Towards Equality: Progress by Girls in Mathematics in Australian Secondary Schools. Occasional Paper No. 16.

The data reported were obtained from two investigations carried out by the Australian Council for Educational Research in 1964 and in 1978. Each study was conducted at two levels of the secondary school. A subset of the 1978 samples is considered, which comprises students in government-only schools, so that effective comparisons can be made. Among the findings, it is noted there have not been substantial gains in the average level of achievement in mathematics learning of girls relative to boys over the 14-year period between the tests. Nevertheless, there is a marked change noted over these same years in the degree of involvement and participation by girls in learning mathematics at the upper secondary school level. Movement towards greater equality between the sexes appears to have taken place during the period. When other things which influence achievement in mathematics are taken into account, group sex differences in achievement at the terminal secondary level disappears, in general. It is suggested that if females place more time and involvement in mathematics, to the level of males, then sex differences in achievement shall gradually disappear. (MP)