How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report : A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education [Paperback]

American Association of University Women (Author), AAUW members (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1995

This eye-opening study served as a wake-up call, exposing the systematic bias that girls face in education. While girls and boys enter school roughly equal in measured ability, by age fifteen girls have poor self-images and constrained views of their futures. In addition to a wealth of data, the report also suggests specific strategies to effect changes. This book catalyzed local, state, and national action, and today few conversations about gender and education in the academic and research communities neglect to mention this watershed report.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Wellesley College Center for Research on Women researched gender bias in United States schools and came up with a detailed analysis of how gender-insensitive curriculum, testing and policies handicap girls. Covering 20 years of research on girls in preschool through the 12th grade, the report documents the effects of gender inequities not only on the college-bound but on girls in vocational programs and teen mothers as well. It concludes with 40 sensible, straightforward recommendations for changing schools, like encouraging young mothers to stay in school or choosing programs that do not perpetuate gender stereotypes.The AAUW already released this report but hopes to reach a wider audience by publishing it in this slim volume. Deborah Tannen's endorsement will help, but lack of overarching authorship or voice gives the book a bland, clinical, by-committee style. Unfortunately, individual human subjects are conspicuously absent, as well, so readers end up with numbers, charts and laws filling their heads, rather than the girls who are the purpose of the study. Although a must for educators and researchers, How Schools Shortchange Girls lacks popular appeal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Parents, teachers and policymakers receive a study which presents major findings on girls and education, documenting exactly how and why schools shortchange girls in the educational process. Research is specific and reaches beyond generalities to document exactly how girls and boys learn and what the differences are in their classroom experiences. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Marlowe & Company; 1st trade pbk. ed edition (May 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569248214
• ISBN-13: 978-1569248218
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,531,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important text for educators, November 4, 2006

By 

Jerry L. Rosiek (University of Alabama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report : A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education (Paperback)

The previously posted reviews for this book are belligerent and misleading. This book was published as a provocation to educators everywhere to examine the way educational insitutions tolerate and enable various practices that harm young women personally and educationally. It had that effect when it was published and can have that effect for new readers.

Authors and reviewers who retort that "It is BOYS who are suffering, not girls" seem to believe that we cannot wish to serve both boys and girls better at the same time. How well boys are (or are not) doing is irrelevant to the fact that girls face a number of unnecessary hazards in our schools and culture. Among these are an epidemic of sexual harassment in secondary schools, near zero rates of femaile Ph.D.s in engineering and the physical sciences (other than biology), eating disorders, and blatant resistance at high schools and colleges to the Title IX law, just to name a few.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not without flaws, but still a contribution, May 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report : A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education (Paperback)

Self-esteem and school performance are often correlated. Teenagers who have high self-esteem are more likely to well in school than those who don't. In fact, academic self esteem is considered a component of general self-esteem (Harter, 1987). It is not clear how these are related; perhaps success in school makes a teenager feel better about him/herself. The data collected in the AAUW study are readily available on disk for any interested researcher. Although this book has a number of flaws, it makes a contribution to knowledge about today's teenagers in the US.

Reference:

Harter, S. (1987). The determinants and mediational role of global self-worth in children. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.) Contemporary topics in developmental psychology (pp. 219 - 242). New York: Wiley.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report: A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education, September 18, 2009

By 

Valjeaner Ford "Dr. Valjeaner Brewington Ford" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report : A Study of Major Findings on Girls and Education (Paperback)

"How Schools Shortchange Girls" is an excellent source of information for individuals who are interested in gender research. I conduct gender research and have found this study to be very informative in so many aspects. I will continue to use it as one of my main sources for gender research.
It is user friendly as well as an "easy read."