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The purpose of this study was to explore the impact teacher gender had on thirdand fifth grade students’ academic performance and attendance. Archival data werecollected from the Student Information System (SIS) used by District X, a suburbandistrict located in the Midwest. Students in District X take the STAR assessment inreading and mathematics each fall and spring. The STAR assessment is a computeradaptive test, which changes the level of difficulty based on student response. Correctlyanswering questions increases the difficulty level of content matter, which ultimatelyresults in a higher score for the student (Renaissance Learning, 2014). Students of maleteachers did not show statistically significant academic growth regardless of studentgender. Female students taught by female teachers showed marginally significant growthin reading when compared to male students of female teachers. Teacher gender did notmake a statistically significant difference in student academic growth in mathematics foreither gender. Students from various socioeconomic backgrounds also did not show astatistically significant difference in academic growth when placed with a male teacherversus a female teacher. Finally, attendance of students was not impacted by the genderof the teacher. Prior to this study, the majority of research studies related to teachergender focused on male teachers as role models. The present study utilizes a quantitativeapproach to analyze test scores and attendance of students. Although results indicatedteacher gender did impact academic growth in reading, future researchers should exercisecaution when reviewing this study because of the small sample of teachers available. |
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