Sex Differences in the School Gains of Migrant Children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sex differences in the school gains of migrant children. Results from the Wide Range Achievement Test showed significant differences in the reading achievement of boys and girls at the grade 4 level in favor of boys. In arithmetic achievement, differences were significant at the grade levels 3, 4, and 9 in favor of boys. In the total group, boys and girls did not differ in reading or arithmetic gains. No indications were found of migrant children's school gains being affected adversely either by the teachers' dis criminatory behavior in favor of girls or by the family structure. However, the present research does indicate the need for replicating the study to explain the differential growth in learning noted at certain grade levels within migrant and other disadvantaged groups. THAT GIRLS demonstrate higher achievement in reading and boys demonstrate higher achieve ment in arithmetic has been the belief of most classroom teachers and educators. Lincoln (4) found that in reading at the elementary school level girls tended to excel by small margins. Stroud and Lindquist (8), using the Iowa Every Pupil Basic Skills Testing Program, reported a consistent and significant superiority in language, work study, reading, vocabulary, and verbal com prehension for girls, while small insignificant dif ferences in arithmetic favored boys. Gates (2) confirmed that on the average girls' reading abil ities excel boys' in grades 2 through 8. Durrell (1) and Newton and others (5) reported that more boys attend reading clinics than do girls. However, Kowitz and Mahoney (3), Parsley and others (6), and Sinks and Powell (7) have reported insignificant sex differences in their studies. While these studies have examined sex differ ences in achievement status at several grade lev els, very few studies have investigated sex differ ences in growth rate. The present study was designed to examine the following hypothesis empirically : Boys and girls from the migrant fami lies do not differ in their school gains in reading and arithmetic. Method Subjects. Included in the study were 777 boys and 775 girls from migrant workers' families in New York State for whom pretest and posttest data were complete. These children do not have opportunities for regular schooling, and are cul turally and economically disadvantaged. In the summer of 1969, thirty-five migrant centers were functioning in New York State to insure contin ued pupil growth by providing compensatory edu cational opportunities to these children. Their ages ranged between 5 and 16 years. Test. The Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) (1965 Edition, Level I) was selected as a measure of migrant children's achievement in reading and arithmetic at the beginning and end of the program. The test provides for a wide range scaling and is applicable to a heterogeneous age group (from kindergarten to college). The test has a high reliability, of .93, with subtest re liability coefficients ranging between .90 and .95. The test yields grade-equivalent scores, which pro vide the teachers with bases for choosing appro priate instructional materials for each child at the start of the program. Procedure. Each child in the group was tested at the beginning and end of the program, which lasted from early July to the middle or end of August, 1969. The obtained raw scores were con verted to grade-equivalents using the test publish er's table. The group was classified by age ranges corresponding to the usual grade placement. For example, children between 4 years, 8 months and 5 years, 7 months in July would be between 4 years, 10 months and 5 years, 9 months in Sep tember, approximately the expected school age range for admission to kindergarten. Statistical analysis was done for the total group and for the breakdown by expected grade level. Mean gains between pretest and posttest data were computed for boys and girls separately. Stu dent t's for independent samples were computed. Results and Discussion Girls obtained higher mean grade-equivalent scores on the WRAT reading and arithmetic pre This content downloaded from 207.46.13.156 on Sat, 10 Sep 2016 05:49:18 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 418 THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH tests than boys, as a total group and at most grade levels. This finding partially supports past studies which report higher reading achievement for girls. Considering the total gains of each sex group by itself, girls gained more in reading (.27 grade equivalents or 2.7 months) than they did in arith metic (.19), and boys gained more in arithmetic (.34) than they did in reading (.30). By grades, however, boys gained more in arithmetic than in reading only in grades 2 and 3, while girls gained more in reading than in arithmetic in grades 4 through 10. Thus, the mean gains in reading were higher than the mean gains in arithmetic for both sexes in grades 4 through 10. The achievement in arithmetic required by WRAT above the third grade level involves the development of abilities to solve oral problems and perform written com putations?rskills which develop gradually, while the skills called for from kindergarten through grade 3 involve the relatively easy development of the abilities to count and read number sym bols. The nature of the tasks may have made both sexes gain more in arithmetic than in reading in the lower grades. Also, the slow arithmetic gains above the third-grade level might have occurred as a result of the regression effect. This tends to support the hypothesis of no difference in gains in reading and arithmetic between boys and girls. Because the migrant children were in the pro gram for only 6 to 8 weeks, they did not acquire the computational skills to the required level, al though they developed abilities in recognizing letters, naming letters, and pronouncing words. Nevertheless, the expected gain in arithmetic for a 6to 8-week period of .15 to .20 grade-equiva lents was met by the girls who showed a .19 gain and exceeded by the boys who made a .34 gain. When the significance of the sex differential of gains is tested (see Table 1), it is found that reading gains were significant in favor of boys in grade 4 (p < .05) and tended toward signifi cance in favor of boys in kindergarten (p < .10). The arithmetic gains, as well, were significantly higher for boys than girls in grades 3, 4, and 9 (p < .05). In no case did the superior gains for girls (in grades 5 and 6 reading and in kinder garten, grades 7, 10, and 11 arithmetic) reach Table 1.?Mean Gains, Gain Differences, and t-values in WRAT Reading and Arithmetic Grade-Equivalents for Boys and Girls Boys Girls Reading Arithmetic Grades Mean Mean N Gains Gains _Rdgo Aritho Mean Mean N Gains Gains _Rdfi._Aritho Gain Gain DiffertDiffert ences value enees value