CARIBBEAN EXAMINATION COUNCIL

SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE

SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT MATHEMATICS

Gender Based Grouping as a Strategy for Academic Improvement

Name of centre: Queens’s College

Centre Code: ……………………

Year of Examination: 2014

Name of Candidate: Isabel Petra St.Hill

Candidate’s Registration Number:……....…….…..

1

Contents

Purpose of Project ................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Method of Data Collection ...................................................................................................................................................... 2

Presentation of Data ............................................................................................................................................................... 2

Mathematical Knowledge/Analysis of Data ............................................................................................................................ 6

Discussion of Findings ........................................................................................................................................................... 11

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................. 11

2

Purpose of Project

Queen’s College is a government owned secondary school situated in Husbands, St. James, Barbados.

It was founded in 1883 and was an all-girls school until 1981 when it became a co-educational school in accordance with

the policy of the Barbados Government. There has been much public comment on the benefits and disadvantages of co-

education. In particular the academic performance of boys has been of concern. The current Principal, wanted to know

whether or not a co-educational instructional setting is more effective for the children’s learning than a single-sex

setting. Since there was a lack of literature based on this issue in the Caribbean, the Principal decided to do a progressive

study in the school. On entry to the school, students were randomly selected and assigned to one of five classes. This

was done with the aid of a computer program. These classes are the Alpha classes which are all boys, the Beta classes

which are all girls and the Gamma, Delta and Epsilon classes which are of mixed gender. The academic performance of

the students is thereafter followed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in terms of student achievement in French between single-

gender classroom settings and mixed-gender classroom settings for second year students.

Individual student achievement was measured by the marks (as a percentage) in the 2013 end-of-year promotion exam.

Two variables are being considered. These are the instructional setting (i.e. single-sex and co-ed), and gender (i.e. boys

and girls).

Method of Data Collection

The marks (as a percentage) earned by one hundred and sixty-five, 2nd year students at Queen’s College in the 2013

French promotion exam were provided by the school. This ensured that the data was reliable in that it was the same for

all persons doing similar studies. No names were given so as to maintain student privacy. Also the marks were given in

rank order so they could not be traced back to the student.

Presentation of Data

Table 1 shows the promotion marks of the students in the 2nd Year. 2 Alpha is all boys, 2 Beta is all girls and 2 Gamma, 2

Delta and 2 Epsilon are mixed.

For the purpose of this study, the marks of the boys and girls in 2 Gamma, 2 Delta and 2 Epsilon were grouped by

gender. These groups were treated as separate instructional settings. Therefore four settings are being compared: boys

in a single-sex instructional setting, girls in a single-sex instructional setting, boys in a co-ed instructional setting and girls

in a co-ed instructional setting.

Stem and leaf diagrams and box and whisker plots for these settings are given in Figures 1 and 2 respectively.

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Ranking 2 Alpha 2 Beta

2 Gamma 2 Delta 2 Epsilon

1 36 45 Rank Boys

2 37 59 1 52 27 26

3 39 64 2 58 28 35

4 40 64 3 59 31 39

5 42 65 4 60 34 40

6 45 66 5 60 34 49

7 46 67 6 64 38 49

8 46 68 7 64 38 52

9 47 68 8 64 38 52

10 47 68 9 65 45 53

11 48 70 10 67 47 53

12 50 71 11 67 56 59

13 50 72 12 68 60 61

14 51 72 13 75 63 66

15 51 73 14 79 64 70

16 52 74 15 64 76

17 55 74 16 66 89

18 55 75 17 73

19 59 75

20 60 77 Rank Girls

21 61 78 1 58 35 31

22 62 78 2 61 45 31

23 63 78 3 65 48 45

24 65 78 4 70 54 46

25 66 80 5 73 54 51

26 68 80 6 74 57 62

27 73 81 7 78 58 65

28 75 81 8 80 59 70

29 76 84 9 80 60 71

30 77 84 10 81 65 72

31 77 86 11 82 72 73

32 90 86 12 84 76 78

33 92 13 85 78 79

14 90 80 92

15 92 81 93

16 92 88

17 98 89

Table 1: Marks of 2nd Year Students in the 2013 French Promotion Exam

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Figure 1: Stem and Leaf Diagrams of Student Marks for the four Instructional Settings

3 6 Stem Leaf

2

3 6 7 9

4 0 2 5 6 7 7 8

5 0 0 1 1 2 5 5 9

6 0 1 2 3 5 6 8

7 3 5 6 7 7

8

9 0

2 6 Stem Leaf

2 6 7 8

3 1 4 4 5 8 8 8 9

4 0 5 7 9 9

5 2 2 2 3 3 6 8 9 9

6 0 0 0 1 3 4 4 4 4 5 6 6 7 7 8

7 0 3 5 6 9

8 9

9

4 5 Stem Leaf

2

3

4 5

5 9

6 4 4 5 6 7 8 8 8

7 0 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 7 8 8 8 8

8 0 0 1 1 4 4 6 6

9 2

3 1 Stem Leaf

2

3 1 1 5

4 5 5 6 8

5 1 4 4 7 8 8 9

6 0 1 2 5 5

7 0 0 1 2 2 3 3 4 6 8 8 8 9

8 0 0 0 1 1 2 4 5 8 9

9 0 2 2 2 3 8

means 31

Girls in Co-ed Instructional Setting

Boys in Single-sex Instructional Setting

means 36

Boys in Co-ed instructional Setting

means 26

Girls in Single-sex Instructional Setting

means 45

5

Figure 2: Box and Whisker Plots of Student Marks for the Four Instructional Settings

Girls in Co-ed Instructional Setting

10050 60 70 80 90

Boys in Co-ed Instructional Setting

Boys in Single Sex Instructional Setting

o 10 20 30 40

Girls in Single Sex Instructional Setting

6

Mathematical Knowledge/Analysis of Data

Stem and leaf diagrams enables one to group data into classes. The original data is retained while allowing the shape

and distribution of the data to be seen.

For each instructional setting a box and whisker plot was drawn. These show the lowest mark, the highest mark, the

lower quartile, the median and the upper quartile for each instructional setting. The median mark (Q2) is the value which

divides the data for a specific instructional setting into two equal parts. The data is first arranged in ascending order. The

median is that value which occurs in the (𝑛+1

2)𝑡ℎ

position of the data where n = number of students in the instructional

setting. Where this position is not a whole number, then the median is the mean of the mark immediately before and

the mark after the determined position. The lower quartile (Q1) is the median of the lower half of the data set. The

upper quartile (Q3) is the median of the upper half of the data set. The interquartile range is the difference between the

upper quartile and the lower quartile.

The mean and standard deviation for each of the four settings was calculated. The following formulas were used:

mean =∑𝑋𝑖

𝑛

standard deviation = √∑(𝑋𝑖 − 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛)2

𝑛

∑𝑋𝑖 represents the sum of all the marks for a particular setting. ‘n’ represents the number of students in a setting. Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5 show the results of these calculations for the four instructional settings being considered. The percentage pass rate for each instructional setting was calculated. This is the proportion of students achieving 50% or greater in the 2013 French Promotion Examination. The statistics for the four instructional settings are summarized in Table 6.

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Table 2: Boys in Single-sex Instructional Setting (2 Alpha)

X (X-Mean) (X - Mean)2

36 -20.53 421.53

37 -19.53 381.47

39 -17.53 307.34

40 -16.53 273.28

42 -14.53 211.16

45 -11.53 132.97

46 -10.53 110.91

46 -10.53 110.91

47 -9.53 90.84

47 -9.53 90.84

48 -8.53 72.78

50 -6.53 42.66

50 -6.53 42.66

51 -5.53 30.59

51 -5.53 30.59

52 -4.53 20.53

55 -1.53 2.34

55 -1.53 2.34

59 2.47 6.09

60 3.47 12.03

61 4.47 19.97

62 5.47 29.91

63 6.47 41.84

65 8.47 71.72

66 9.47 89.66

68 11.47 131.53

73 16.47 271.22

75 18.47 341.09

76 19.47 379.03

77 20.47 418.97

77 20.47 418.97

90 33.47 1120.16

∑= 1809 5727.97

Number of Students 32

Mean= 56.53 Standard Deviation= 13.38

mean =∑ 𝑋𝑖

𝑛

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Table 3: Boys in Co-Educational Instructional Setting (2 Gamma/Delta/Epsilon)

X (X-Mean) (X -Mean)2

26 -28.83 831.16

27 -27.83 774.50

28 -26.83 719.84

31 -23.83 567.86

34 -20.83 433.88

34 -20.83 433.88

35 -19.83 393.22

38 -16.83 283.24

38 -16.83 283.24

38 -16.83 283.24

39 -15.83 250.58

40 -14.83 219.92

45 -9.83 96.62

47 -7.83 61.31

49 -5.83 33.99

49 -5.83 33.99

52 -2.83 8.01

52 -2.83 8.01

52 -2.83 8.01

53 -1.83 3.35

53 -1.83 3.35

56 1.17 1.37

58 3.17 10.05

59 4.17 17.39

59 4.17 17.39

60 5.17 26.73

60 5.17 26.73

60 5.17 26.73

61 6.17 38.07

63 8.17 66.75

64 9.17 84.09

64 9.17 84.09

64 9.17 84.09

64 9.17 84.09

64 9.17 84.09

65 10.17 103.43

66 11.17 124.77

66 11.17 124.77

67 12.17 148.11

67 12.17 148.11

68 13.17 173.45

70 15.17 230.14

73 18.17 330.16

75 20.17 406.84

76 21.17 448.18

79 24.17 584.20

89 34.17 1167.60

∑= 2577 10372.64

Number of Students 47

Mean= 54.83 Standard Deviation= 14.86

mean =∑𝑋𝑖

𝑛

9

Table 4: Girls in Single-Sex Instructional Setting (2 Beta)

X (X -Mean) (X -Mean)2

45 -28.73 825.26

59 -14.73 216.89

64 -9.73 94.62

64 -9.73 94.62

65 -8.73 76.17

66 -7.73 59.71

67 -6.73 45.26

68 -5.73 32.80

68 -5.73 32.80

68 -5.73 32.80

70 -3.73 13.89

71 -2.73 7.44

72 -1.73 2.98

72 -1.73 2.98

73 -0.73 0.53

74 0.27 0.07

74 0.27 0.07

75 1.27 1.62

75 1.27 1.62

77 3.27 10.71

78 4.27 18.26

78 4.27 18.26

78 4.27 18.26

78 4.27 18.26

80 6.27 39.35

80 6.27 39.35

81 7.27 52.89

81 7.27 52.89

84 10.27 105.53

84 10.27 105.53

86 12.27 150.62

86 12.27 150.62

92 18.27 333.89

∑= 2433 2656.55

Number of Students 33

Mean= 73.73 Standard Deviation= 8.97

mean =∑𝑋𝑖

𝑛

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Table 5: Girls in Co-educational Instructional Setting (2 Gamma/Delta/Epsilon)

X (X -Mean) (X - Mean)2

31 -38.41 1475.19

31 -38.41 1475.19

35 -34.41 1183.92

45 -24.41 595.76

45 -24.41 595.76

46 -23.41 547.94

48 -21.41 458.31

51 -18.41 338.86

54 -15.41 237.41

54 -15.41 237.41

57 -12.41 153.96

58 -11.41 130.15

58 -11.41 130.15

59 -10.41 108.33

60 -9.41 88.51

61 -8.41 70.70

62 -7.41 54.88

65 -4.41 19.43

65 -4.41 19.43

65 -4.41 19.43

70 0.59 0.35

70 0.59 0.35

71 1.59 2.53

72 2.59 6.72

72 2.59 6.72

73 3.59 12.90

73 3.59 12.90

74 4.59 21.08

76 6.59 43.45

78 8.59 73.82

78 8.59 73.82

78 8.59 73.82

79 9.59 92.00

80 10.59 112.19

80 10.59 112.19

80 10.59 112.19

81 11.59 134.37

81 11.59 134.37

82 12.59 158.55

84 14.59 212.92

85 15.59 243.11

88 18.59 345.66

89 19.59 383.84

90 20.59 424.02

92 22.59 510.39

92 22.59 510.39

92 22.59 510.39

93 23.59 556.57

98 28.59 817.49

∑= 3401 13639.84

Number of Students 49

Mean= 69.41 Standard Deviation= 16.68

mean =∑

𝑛

11

N= Lowest Score

Highest Score

Median Inter

Quartile Range

Mean Standard Deviation

% Passes

Boys Single-sex 32 36 90 53.5 19 56.53 13.38 65.6

Boys Co-ed 47 26 89 59 25 54.83 14.86 66

Girls Single-sex 33 45 92 74 12 73.73 8.97 97

Girls co-ed 49 31 98 72 23 69.41 16.68 78.8

Table 6: Summary of Statistical Results for Four Instructional Settings in 2nd Year French Promotion Exam

Discussion of Findings

Table 6 summarises the findings of the study.

It is observed that girls did better than boys. Girls in the single-sex setting had the highest median and mean

mark of all four instructional settings followed by the girls in the co-educational setting. The boys in the single-

sex setting had a higher mean mark than the boys in the co-educational setting but a lower median mark than

the boys in the coeducational setting.

The girls in the single-sex setting also recorded the highest percentage pass rate with the boys in either the

single-sex setting or the coeducational setting recording the lowest percentage pass rate.

The variability of the marks as measured by either the standard deviation or the inter-quartile range was lower

in the single-sex settings than those for the co-educational settings.

It would appear that the single-sex instructional setting is significantly beneficial to girls while offering little

advantage for boys although the variability in performance of boys in the single-sex setting is less than that for

the co-educational setting.

Conclusion Single-sex classes may be a good strategy for improving the academic performance of girls in French in the

second year but a similar effect is not so clear for boys. This conclusion pertains to French only and may not be

true for other subjects. For a more comprehensive study on the effect of gender based grouping on academic

achievement across the curriculum and across year groups, other subjects and factors will have to be

considered. Such other factors would be the teacher gender, teaching style or method, students leaning style,

student socio-economic background and student maturation level.