
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993                   TAG: 9311300357
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE RAVITCH
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

U.S. SCHOOLS AREN'T GUILTY OF GENDER BIAS

DURING THE past two years, there have been many stories in the press and on television about the gender bias that is allegedly rampant in the nation's schools, destroying the self-esteem of girls and blighting their futures. Most of the attention emanates from a report called ``How Schools Shortchange Girls,'' sponsored by the American Association of University Women. The report is based on research that claims girls do poorly in school because teachers pay more attention to boys in the classroom.

In response to the AAUW report, legislation is now wending its way through Congress to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to train teachers in gender equity and to create an Office of Gender Equity.

I assume that members of Congress will rush to vote aye on the proposal, lest anyone say of them that ``they just don't get it.'' I would like to suggest, however, that while the legislation will be a boon for the nascent industry of gender-equity trainers, staff developers and social-service providers, it is otherwise unnecessary.

A review of the facts will show that our schools are not guilty of gender bias and that girls are not victims of discrimination. In fact, the untold story of the past 20 years has been the dramatic increase in the educational attainment of women in this country.

If it is true that teachers call on boys more often than on girls, it is not clear that this helps boys at all. While boys get higher scores in mathematics and science, girls get higher scores in reading and writing. Boys in eighth grade are 50 percent likelier than girls to be held back a grade, and boys in high school constitute 68 percent of the ``special education'' population.

True, the average SAT score of young women applying to college is lower than of young men. But the difference in test scores has not deterred women's progress a bit.

Twenty years ago, more boys went on to college than girls. Today, the reverse is true: Sixty-seven percent of female high-school graduates go to colleges, compared with 58 percent of male high-school graduates. In 1970, only 41 percent of all college students were women. Today, they account for 55 percent of all undergraduates, and they receive 54 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States.

Women's progress in graduate education has been nothing less than amazing. In 1970, women received 40 percent of all master's degrees; today they are 59 percent of all master's-degree students and earn 53 percent of all master's degrees. In 1970, women earned only 6 percent of all first professional degrees; by 1991, that figure was up to 39 percent.

Included in that surge are these facts: In 1970, only 14 percent of all doctoral degrees went to women, but today that figure is up to 39 percent. Similarly, medical degrees earned during that period by women jumped from 8 percent to 36 percent of the total (and 42 percent of first-year medical students in 1993 were women). The proportion of women earning law degrees since 1970 has jumped from 5 percent to more than 40 percent. In 1970, women received only 1 percent of dental degrees, compared with 32 percent in 1991. Women today earn a majority of degrees awarded in pharmacy and veterinary science.It seems likely that within a few years, equal numbers of degrees will be awarded to men and women in the professions.

If there is to be an Office of Gender Equity, it might have to examine the growing gender imbalance in higher education, which is most striking among minority students. Among black students who earned bachelor's degrees in 1990, fully 62 percent were female; among Hispanic students, 55 percent who earned bachelor's degrees were female. Among white students, the imbalance is 53 percent to 47 percent in favor of women. Where are the missing young men? Why aren't they going to college? Only Asian students in college have achieved gender parity.

If our goal is to increase the test scores of underrepresented groups (that is, girls and minorities) in mathematics and science and to increase the number of girls and minorities who are prepared for careers in science and engineering, then we should pursue those goals directly. We can do that by targeting federal dollars to effective programs managed by the National Science Foundation and to the Department of Education's Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Program, which allots money to school districts to train teachers of mathematics and science.

School districts should expect boys and girls alike to complete more advanced courses in these subjects. Gender differences in test scores are not nearly as serious a problem as the poor performance of American boys and girls on international tests of mathematics and science.

I am not suggesting that there is no such thing as gender bias. There is. It begins in the home. It is deeply embedded in the popular culture. You can see it regularly in the movies and on television. The place you are least likely to encounter it, however, is in the schools, where students are accustomed to seeing women in positions of authority.

The gender bias in our culture will ultimately be vanquished by the legions of young women who are now graduating from our colleges and universities and are entering the worlds of business, medicine, law, education, government and journalism. Their entry into the professions will change America, and their success will be due, in large measure, to their conquest of American education in the 1980s and 1990s.

Diane Ravitch was an assistant secretary of education in the Bush administration.

The Washington Post

by CNB