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Comment by filmgirlcw | Hacker News Reader

> I'd assume most school administrators are women.

At least in the United States, this isn’t at all true. A disproportionate number of administrators (especially when adjusted for the normal male/female teacher breakdown) are male.

There have also been many studies that show that teachers call on boys more, praised them more (they acknowledge girls, praise boys), and talk with them more.

So your assumptions are completely at odds with decades of data.

[1]: https://time.com/3705454/teachers-biases-girls-education/ — has good links to various research from across the world.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/education-31751672

Teachers are more lenient in their marking of girls' schoolwork, according to an international study.

An OECD report on gender in education, across more than 60 countries, found that girls receive higher marks compared with boys of the same ability.

When it comes to teachers' marking, the study says there is a consistent pattern of girls' work being "marked up".

Teachers grade boys more harshly than girls:

https://mitili.mit.edu/sites/default/files/project-documents...

Teachers also criticize boys more often, and boys' grades tend to increase when submitted work is anonymized.

Boys and girls experience different gendered teaching practices, but the net result is girls being given higher grades than boys on average.

>> I'd assume most school administrators are women.

> At least in the United States, this isn’t at all true.

54% female, 46% male

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cls.asp

Interesting. Based on that data, this has likely flipped since most commenters here were in school.

My wife was a teacher and she noted that most over her male colleagues were leaving, especially in on the elementary and middle school level.

Too many assumptions or allegations, plus the perception that guys can't be nurturing.

Most of the men still in education were older and were able to migrate away from day-to-day teaching into admin roles. In 20 years those guys will be gone and there won't be any male teachers to replace them.

> Too many assumptions or allegations, plus the perception that guys can't be nurturing.

Sounds like very hostile and sexist environment. I wonder what efforts the school systems take to ensure gender diversity among its employees.

In today's climate perfectly gender diverse means 100% women.

There was a bank that bragged some years ago about being the most diverse bank, since they had 65% or whatever women on the board. 50% was explicitly less diverse than 65%.

In elementary school there were maybe 3 male teachers, but the non-teacher staff were all male.

It's only high school where the teachers were about balanced, and idk about the non-teachers

It is interesting how it breaks down by elementary/middle/high:

Close to 68 percent of elementary school principals are women, while men make up 67.3% of high school principals and 60% of middle school principals.

> A disproportionate number of administrators (especially when adjusted for the normal male/female teacher breakdown) are male.

Surprised to hear this. This is opposite of my experience working for Chicago public schools(CPS).

Do you have a citation for the number of administrators breakdown? I didn't see a reference in the Time article but maybe I missed it.

Also, "administrator" gender breakdowns is a diversion. The actual thing that needs addressing is the gender breakdown of teachers. I.e. the people that physically talk/teach to students during their education.

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