind doesn’t include the gender gap in its accountability system, so principals have no incentive to “find” the gaps. But if you don’t understand why black girls are moving ahead while black boys are falling behind, how can you close racial gaps, which are part of the NCLB accountability system?

Plus, if you believe gender gaps don’t matter because girls do better in reading while boys do better in math, that conventional wisdom never gets tested unless you look closely at state data, where every student gets tested.

Ok, the dumpster dive event has officially ended; take a deep breath.

 

Tags: black boys, new york

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