Giving a Little Help to Girls? Evidence on Grade Discrimination and Its Effect on Students' Achievement. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1341

This paper tests if gender-discrimination in grading affects pupils' achievements and course choices. I use a unique dataset containing grades given by teachers, scores obtained anonymously by pupils at different ages, and their course choice during high school. Based on double-differences, the identification of the gender bias in grades suggests that girls benefit from a substantive positive discrimination in math but not in French. This bias is not explained by girls' better behavior and only marginally by their lower initial achievement. I then use the heterogeneity in teachers' discriminatory behavior to show that classes in which teachers present a high degree of discrimination in favor of girls are also classes in which girls tend to progress significantly more than boys, during the school year but also during the next four years. Teachers' biases also increase the relative probability that girls attend a general high school and chose science courses. The following are appended: (1) Do teachers' characteristics affect the gender bias?; (2) Estimation of the gender bias if the blind and non-blind scores do not measure the same abilities; and (3) Measure of the omitted variable bias affecting ? and a[subscript 2]. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre's Education Programme. The Centre for Economic Performance is financed by the Economic and Social Research Council.]