01 - Department of Education and Communities - NSW Government

A FAIR GO FOR ALLTraining and Supportfor Schools andDistrictsStatewide training at a cost of$70,000 was completed for 80district facilitators in theprofessional development packageFood for Thought and Action. Atotal of 560 relief days (14 perdistrict) was allocated forsupporting the Gender EquityStrategy, including the use of theFood for Thought and Actionpackage.Evaluation by participants wasoverwhelmingly positive. Manyschools are now using the resourceto identify and address gender issuesas part of planning for 1998.Statewide training was alsocompleted for 40 Student Servicesand Equity Coordinators and 80district facilitators in the use of theInternet as a networking tool. Agender equity Internet site is underdevelopment and funding to assistnetworking is proposed.Improved communication betweenstate and district offices, districtoffices and gender equity networkmembers has been evident as aresult of the program.The following support documentswere distributed to district officesand schools during the year:• Food for Thought and Action• Gender Inclusive Languagefor School Communities• Gender and School EducationReport• Gender Up Front• Boys-Talk• Girls and Boys Come Out toPlay• Gendered Fictions• Reading Fictions• Gender Equity: A Frameworkfor Australian Schools.Learning Outcomes forBoys and GirlsA noticeable difference betweenboys and girls continues to beevident in English at the SchoolCertificate. In 1997, 38 per cent ofgirls were placed in the top 30 percent of students, while only 18 percent of boys were placed in thisgroup. There has been little changein this pattern over recent years.Gender and literacy will be one ofpriority areas for action under theState Literacy Strategy in 1998.In advanced and intermediatemathematics there is little apparentdifference between the performanceof males and females. In generalmathematics there is a slighttendency for boys to be more highlyrepresented in the top bracket, whilein science there are marginally moregirls in the top bracket.The tendency for girls tooutperform boys in English relatedactivities is also true in the BasicSkills Tests. Girls performed higherthan boys in literacy in Year 3and Year 5 by about two points.However the differences appear tobe narrowing with the difference atYear 5 less than that at Year 3. Boyshad a slightly higher averagegrowth in BST literacy scoresbetween Year 3, 1995 and Year 5,1997. There continued to bevirtually no difference betweenboys and girls in BST numeracy.Complete details of theperformance of government schoolstudents in Basic Skills Tests andthe School Certificate are providedin the section Monitoring StudentProgress later in this volume.Apparent retention rates for allstudents fell slightly between 1996and 1997. Rates for girls remainabout 11.5 percentage points higherthan for boys. More boys than girlscontinue their education throughthe TAFE system whileundertaking apprenticeships.Basic Skills Test Scores by GenderLiteracysGrowth8.2BoysNumeracysGrowth8.1BoysYear 5,1997Year 3,1995Year 5,1997Year 3,1995LiteracysGrowth7.8GirlsNumeracysGrowth7.8GirlsYear 5,1997Year 3,1995Year 5,1997Year 3,1995NOTE: These graphs show the amount ofgrowth in numeracy and literacy in theBasic Skills Test for the 1997 Year cohortover the previous two years. The resultsare based on analysis of matched data pairs.DSE Annual Report 1997 85