Analysis: Leaving Cert results raise important gender bias issues

Teachers were asked to take into account students’ continuous assignments, projects, mock exams and previous results

The final Leaving Cert grades are 4.4% on average higher this year than in previous years. File image

The Leaving Certificate was cancelled on May 8 to be replaced by the teachers’ subjective judgments on what percentage mark they thought each of their students might have received in the Leaving Certificate.

They also gave their ranking of each student relative to their peers, with oversight by their school principal.

These scores were adjusted by National Standardisation Group in the Department of Education and Skills through a standardisation process.

Nevertheless, the final grades are 4.4% on average higher this year than in previous years.

So how has this process affected boys’ and girls’ results in particular subjects and in single-sex and coeducational schools?

Teachers were asked to take into account records of their students’ performance including continuous assignments, projects, mock exams (‘with caveats’), previous results and any other relevant information. It was a subjective assessment of their own named students as compared with the usual anonymous Leaving Certificate examination.

It appears that these teacher-based assessments valued steady continuous work.

Since boys tend to do less well at this form of assessment and rely more on cramming for exams, boys tended to be scored lower than girls in the teachers’ assessments.

Girls typically do better than boys overall in the Leaving Certificate and this difference has been increasing over time for a variety of reasons. Girls on average outperformed boys by 5.7 points in 2017; 5.9 in 2018 and 6.5 in 2019.

Based on the teachers’ assessments, girls scored on average 7.9 points higher in 2020 compared to the previous three-year Leaving Certificate average.

The teacher’s assessments were then modified by the National Standardisation Group in a standardisation process. 

Through this process, the gap between girls and boys was reduced to an average of 7.6 points. This process appeared to value Junior Certificate exam results more, and so it reduced the teachers’ overall assessment of girls relative to boys on average.

With the exception of Maths, the teacher’s assessments of high achieving girls on higher level papers were marked down particularly severely in this standardisation process. There was no rationale given for this.

For the past three years, boys have tended to perform better than girls in Honours Maths. Over this time, boys have had a 4.5 percentage point advantage over girls at H1 level on the Honours Maths paper. This year the school assessment reduced that gap to 2.5 percentage points, and standardisation reduced it to one percentage point. In addition, at H2 and H3 on honours level Maths, the gender pattern was reversed as assessed by both the teachers’ assessment and the standardisation process, so that girls outperformed boys at H2 and H3 in Honours Maths.

Data by gender has only been published for English, Irish and Maths. The lack of analysis by other subject areas means that the teachers’ assessments and standardisation by gender and type of school (single-sex boys, girls and co-educational) are not revealed across the other subject areas.

This is a crucial omission.   It is particularly important since the proportion of H1s on Honours papers has increased dramatically in male-dominated subjects this year relative to last year e.g. from 10.9% to 15.6% in Honours Physics; from 13.5% to 17.1% in Honours Chemistry; from 16.5% to 29.6% in Honours Applied Maths. This contrasted with smaller increases in female-dominated areas such as Honours Biology (from 8.2% to 10.8%) and Honours French (from 6.6% to 7.7%).

Even in Honours Maths, where girls performed well, the proportion of H1s only increased from 6.4% last year to 8.4% this year.

In previous years, girls in single-sex schools had the best overall Leaving Certificate grades, followed by boys in single-sex schools, girls in co-ed schools and boys in co-ed schools. This year, both the teachers’ assessment and the standardised process maintained this pattern, although with higher scores.

The standardisation process resulted in boys in single-sex schools increasing their average grades by 8.1 percentage points based on the previous three-year average, followed by girls in single-sex (6.5%), girls in co-ed (6.2%) and boys in co-ed schools (5.6%). 

The adjustment downwards for girls in the standardisation process was greatest in co-educational settings. This raises questions about the apparent difficulty the National Standardisation Group had with girls being seen to do better than boys in co-educational settings.

Still no discussion of possible gender bias in LC assessments on RTE 1. Given sexual harassment and replacement of Phil Hogan debacle, it is ironical that the dominant view is that gender does not affect LC assessments... #Calculated https://t.co/JmExe0m14I

— Pat O'Connor (@ProfPatOConnor) September 6, 2020

Over the past three years, girls in single-sex schools have secured higher Leaving Certificate results than boys in single-sex schools. With teacher’s assessments and standardisation, the gap between high achieving girls in single-sex schools and their male counterparts has been reduced. This may affect these girls’ access to high points courses.

Furthermore, this reduction to the disadvantage of girls is a worrying indicator of the perpetuation of stereotypical attitudes by the National Standardisation Group as reflected in the model. It has potential implications for undermining gender parity in the profile of professional areas in the future.

The differential increases in the proportion of H1s in male-dominated as compared to female-dominated disciplines also militates against the promotion of such gender equality.

Teachers’ assessments, with their focus on effort and performance appeared to increase recognition of girls’ work, countering gender-stereotyping which international evidence shows typically does not favour girls. However, the standardisation process, ultimately emanating from the Department of Education and Skills, appears to have emphasised Junior Cert results more.

Given the growing focus on promoting a more creative and learner-centred experience where students engage more critically and individually with their learning, the grading standardisation appear to be at odds with broader policy goals at second level.

• Professor Pat O’ Connor, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Limerick and Visiting Professor, Geary Institute, UCD.
• Professor Delma Byrne, Associate Professor, Departments of Sociology and Education Maynooth University
• Professor Selina McCoy, Associate Research Professor, ESRI, Professor of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin.