Are Australian boys underachieving? An analysis using a validity–reliability framework based on the work of Lee Cronbach and Pamela Moss

Gabrielle Matters, Queensland. Board of Senior Secondary School Studies
John Pitman, Queensland. Board of Senior Secondary School Studies
Ken Gray, Queensland. Board of Senior Secondary School Studies

Abstract

Recently, in Australia, many newspaper headlines have announced that girls are

outperforming boys academically. Educational journals have published articles on

the topic and conference speakers have referred to it.

This paper examines the achievement of boys in modern classrooms. By referring

to Cronbach’s perspectives on validity arguments (1988), especially the political

and operationist perspectives, and Moss’s notions of reliability warrants (1994),

especially as they relate to inconsistency and critical community, we use a

previously promulgated ‘validity–reliability’ framework to analyse the academic

achievement of boys. In the process, we refer to the relative achievements of girls

and boys in the common curriculum and we explore the thesis that the

feminisation of education contributes to apparent shifts of balance in achievement

between the sexes.

[ISBN: 0 7242 7594 0]