Jonathan Meer and Jaegeum Lim, from Texas A&M University report that schoolgirls do even better than their male counterparts when they are taught by female teachers. Specifically, the authors found a significant change in female test scores in math—long considered the last bastion of male educational dominance—when taught by a woman instead of a man.
The economist analysed the standardized test scores of over 14,000 middle school students in South Korea and found that when taught by a woman, girls’ scores on average were almost 10% of a standard deviation higher than boys. The economists also found that when switching from a male to female math teacher, girls’ scores rose by 8.5% of a standard deviation compared to the boys’ scores.
