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Gender Gap in Mathematics and Physics in Chinese Middle Schools: A Case Study of a Beijing’s District

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Abstract

This study examines the gender gaps in mathematics and physics in Chinese middle schools. The data is from the Education Bureau management database which includes all middle school students who took high school entrance exam in a district of Beijing from 2006–2013. The ordinary least square model and quantile regression model are applied. This study consistently shows that the gender gap is unfavorable toward female students in mathematics and physics while favorable toward female students in Chinese and English. Gender gaps favoring males in math and physics become more noticeable among the students who receive the top tier scores in math and physics testing. However, females’ students’ advantage in Chinese and English decreases along the distribution from the bottom to the top percentiles. There are significant intersections between rural residency and gender. Rural students (regardless of gender) perform less well than urban students in all subjects and rural female student show the worst testing scores compared with the other subgroups in mathematics and physics.

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Notes

  1. In China, there are two types of middle school: “standard middle schools” (average middle schools) and “weak middle schools” (below average middle schools). The schools whose average total scores for High School Entrance Exam are lower than those of “standard middle schools” by more than 50% of a standard deviation are classified as “weak middle schools”. In addition, there are two types of high school in China: “key high schools” and “average high school”. “Key high schools” not only enjoyed high public appropriation and preferential policies on enrollment, but also are assigned the best teachers (Zhang et al. 2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Manli Li, Yu Zhang & Yihan Wang

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  1. Manli Li
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  2. Yu Zhang
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  3. Yihan Wang
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Correspondence to Manli Li.

Additional information

Chinese “middle school” (also called “junior high school” in China) enrolls students ages 12–15 for grades 7–9 and it is approximately equivalent to U.S. middle school (grades 6–8, plus kindergarten).

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Li, M., Zhang, Y. & Wang, Y. Gender Gap in Mathematics and Physics in Chinese Middle Schools: A Case Study of a Beijing’s District. Urban Rev 49, 568–584 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-017-0409-x

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