At the end of this academic year, I crunched some numbers from my gradesheets for the last three years. I then focused on the high and low ends of the grade distribution:
* An almost-exact equal numbers of males and females received A or A- grades.
* Of the 26 students who received F grades, 21 were male and 5 were female.
A gender gap, indeed. Over a 4:1 ratio. This pattern has been my felt sense over many years of university teaching. Why the pattern?
The failing males seem to fall into two groups. One is athletes who take my afternoon courses and then miss a large number of classes due to practices and travel for games. The other is young men don’t come to class regularly and, when they do, seem not to have done the reading and are otherwise passive.