Gender Differences in Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement in Third Through Eighth Grade Students

Many studies have found gender differences in certain areas of academic achievement, such as reading and math (Davenport et al., 2002; Gibb, Fergusson, & Horwood, 2008; Klecker, 2005; Marks, 2008). Fewer studies have focused on gender differences in writing skills. The current study examined gender differences in written expression performance. Participants were 1,240 (600 males and 640 females) students in third through eighth grade representing five schools in a rural southeastern school district. Each student was administered an AIMSweb curriculum-based measurement writing probe. All measures were scored for total words written (TWW) and correct writing sequences (CWS). Both measures take into account how much the student has written within the time limit. Students completed these probes during the district’s regularly scheduled fall, winter, and spring benchmarks. Each student wrote a story for three minutes based on an age-appropriate story starter. Two-way repeated measures analyses of variance were used to determine if differences existed in the sample. A significant female advantage was found on both scoring indices at each grade level. Findings indicate that females not only wrote more words than males, but they also tended to be more correct in the use of these words. These findings have strong instructional and theoretical implications for practicing school psychologists and other educators.