Girls in elementary school are still perceived more favorably, disciplined less harshly, and graded more generously than boys, but boys receive more attention, encouragement, and constructive criticism, ac-cording to a new report by the Project on Equal Educational Rights of the National Organization for Women.
The report, “Learning Her Place: Sex Bias in the Elementary Classroom,” integrates a variety of earlier studies of elementary education with current data describing the treatment of females in the classroom. It notes, for example, that girls get 90 percent of their criticism from teachers on the “intellectual inadequacy” of their work, while boys are criticized half on intellectual content and half on form or style problems.
“Boys emerge from this environment ready to move ahead and surpass their female classmates,” the report states, while girls are left with “nagging doubts” about their abilities even when they earn superior grades.
peer also released a state-by-state survey of progress toward educational equity in four areas: women’s and girls’ participation in interscholastic sports, the number of women school administrators, the percentage of women teachers and supervisors of computer classes, and the movement toward sex equity in vocational education.
