Children’s Mathematics Achievement in Hawaii: Sex Differences Favoring Girls

Abstract

Most reviews of the literature have concluded that boys have surpassed girls in mathematics achievement at some point in their schooling. In Hawaii, however, some studies have suggested that sex differences in mathematics achievement have favored girls. In this paper, norm-referenced mathematics achievement test results for Hawaii public school students in four ethnic groups and four grades are examined for sex differences. Results are examined for sex differences varying by mathematical skill, among high-achieving students, and among ethnic groups. The findings show that the Hawaii public school girls have higher achievement levels than the boys. The boys achieve their highest scores in mathematical reasoning, and the girls achieve their highest scores in computation. High-achieving girls outperform high-achieving boys. Sex differences favoring girls among Caucasian students are less than they are among Japanese-American, Filipino-American, and Hawaiian students. The relationship of the sex differences to sociocultural factors is examined, and the practical consequences of the differences are discussed.