Friday, May 13, 2011

Funding: ending girls and math ... maybe looking at boys and reading?

An Education Week (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/05/house_calls_for_eliminating_mo.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1)post caught my eye:
Forty-three education programs would be scrapped under a bill introduced today by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee that oversees K-12 policy. Looking at the summary (http://edworkforce.house.gov/UploadedFiles/SUMMARY_-_Setting_New_Priorities_in_Education_Spending_Act.pdf) I found this from the Education and Workforce Committee:
• Women’s Educational Equity: The Women’s Educational Equity program promotes education equity for women and girls. The program received $1.8 million in FY 2008 and $2.4 million in both FY 2009 and 2010. Funding for the program was eliminated in the final FY 2011 budget agreement and the president’s FY 2012 budget request. Research has shown this program is no longer necessary; a March 17, 2010 article in Education Week noted the traditional achievement gap between boys and girls in math has closed, with the "percentages of both genders scoring ‘proficient’ or higher [being] roughly the same." On the other hand, that same article observes that "male students in every state where data were available lag behind females in reading."

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