extended · article · 1992

Sex Differences in Science Achievement: A Multilevel Analysis.

Deidra J. Young; Barry J. Fraser; David Andrich

The assertion that girls and boys in single-sex schools outperform their peers attending coeducational schools was investigated in this study with particular reference to physics achievement. The relationship between the school, the home and the student's performance in physics was also explored tentatively using multilevel analysis. The average home background (called the socioeducational level in this study) was found to contribute towards student achievement to a greater extent when compared with such school effects as school type and the sex composition of the school. The importance of the use of the multilevel model in estimating microparameters such as sex difference' as well as macroparameters such as school type, is illustrated in this study by the significant influence of the school aggregate variable, socioeducational level. This is a preliminary report describing some of the s...