1. J. Dewey, Moral Principles in Education (1909; repr., Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975), 7; italics added.
2. T. K. Tegegne and M. M. Sisay, “Menstrual Hygiene Management and School Absenteeism among Female Adolescent Students in Northeast Ethiopia,” BMC Public Health 14 (2014): 1118.
3. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Institute for Statistics, “Leaving No One Behind: How Far on the Way to Universal Primary and Secondary Education?” Policy Paper 27 / Fact Sheet 37 (July 2016), http://
4. For more on these educate-a-girl campaigns, see Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018).
5. J. J. Heckman and Y. Rubinstein, “The Importance of Noncognitive Skills: Lessons from the GED Testing Program,” American Economic Review 91, no. 2 (2001): 145–149; A. L. Duckworth and D. S. Yeager, “Measurement Matters: Assessing Personal Qualities Other Than Cognitive Ability for Educational Purposes,” Educational Researcher 44, no. 4 (2015): 237–251.
6. C. S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (New York: Random House, 2008); L. Perez-Felkner, S. Nix, and K. Thomas, “Gendered Pathways: How Mathematics Ability Beliefs Shape Secondary and Postsecondary Course and Degree Field Choices,” Frontiers in Psychology, 8 (2017), art. 386; see also S. J. Correll, “Gender and the Career Choice Process: The Role of Biased Self-Assessments,” American Journal of Sociology 106, no. 6 (2001): 1691–1730; N. M. Else-Quest, J. Hyde, and M. C. Linn, “Cross-National Patterns of Gender Differences in Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 136, no. 1 (2010): 103–127; and L. Perez-Felkner, S. K. McDonald, and B. Schneider, “What Happens to High-Achieving Females after High School? Gender and Persistence on the Postsecondary STEM Pipeline,” in Gender Differences in Aspirations and Attainment: A Life Course Perspective, ed. I. Schoon and J. S. Eccles, 285–320 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
7. A. L. Duckworth and M. E. Seligman, “Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents,” Psychological Science 16, no. 12 (2005): 939–944.
8. On skills vs. dispositions, see V. L. Gadsden, “The Arts and Education: Knowledge Generation, Pedagogy, and the Discourse of Learning,” Review of Research in Education 32, no. 1 (2008): 29–61, 43–44.
9. For more on well-being and learning, see M. Awartani and J. Looney, “Learning for Well-Being: An Agenda for Change,” World Innovation Summit for Education, Qatar Foundation, n.d., https://
10. J. U. Ogbu, “Understanding Cultural Diversity and Learning,” Educational Researcher 21, no. 8 (1992): 5–14; H. Mehan, L. Hubbard, and I. Villanueva, “Forming Academic Identities: Accommodation without Assimilation among Involuntary Minorities,” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1994): 91–113; J. Boaler and J. G. Greeno, “Identity, Agency, and Knowing in Mathematics Worlds,” in Multiple Perspectives on Mathematics Teaching and Learning, ed. J. Boaler, 171–200 (Westport, CT: Ablex, 2000).
11. Mehan, Hubbard, and Villanueva, “Forming Academic Identities”; M. A. Gibson, Accommodation without Assimilation: Sikh Immigrants in an American High School (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988); N. Flores-González, School Kids / Street Kids: Identity Development in Latino Students (New York: Teachers College Press, 2002); N. Warikoo, “Gender and Ethnic Identity among Second-Generation Indo-Caribbeans,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28, no. 5 (2005): 803–831; N. Warikoo and P. Carter, “Cultural Explanations for Racial and Ethnic Stratification in Academic Achievement: A Call for a New and Improved Theory,” Review of Educational Research 79, no. 1 (2009): 366–394.
12. Mehan, Hubbard, and Villanueva, “Forming Academic Identities,” 97.
13. T. R. Buckley and R. T. Carter, “Black Adolescent Girls: Do Gender Role and Racial Identity Impact Their Self-Esteem?” Sex Roles 53, no. 9 (2005): 647–661.
14. The few exceptions are discussed in N. P. Stromquist, “The Gender Socialization Process in Schools: A Cross-National Comparison,” paper commissioned for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, New York, 2007, http://
15. C. B. Lloyd, B. S. Mensch, and W. H. Clark, “The Effects of Primary School Quality on School Dropout among Kenyan Girls and Boys,” Comparative Education Review 44, no. 2 (2000): 113–147; Stromquist, “Gender Socialization Process.”
16. C. P. Jones, “Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale,” American Journal of Public Health 90, no. 8 (2000): 1212–1215.
17. See also I. Bohnet, What Works (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016).
18. See L. S. Hansen, J. Walker, and B. Flom, Growing Smart: What’s Working for Girls in School (Washington, DC: American Association of University Women, 1995); P. Mlama, M. Dioum, H. Makoye, L. Murage, M. Wagah, and R. Washika, “Gender Responsive Pedagogy: A Teacher’s Handbook,” Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Nairobi, Kenya, 2005, http://
Gender-responsive pedagogy in schools represents a notable African-based initiative that could be used in other contexts. While they promote schools that take actions to correct gender bias and discrimination to ensure gender equality and equity (Mlama et al., “Gender-Responsive Pedagogy,” p. 2), they do not take the next step of giving girls the tools to fight inequities. They do not dismantle and redistribute power. Additionally, gender-responsive pedagogy is not tied to a reconceptualization of achievement where the values espoused in the theory would be taken seriously. Nonetheless, these kinds of schools are some of the best existing examples of educational institutions seeking gender equality.
19. P. Montgomery, C. R. Ryus, C. S. Dolan, S. Dopson, and L. M. Scott, “Sanitary Pad Interventions for Girls’ Education in Ghana: A Pilot Study,” PloS One 7, no. 10 (2012): e48274.
20. A. E. Lewis and J. B. Diamond, Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
21. bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (New York: Routledge, 1994), 147.
22. C. Albertyn, “Substantive Equality and Transformation in South Africa,” South African Journal on Human Rights 23, no. 2 (2007): 253–276.
23. S. A. Nuamah, G. Pienaar, and N. Bohler-Muller, “Gender, Socio-Economic Rights and the Courts: Towards Substantive Equality and Transformation,” unpublished manuscript.
24. N. G. Alexander-Floyd and E. M. Simien, “Revisiting ‘What’s in a Name?’: Exploring the Contours of Africana Womanist Thought,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 27, no. 1 (2006): 67–89, quotation 74.
25. A comprehensive description and comparison of the types of feminism is a topic for another book. But here is some background: traditional feminism is often critiqued for its focus on middle-class White women, and thereby its inattentiveness to race, broadly, and its intentional exclusion of women of color, specifically. Accordingly, Black feminism became a mechanism to develop a theory that accounted for the experiences of Black women that were directly tied to racism and poverty. Black feminism seeks to resist essential notions of femininity and gender relations. As explained by the Combahee River Collective—an anti-racist, anti-sexist group of queer Black feminists—in their canonical collective statement of 1977: “Although we are feminists and Lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand … We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism” (Combahee River Collective, “The Combahee River Collective Statement,” April 1977, reprinted in B. Smith, ed., Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, 264–274 [New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000], quotation on 267). Altogether, Black feminism is meant to recognize that Black women’s experiences with oppression sit at the intersection of race, class, and gender and act as an ideology / epistemology that advances women’s rights through activism.
Alice Walker is credited with coining the term womanist—meant to be an umbrella term to describe an approach to feminism that also centers the experiences of Black women and women of color—in 1983. Deriving from Black rural older women referring to young girls who take on adult mannerisms as acting “womanish,” like Black feminism it accounts for the experiences of Black women marginalized from the traditional feminist movement. While there is contention about whether one should identify as a Black feminist or Womanist, altogether womanism acts as a term that is inclusive due to its intersectional nature, its prioritization of the most marginalized, whether a Black feminist or a feminist of color, and its broader aspirations to be available to men and women.
Nonetheless, the term’s origins, like those of Black feminism, are steeped in US-based scholarship, and thus it has been criticized as not fully representative of the experiences of Black women in the diaspora. Accordingly, Clenora Hudson-Weems coined the term Africana womanism to describe the unique experiences of women of African descent grounded in “African culture.” She outlines eighteen items for the Africana womanist agenda: self-naming, self-definition, role flexibility, family-centeredness, struggling with males against oppression, adaptability, Black female sisterhood, wholeness, authenticity, strength, male compatibility, respect, recognition, respect for elders, ambition, mothering, nurturing, and spirituality. C. Hudson-Weems, Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, 3rd rev. ed. (1993; Troy, MI: Bedford Publishers, 1995).
Three key differences between Africana womanism and other feminisms are: first, it is family and community centered rather than female and self centered; second, it recognizes the role of spirituality in the lives of women—where the natural and the spiritual are intertwined; and third, it views sexism as superseding racism, rather than as intersecting. Similar to womanism and Black feminism it celebrates elders, generally. In addition, it recognizes that since women have always worked outside the home, dismantling gender roles as described by White feminism is not applicable, nor does it take a separatist approach but rather views women’s struggle as in alignment with men rather than in opposition.
As a Black-Ghanaian woman born and raised in Chicago—studying the experiences of Black women and girls across Ghana, South Africa, and North America—I take a Black feminist approach to understanding their constraints. That means I draw on the work of Black feminist writings that focus on the ways in which race, class, and gender interact rather than viewing them as separate. Indeed, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work emphasizes the multiple ways in which race and gender interact in the US context to marginalize the experiences of Black women, thus suggesting that it is impossible for a woman of color to separate one from the other. See K. Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1 (1989): art. 8, 139. The ways in which these identities interlock as multiple components of subordination help to explain why Black women have a different material reality and consciousness concerning that material reality—they interpret it differently than others. See also P. H. Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (New York: Routledge, 2002). Accordingly, when I say a school should be feminist, I am referring to the idea that schools should have values that address intersecting identities that both, separate and together, shape people’s lives. In addition, these liberatory practices and ideologies should also resist heteronormative hegemony and oppressive economic systems, but that is a topic I examine elsewhere.
26. See also S. A. Nuamah, “Achievement Oriented: Developing Positive Academic Identities for Girl Students at an Urban School,” American Educational Research Journal, in press; doi 0002831218782670.
27. M. Warrington, M. Younger, and J. Williams, “Student Attitudes, Image and the Gender Gap,” British Educational Research Journal 26, no. 3 (2000): 393–407.
28. Consider this in light of the fact that many times we privilege those who adhere to hegemonic notions of gender and sexual identification and yet develop no programs or mechanisms for those who sit at the margins.
29. “South Africa Has One of the World’s Worst Education Systems,” Economist, January 7, 2017.
30. Stats Ghana, “Education Statistics.” Ghana Statistical Service, 2012, http://
31. A few important notes about my approach to this research: I conduct most of this work using qualitative methods because they enable a human-centered investigation of the persons most central to this book, girls. As stated by the notable feminist scholar Patricia Hill Collins, “For ordinary African-American women, those individuals who have lived through the experiences about which they claim to be experts are more believable and credible than those who have merely read or thought about such experience” (P. H. Collins, “The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought,” Signs 14, no. 4 (1989): s745–s773, quotation on s759). My hope is that by centering the experiences of those who have lived through the events I write about, I can give credence to the claims of the book in a way that is authentic.
In addition, I examine girls across multiple contexts and age levels. Although this poses some empirical challenges, my goal here is to show how students can have consequential experiences as early as kindergarten and thus demonstrate why interventions must begin early as well.
32. In terms of key concepts and language, I define gender as a socially constructed way of assigning different social practices to men versus women. I define gender identity as a person’s independent decision to identify with one gender, both, or neither.
This book takes a female-centered approach to feminism. I focus on the female body as separate from one’s identity as a woman. This matters because it accounts for the fact that if I were a boy—if I appeared to be a male or was in a male body—there are certain privileges I would receive or experiences I would be more likely to be protected against, such as rape and sexual harassment.
My female body’s interaction with the environment requires a certain type of labor—meaning that there is work that that I have to do to limit the male gaze, threat of assault, or even death. For example, Black women are most likely to be killed by their male partners, 4.4 per 100,000 compared to 1 or 2 for other groups. See E. Petrosky, J. M. Blair, C. J. Betz, K. A. Fowler, S. P. Jack, and B. H. Lyons, “Racial and Ethnic Differences in Homicides of Adult Women and the Role of Intimate Partner Violence—United States, 2003–2014.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 66 (2017): 741–746. It is my view that the traditional female body is subjected to certain types of physical violence when traditional male bodies are not.
And yet, I do not believe that feminism has to be female centered. There can be multiple feminisms that do similar work in liberating people to be themselves, and there should be. Accordingly, even in those cases where I am referring to the female body, I recognize how the traditional gender binaries associated with policies related to the availability of bathrooms and its impact on menstruation, for example, can serve to exclude those who may not have been born with traditional female body parts.
33. Getting along in any society entails engaging in its practices, no matter how unfair or counter to what you believe, because it is simply inefficient to do otherwise. And so, we all partake as a rational strategy to survive. Acknowledging that the cultures from which we come constantly constrain us, I make no promises to be perfect.
1. “Zeneba” and all names of people and some places hereafter are pseudonyms.
2. “Kai” uses the pronouns they, them, their.
3. S. Prinsloo, “Sexual Harassment and Violence in South African Schools,” South African Journal of Education 26, no. 2 (2006), 305–318, quotation on 312.
4. A. S. Erulkar, L. I. Ettyang, C. Onoka, F. K. Nyagah, and A. Muyonga, “Behavior Change Evaluation of a Culturally Consistent Reproductive Health Program for Young Kenyans,” International Family Planning Perspectives 30, no. 2 (2004): 58–67.
5. K. Hallman, K. Govender, E. Roca, R. Pattman, E. Mbatha, and D. Bhana, “Enhancing Financial Literacy, HIV / AIDS Skills, and Safe Social Spaces among Vulnerable South African Youth,” Transitions to Adulthood Brief no. 4, Population Council, New York, September 2007, https://
6. J. Parkes, J. Heslop, S. Oando, S. Sabaa, F. Januario, and A. Figue, “Conceptualising Gender and Violence in Research: Insights from Studies in Schools and Communities in Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique,” International Journal of Educational Development 33, no. 6 (2013): 546–556.
7. W. Baldwin, “Creating ‘Safe Spaces’ for Adolescent Girls,” Transitions to Adulthood, Brief no. 39, Population Council, New York, May 2011, http://
8. E. B. Fiske and H. F. Ladd, Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004).
9. M. Nkomo, ed., Pedagogy of Domination: Toward a Democratic Education in South Africa (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1990).
10. N. Carrim, “Anti-racism and the ‘New’ South African Educational Order,” Cambridge Journal of Education 28, no. 3 (1998): 301–320.
11. Across Africa, single-sex schools have been associated historically with elitist origins and British colonial models dating back to the nineteenth century. Accordingly, they have generally attracted those from wealthier families seeking to segregate themselves or uphold traditional notions of masculinity or femininity.
12. For example, Pretoria High School for Girls, a public fee school in Pretoria, South Africa, founded in 1902, did not permit Black girls to attend until 1994. Unfortunately, even as the population in elite schools has grown more diverse, racist practices continue to inhibit girls’ achievement. In 2016, the school received global attention when its students protested the school’s discouragement of natural hairstyles, such as afros.
13. K. Truscott, Gender in Education (Johannesburg, South Africa: University of the Witwatersrand / NECC, 1994).
14. A. Wolpe, O. Quinlan, and L. Martinez, Gender Equity in Education: A Report by the Gender Equity Task Team (Pretoria: South Africa Department of Education, 1997).
15. P. Christie, The Right to Learn: The Struggle for Education in South Africa (Braamfontein, South Africa: Ravan Press, 1985); Carrim, “Anti-racism and the ‘New’ South African Educational Order.”
16. ONE, “Status of Women and Girls in South Africa 2015,” ONE Campaign, Washington, DC, August 2015, https://
17. World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report, 2016–2017 (Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2016), www3
18. “South Africa Has One of the World’s Worst Education Systems,” Economist, January 7, 2017.
19. ONE, “Status of Women and Girls.”
20. J. C. Streak, D. Yu, and S. Van der Berg, “Measuring Child Poverty in South Africa: Sensitivity to the Choice of Equivalence Scale and an Updated Profile,” Social Indicators Research 94, no. 2 (2009): 183–201.
21. K. Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241–1299, quote 1244.
22. E. Unterhalter, “What Is Equity in Education? Reflections from the Capability Approach,” Studies in Philosophy and Education 28, no. 5 (2009): 415–424.
23. F. Leach, M. Dunne, and F. Salvi, “School-Related Gender-Based Violence: A Global Review of Current Issues and Approaches in Policy, Programming and Implementation Responses to School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV) for the Education Sector,” UNESCO HIV and Health Education Clearinghouse, New York, January 21, 2014, https://
24. Human Rights Watch, “Scared at School: Sexual Violence against Girls at South African Schools,” March 2001, https://
25. The Education Foundation Trust, Edusource Data News 25 (March 1999): 15.
26. E. M. King and R. Winthrop, “Today’s Challenges for Girls’ Education,” Global Economy and Development Working Paper 90, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, June 2015, https://
27. M. Sommer and M. Sahin, “Overcoming the Taboo: Advancing the Global Agenda for Menstrual Hygiene Management for Schoolgirls,” American Journal of Public Health 103, no. 9 (2013): 1556–1559.
28. V. Reddy, T. L. Zuze, M. Visser, et al., Beyond Benchmarks: What Twenty Years of TIMSS Data Tell Us about South African Education (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2015).
29. J. Kirk and M. Sommer, “Menstruation and Body Awareness: Linking Girls’ Health with Girls’ Education,” Special on Gender and Health, Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam, 2006, https://
30. ONE, “Status of Women and Girls.”
31. S. Mashaba, “8% of Schoolgirls Are HIV Positive,” Sowetan Live, March 14, 2013, www
32. A. Case and C. Ardington, “The Impact of Parental Death on School Outcomes: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa,” Demography 43, no. 3 (2006): 401–420.
33. Prinsloo, “Sexual Harassment and Violence.”
34. For example, M. Jukes, S. Simmons, and D. Bundy, “Education and Vulnerability: The Role of Schools in Protecting Young Women and Girls from HIV in Southern Africa,” AIDS 22 (December 2008): S41–S56.
35. J. W. De Neve, G. Fink, S. V. Subramanian, S. Moyo, and J. Bor, “Length of Secondary Schooling and Risk of HIV Infection in Botswana: Evidence from a Natural Experiment,” Lancet Global Health 3, no. 8 (2015): e470–e477.
36. A. E. Pettifor, B. A. Levandowski, C. MacPhail, N. S. Padian, M. S. Cohen, and H. V. Rees, “Keep Them in School: The Importance of Education as a Protective Factor against HIV Infection among Young South African Women,” International Journal of Epidemiology 37, no. 6 (2008): 1266–1273.
37. See G. Frempong, M. Visser, N. Feza, L. Winnaar, and S. Nuamah, “Resilient Learners in Schools Serving Poor Communities,” Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology 14, no. 2 (2016): 352–367. This study was based on observations and interviews conducted at a half-dozen schools across South Africa in 2014. Each of the teachers included in the study had teaching experience ranging from three to twenty-six years and across subfields and grade levels (kindergarten through twelfth grade). The schools examined were selected for their ability to create spaces that enable their students to achieve equally, which I determined based on traditional measures such as passage rates as well as observational and interview data collected on achievement outcomes and attitudes. I ask about their challenges and successes to determine what works for transforming their most disadvantaged students, especially girls, into academically successful learners, thus creating the type of achievement-oriented identities poor students need to succeed.
38. V. Reddy, T. L. Zuze, M. Visser, et al., Beyond Benchmarks.
39. G. Ladson-Billings, “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” American Educational Research Journal, 32, no. 3 (1995): 465–491. According to Ladson-Billings, culturally relevant pedagogy must meet three criteria: “an ability to develop students academically, a willingness to nurture and support cultural competence, and the development of a sociopolitical or critical consciousness,” 474. See also G. Ladson-Billings, “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” Theory into Practice 34, no. 3 (1995): 159–165.
The claims in this book are consistent with that of culturally relevant pedagogy in that I uphold the importance of academic performance and the development of a critical consciousness. Furthermore, I similarly encourage students not to work within the current structure but rather to transform it.
I encourage a holistic approach to achievement that accounts for the burdens students carry versus the benefits they receive, particularly for low-income Black girls not only in the United States but across the globe. It’s not just about language or culture; it’s about sex, gender, and personhood—traits that even a culturally relevant school could easily ignore (See also D. Paris and H. S. Alim, “What Are We Seeking to Sustain through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy? A Loving Critique Forward,” Harvard Educational Review 84, no. 1 (2014): 85–100.
40. D. J. Flannery, K. L. Wester, and M. I. Singer, “Impact of Exposure to Violence in School on Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Behavior,” Journal of Community Psychology 32, no. 5 (2004): 559–573.
41. Trauma-informed schools recognize that traumatic stress from violence at home is often exacerbated by punitive school environments. See Flannery, Wester, and Singer, “Impact of Exposure to Violence in School on Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Behavior.” Accordingly, proponents of trauma-informed schools call for an educational structure that is responsive to these traumas at all levels. See S. F. Cole, A. Eisner, M. Gregory, and J. Ristuccia, Helping Traumatized Children Learn, vol. 2: Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools (Boston: Massachusetts Advocates for Children, 2013), http://
42. Robert Morrell, “Silence, Sexuality and HIV / AIDS in South African Schools,” Australian Educational Researcher 30, no. 1 (2003): 41–62, quote p. 44.
43. bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981), 1.
44. Multiple studies reveal differences in how girls experience trauma—“sexual abuse and assault, physical punishment, and psychological distress”—in interpersonal relationships, and differences in how they respond to trauma, including heightened stress, depression, and anxiety. J. Flocks, E. Calvin, S. Chriss, and M. Prado-Steiman, “The Case for Trauma-Informed, Gender-Specific Prevention / Early Intervention Programming in Reducing Female Juvenile Delinquency in Florida,” Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy 12, no. 1 (2017): 9; J. Riebschleger, A. Day, and A. Damashek, “Foster Care Youth Share Stories of Trauma Before, During, and After Placement: Youth Voices for Building Trauma-Informed Systems of Care,” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma 24, no. 4 (2015): 339–360. These reports, however, focus on juvenile justice centers or residential schools for court-involved youth. For an educational context, see M. McInerney and A. McKlindon, “Unlocking the Door to Learning: Trauma-Informed Classrooms and Transformational Schools,” Georgetown: Education Law Center, n.d., https://
45. To combat negative experiences and traumas, recent reports propose that trauma-informed education be not only culturally relevant but also gender specific. For example, a 2017 report on the topic in the United States gave the following recommendations:
See R. Epstein and T. González, Gender & Trauma: Somatic Interventions for Girls in Juvenile Justice: Implications for Policy and Practice (Washington, DC: Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2017), https://
Important resources in the United States include the Trauma-Informed Learning Network for Girls of Color in 2018 (http://
1. This name and all names of people and some places hereafter are pseudonyms.
2. In the 1980s, girls’ schools were deemed to be a central solution for improving issues such as confidence and sexual violence affecting girls. Many were founded in the United States and United Kingdom. Some studies suggest that same-sex schools provide a better academic environment, free of distractions, for both boys and girls than do co-educational schools, particularly in the realm of self-esteem and leadership. A. Datnow, L. Hubbard, and G. Q. Conchas, “How Context Mediates Policy: The Implementation of Single Gender Public Schooling in California,” Teachers College Record 103, no. 2 (2001): 184–206. On the other hand, studies on single-sex Catholic schools suggest that girls’ schools do not significantly contribute to the academic performance of girls nor do they reduce students’ exposure to stereotypical behavior. P. C. LePore and J. R. Warren, “A Comparison of Single-Sex and Coeducational Catholic Secondary Schooling: Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988,” American Educational Research Journal 34, no. 3 (1997): 485–511.
In one study, teachers at girls’ schools were perceived by the authors to be “talking down” to girls, thereby creating a less challenging educational experience. V. E. Lee and M. E. Lockheed, “Single-Sex Schooling and Its Effects on Nigerian Adolescents,” in Women and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. M. Bloch, J. Bekou-Betts, and R. Tabuchnick, 201–226. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1998. Additional studies documented that, unless a school was intentional about deconstructing gender stereotypes or creating a nonsexist environment, many of these schools practiced similarly sexist actions as co-educational schools but with fewer resources and less academic rigor. A. Proweller, Constructing Female Identities: Meaning Making in an Upper Middle-Class Youth Culture. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998; Datnow et al., “How Context Mediates Policy.” Single-sex schools thus seemed to further disadvantage girls rather than act as beacons of achievement.
By the 1990s, single-sex schools became less popular in the United States. Most that remained were Catholic schools, with their students representing only 1.5 percent of the total student population nationally. More recently, single-sex schools have been proposed and implemented as solutions for disadvantaged minorities. One successful example is the Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Chicago. A study conducted by the University of California–Los Angeles in 2009 used an annual freshman survey that included responses from 6,552 female graduates of 225 private single-sex high schools and 14,684 graduates from 1,169 private co-educational high schools. Results showed that girls at single-sex schools were more confident in math, scored higher on their SATs, and had more confidence in their computer skills. The findings suggest that today’s single-sex schools in the United States may contribute to better outcomes for girls. L. J. Sax, E. Arms, M. Woodruff, T. Riggers, and K. Eagan, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in Their Characteristics and the Transition to College (Los Angeles, CA: Sudikoff Family Institute for Education & New Media, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, 2009).
3. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954).
4. S. F. Reardon and A. Owens, “60 Years after Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation,” Annual Review of Sociology 40 (2014): 199–218.
5. L. Musu-Gillette, C. de Brey, J. McFarland, W. Hussar, W. Sonnenberg, and S. Wilkinson-Flicker, “Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2017,” NCES 2017-007, National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education, Washington DC, 2017, Figure 6.1 and Figure 4.1, respectively, https://
6. A. Spatig-Amerikaner, “Unequal Education: Federal Loophole Enables Lower Spending on Students of Color,” Center for American Progress, August 2012, Table 1, p. 4, https://
7. US Department of Education, “Working to Keep Schools and Communities Safe,” 2015, https://
8. M. Sadker and D. Sadker, Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls (New York: Touchstone, 1994); D. Tyack and E. Hansot, Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Schools (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990); J. C. Madigan, “The Education of Women and Girls in the United States: A Historical Perspective,” Advances in Gender and Education 1, no. 1 (2009): 11–13.
9. “Gender Equity in Education: A Data Snapshot,” Office of Civil Rights, US Department of Education, June 2012, pp. 1, 4, https://
10. Initiatives focused on girls have reemerged in recent years, particularly with the 2014 expansion of Title IX and the 2009 establishment of the White House Council on Women and Girls, led by Valerie Jarrett. These national developments have been followed by a number of policy and research initiatives on the topic at the state and local level, including the African American Policy Forum’s work on Black girls who are victims of gun violence, part of the #SayHerName campaign; and the creation of the women’s research collective, the Collaborative to Advance Equity Through Research, administered by the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University. Important studies have been written on school discipline—for example, M. W. Morris, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (New York: New Press, 2016)—and on predatory colleges—such as T. M. Cottom, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy (New York: New Press, 2017). In addition, the National Women’s Law Center and the Georgetown University Law Center developed surveys and reports on school-aged girls (A. Onyeka-Crawford, K. Patrick, and N. Chaudhry, “Let Her Learn: Stopping School Pushout for Girls of Color,” National Women’s Law Center, 2017, https://
11. L. Musu-Gillette, A. Zhang, K. Wang, J. Zhang, and B. A. Oudekerk, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2016” (NCES 2017-064 / NCJ 250650), National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice, Washington, DC, 2017, https://
12. M. Sickmund and C. Puzzanchera, eds., “Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report,” National Center for Juvenile Justice, Pittsburgh, December 2014, https://
13. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Statistical Briefing Book, Juvenile as Victims, School Crime Victimization, August 7, 2017, https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/victims/qa02201.asp?qaDate=2015.
14. For the National Women’s Law Center data, see N. Chaudry and J. Tucker, Let Her Learn: Overview and Key Findings (Washington, DC: National Womens Law Center, 2017), 3, https://
15. E. J. Meyer, Gender, Bullying, and Harassment: Strategies to End Sexism and Homophobia in Schools (New York: Teachers College Press, 2015), 71.
16. Meyer, Gender, Bullying, and Harassment, 71.
17. M. O’Shaughnessy, S. Russell, K. Heck, C. Calhoun, and C. Laub, “Safe Place to Learn: Consequences of Harassment Based on Actual or Perceived Sexual Orientation and Gender Non-Conformity and Steps for Making Schools Safer,” California Safe Schools Coalition & 4-H Center for Youth Development, University of California, Davis, January 2004, http://
18. N. P. Stromquist, “The Gender Socialization Process in Schools: A Cross-National Comparison.” Background Paper Prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008 (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 2007), http://
19. C. Skelton, “Boys and Girls in the Elementary School,” in The Sage Handbook of Gender and Education, ed. C. Skelton, B. Francis, and L. Smulyan, 139–151 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006).
20. Deborah Youdell, “Sex–Gender–Sexuality: How Sex, Gender and Sexuality Constellations Are Constituted in Secondary Schools,” Gender and Education 17, no. 3 (2005): 249–270, 268.
21. E. J. Ozer and R. S. Weinstein, “Urban Adolescents’ Exposure to Community Violence: The Role of Support, School Safety, and Social Constraints in a School-Based Sample of Boys and Girls,” Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 33, no. 3 (2004): 463–476.
22. B. E. Hamilton and T. J. Mathews, “Continued Declines in Teen Births in the United States, 2015,” NCHS Data Brief No. 259, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville MD, September 2016, https://
23. M. V. Harris-Perry, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011); S. J. Ventura, S. C. Curtin, J. C. Abma, and S. K. Henshaw, “Estimated Pregnancy Rates and Rates of Pregnancy Outcomes for the United States, 1990–2008,” National Vital Statistics Reports 60, no. 7 (2012): 1–21.
24. F. M. Biro, M. P. Galvez, L. C. Greenspan, et al., “Pubertal Assessment Method and Baseline Characteristics in a Mixed Longitudinal Study of Girls,” Pediatrics 126, no. 3 (2010): e583–e590; A. Kale, J. Deardorff, M. Lahiff, et al., “Breastfeeding versus Formula-Feeding and Girls’ Pubertal Development,” Maternal and Child Health Journal 19, no. 3 (2015): 519–527.
25. Morris, Pushout, 13.
26. J. A. Abrams, M. Maxwell, M. Pope, and F. Z. Belgrave, “Carrying the World with the Grace of a Lady and the Grit of a Warrior: Deepening Our Understanding of the ‘Strong Black Woman’ Schema,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 38, no. 4 (2014): 503–518. Some studies suggest that multiple jeopardy builds their resilience (D. R. King, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” in Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought, ed. B. Guy-Sheftall, 293–318 (New York: New Press, 1995); V. Evans-Winters, Teaching Black Girls: Resiliency in Urban Classrooms (New York: Peter Lang, 2005), thereby highlighting the agency Black girls are able to achieve even as they deal with systemic racism, classism, and sexism.
27. S. Fordham, “Those Loud Black Girls: (Black) Women, Silence, and Passing in the Academy,” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30, no. 3 (1993): 272–293; A. Henry, “Complacent and Womanish: Girls Negotiating Their Lives in an African Centered School in the U.S.,” Race, Ethnicity and Education 1, no. 2 (1998): 151–170; M. W. Morris, “Race, Gender, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Expanding Our Discussion to Include Black Girls” African American Policy Forum, September 2012, http://
28. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Understanding School Violence: 2016 Fact Sheet,” 2016, https://
29. S. Joe, R. S. Baser, H. W. Neighbors, C. H. Caldwell, and J. S. Jackson, “12-Month and Lifetime Prevalence of Suicide Attempts among Black Adolescents in the National Survey of American Life,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 48, no. 3 (2009): 271–282.
30. M. Anderson and K. Cardoza, “Mental Health in Schools: A Hidden Crisis Affecting Millions of Students,” NPR Ed, August 31, 2016, http://
31. Epstein, Blake, and González, “Girlhood Interrupted.”
32. Morris, Pushout.
33. D. J. Losen and R. J. Skiba, “Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis,” Report, Southern Poverty Law Center, September 13, 2010, https://
34. “Data Snapshot: School Discipline,” Civil Rights Data Collection, Issue Brief no. 1, Office of Civil Rights, US Department of Education, March 21, 2014, https://
35. Musu-Gillette et al., “Status and Trends.”
36. K. W. Crenshaw, with P. Ocen and J. Nanda, “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected,” African American Policy Forum and Columbia Law School Center for Intersectionality and Policy Studies, 2015, https://
37. Epstein, Blake, and González, “Girlhood Interrupted,” 7.
38. Epstein, Blake, and González, “Girlhood Interrupted,” 8.
39. K. Kay and C. Shipman, “The Confidence Gap,” The Atlantic, May 2014, 1–18.
40. Womanism, a term first used by Alice Walker in 1983, is a theory and movement that presents an alternative and expansion of the term feminism with regard to Black women. It is meant to acknowledge sexism in male-centered racial justice movements and ideology, and racism in White middle-class feminist movements and ideology by centering the issues of race, gender, and class.
41. The school’s version is adapted from I’m Coming Out by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, performed originally by Diana Ross.
42. S. L. Beilock, E. A. Gunderson, G. Ramirez, and S. C. Levine, “Female Teachers’ Math Anxiety Affects Girls’ Math Achievement,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107, no. 4 (2010): 1860–1863. It is important to note that close to 90 percent of teachers in the United States are female and have been shown to have high levels of math anxiety. R. Hembree, “The Nature, Effects, and Relief of Mathematics Anxiety,” Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 21 (1990): 33–46.
43. This is not the actual name of the curriculum. The name is changed for privacy purposes.
44. While the various efforts at Teele Elementary have resulted in achievement-oriented identities and academic excellence for its students, I wonder if these same tactics would work for girl students in a co-ed environment. Indeed, the parents, teachers, and administrators I interviewed described the all-girls setting as beneficial for developing the type of environment critical for helping girls achieve. It is difficult to gauge what the results would be if a co-ed institution in the United States adopted these same practices. There is not a comparable institution that I know of. For more about same-sex schools in the United States, see note 2 in this chapter.
45. An important caveat: an all-girls school is not necessarily available to all girls. Teele Elementary, for example, is a relatively small school, which means that the demand for placement at this school far outpaces its capacity. Students are essentially selected on a lottery system unless they have a sibling who already attends the institution. Preference is provided to homeless students, students with special needs, and those who live in the neighborhood, thereby eliminating many of the weed-out tactics charters are criticized for. Furthermore, the school runs completely on the public dollar rather than outside philanthropy.
46. Morris, Pushout.
47. E. Baylor, “The Unlikely Area in Which For-Profit Colleges Are Doing Just Fine,” Center for American Progress, November 29, 2016, https://
48. Cottom, Lower Ed.
49. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity, 2015,” BLS Reports no. 1062, September 2016, https://
50. T. J. Matthews, D. M. Ely, and A. K. Driscoll, “State Variations in Infant Mortality by Race and Hispanic Origin of Mother, 2013–2015,” NCHS Data Brief No. 295, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville MD, January 2018, https://
51. E. Petrosky, J. M. Blair, C. J. Betz, et al., “Racial and Ethnic Differences in Homicides of Adult Women and the Role of Intimate Partner Violence—United States, 2003–2014,” MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 66, no. 28 (July 21, 2017), 741–746, https://
1. This name and all names of people and places hereafter are pseudonyms.
2. While this chapter will use the case of Ghana to document several examples of girls like Ama persisting through challenges with the help of achievement-oriented identities, AOIs do not seek to perpetuate narratives of girls as resilient. Instead, AOIs seek to do the opposite by putting the onus not on a student’s individual capacity to persist, but rather on the school’s deliberate and intentional actions. In other words, a student’s success or failure at a task reflects only the support provided by the school, not the student’s inherent or independently learned abilities.
3. L. J. Griffin and K. L. Alexander, “Schooling and Socioeconomic Attainments: High School and College Influences,” American Journal of Sociology 84, no. 2 (1978): 319–347; S. Raudenbush and A. S. Bryk, “A Hierarchical Model for Studying School,” Sociology of Education 59, no. 1 (1986): 1–17. I define noncognitive skills as including any trait, quality, characteristic, or factor which can contribute to academic achievement but that is traditionally left unmeasured on standardized exams. Scholars acknowledge the false dichotomy associated with pitting the two against one another: “Few aspects of human behavior are devoid of cognition.” L. Borghans, A. L. Duckworth, J. J. Heckman, and B. Ter Weel, “The Economics and Psychology of Personality Traits,” Journal of Human Resources 43, no. 4 (2008): 972–1059, 974.
4. G. J. S. Dei, “Education and Socialization in Ghana,” Creative Education 2, no. 2 (2011): 96–105; C. Dweck, G. M. Walton, and G. L. Cohen, “Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills That Promote Long-Term Learning,” Report, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, 2014, http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/download/?Num=2807&filename=30-Academic-Tenacity.pdf.
5. G. Frempong, “Equity and Quality Mathematics Education within Schools: Findings from TIMSS Data for Ghana,” African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 14, no. 3 (2010): 50–62.
In a study on same-sex schools in Ghana, researchers analyzed the relationship between confidence and anxiety on achievement for boys and girls in single-sex and co-educational schools. The study included 1,419 students across twelve secondary schools in the central and western region of Ghana. It revealed that girls in co-educational schools report high levels of anxiety and low levels of confidence in their ability to do math compared with girls in single-sex schools. Specifically, 51.7 percent of girls at co-educational schools expressed confident attitudes toward mathematics compared with 84 percent in single-sex schools—a difference of more than thirty percentage points. While boys in single-sex schools also expressed higher levels of confidence compared with boys at co-educational schools, the difference was smaller, at about ten percentage points. In short, single-sex schools in Ghana acted as important spaces for building girls’ confidence in math. B. Eshun, “Sex-Differences in Attitude of Students towards Mathematics in Secondary Schools,” Mathematics Connection 4, no. 1 (2004): 1–13. Another study (V. E. Lee and M. E. Lockheed, “Single-Sex Schooling and Its Effects on Nigerian Adolescents,” in Women and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. M. Bloch, J. Bekou-Betts, and R. Tabuchnick, 201–226. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1998) found that girls in Nigeria perform better in math in single-sex schools than in co-educational schools. They also participate more in class and are more likely to take on careers in math and science. S. Y. Erinosho, “The Making of Nigerian Women Scientists and Technologists.” Journal of Career Development 24, no. 1 (1997): 71–80. Nonetheless, it is unclear that there must be a single-sex setting for these positive outcomes to occur. It is more likely the case that the practices of the school, whether single sex or co-educational, must enable these positive behaviors.
6. M. Frye, “Bright Futures in Malawi’s New Dawn: Educational Aspirations as Assertions of Identity,” American Journal of Sociology 117, no. 6 (2012): 1565–1624.
7. K. Akyeampong, “Public-Private Partnership in the Provision of Basic Education in Ghana: Challenges and Choices,” Compare 39, no. 2 (2009): 135–149.
8. This number changes significantly once we account for the rural areas and the northern region of the country, albeit to a much smaller degree at the primary level than at any other level of education. For more information, see Ghana Statistical Service’s (2006) Education Statistics website at www
9. A 2017 policy from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) seeks to address the concern about extra fees in public schools, but its impact is unclear.
10. N. Assié-Lumumba, “Empowerment of Women in Higher Education in Africa: The Role and Mission of Research,” UNESCO Forum on Education, Research and Knowledge, Occasional Paper no. 11, UNESCO, Paris, June 2006, http://
11. H. Alderman and E. M. King, “Gender Differences in Parental Investment in Education,” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 9, no. 4 (1998): 453–468.
12. A. Stambach, Lessons from Mount Kilimanjaro: Schooling, Community, and Gender in East Africa (New York: Routledge, 2000).
13. See E. Cooke, S. Hague, and A. McKay, “The Ghana Poverty and Inequality Report,” UNICEF, 2016, https://
14. The following specific actions were implemented. The school:
15. G. J. S. Dei, “Learning Culture, Spirituality and Local Knowledge: Implications for African Schooling,” International Review of Education 48, no. 5 (2002): 335–360.
16. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “Girls Education—The Facts,” Fact Sheet, Education for All Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO, October 2013, http://
1. See, for example, “How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report,” commissioned by the AAUW Educational Foundation, researched by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, American Association of University Women, 1992. Parts of the report available at https://
2. “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” 3.
3. “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” 19.
4. “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” 9.
5. “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” 9.
6. “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” 47–48.
7. P. Orenstein, Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap (New York: Doubleday, 1994). See also M. Sadker and D. Sadker, Failing at Fairness: How America’s Schools Cheat Girls (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994).
8. “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” 19–21.
9. See, for example, T. R. Buckley and R. T. Carter, “Black Adolescent Girls: Do Gender Role and Racial Identity Impact Their Self-Esteem?” Sex Roles 53, no. 9 (2005): 647–661.
10. C. Riegle-Crumb, C. Moore, and A. Ramos-Wada, “Who Wants to Have a Career in Science or Math? Exploring Adolescents’ Future Aspirations by Gender and Race / Ethnicity,” Science Education 95, no. 3 (2011): 458–476. The same applies to the achievement levels of Black and Hispanic males in math and science.
11. “How Schools Shortchange Girls.” See also R. Epstein, J. Blake, and T. González, “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood,” Center on Poverty and Inequality, Georgetown Law, Washington DC, 2017, https://
12. K. O. Asante, “Sex Differences in Mathematics Performance among Senior High Students in Ghana,” Gender and Behaviour 8, no. 2 (2010): 3279–3289.
13. J. I. Nyala, “Sex-Differences in Attitude towards Mathematics of Junior High School Students in Ghana,” Edo Journal of Counselling 1, no. 1 (2008): 137–161.
14. E. Ampadu, “Beliefs, Attitudes and Self-Confidence in Learning Mathematics among Basic School Students in the Central Region of Ghana,” Mathematics Connection 8, no. 1 (2009): 45–56; L. Kyei, B. Apam, and K. S. Nokoe, “Some Gender Differences in Performance in Senior High Mathematics Examinations in Mixed High Schools,” American Journal of Social and Management Science 2, no. 4 (2011): 348–355.
15. G. K. Agbley, “ ‘My Brother Says Girls Don’t Do Mathematics’: Girls’ Educational Experiences and Secondary School Programme Choices in Ghana,” UDS International Journal of Development 2, no. 1 (2015): 206–221.
16. Kay and Shipman, “Confidence Gap.”
17. See J. Ehrlinger and D. Dunning, “How Chronic Self-Views Influence (and Potentially Mislead) Estimates of Performance,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, no. 1 (2003): 5–17; E. Reuben, P. Rey-Biel, P. Sapienza, and L. Zingales, “The Emergence of Male Leadership in Competitive Environments,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 83, no. 1 (June 2012): 111–117.
18. Kay and Shipman, “Confidence Gap.” See also C. Anderson, S. Brion, D. A. Moore, and J. A. Kennedy, “A Status-Enhancement Account of Overconfidence,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103, no. 4 (2012): 718–735.
19. G. E. Miller, T. Yu, E. Chen, and G. H. Brody, “Self-Control Forecasts Better Psychosocial Outcomes but Faster Epigenetic Aging in Low-SES Youth.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 33 (2015): 10325–10330.
20. The only year in which Ghana, South Africa, and the United States participated in TIMSS was 2011. The best data was available for eighth-grade math scores. Unless otherwise noted, each figure included in this chapter represents eighth-grade math scores.
21. In the analysis on Ghana, I do not make a distinction regarding race, as over 90 percent of the population is Black.
22. TIMSS has a two-stage design in which schools are sampled in the first stage, and then two classrooms are sampled from within each of the selected schools in the second stage.
23. Responses to questions are analyzed by socioeconomic characteristics at the individual and school / neighborhood level in addition to race and gender. Parental education and income, as well as the percentage of the school’s students that is affluent versus economically disadvantaged, is also considered. These factors are examined in relation to self-concept questions and how they impact the average score in math and science, which was determined by TIMSS with the use of item response theory. Multivariate regressions were conducted for statistical significance. Students’ responses are gauged based on how much they agree with the following statements:
24. Coincidentally, the number of private schools in Ghana increased by 36 percent between 2005 and 2008 (C. Sakellariou, “Decomposing the Increase in TIMSS Scores in Ghana: 2003–2007,” Policy Working Research Paper no. 6084, Human Development Network Education Unit, World Bank, June 2012, http://
25. See G. Frempong, M. Visser, N. Feza, L. Winnaar, and S. Nuamah, “Resilient Learners in Schools Serving Poor Communities,” Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology 14, no. 2 (2016): 352–367.
26. A. Ginsburg, G. Cooke, S. Leinwand, J. Noell, and E. Pollock, “Reassessing US International Mathematics Performance: New Findings from the 2003 TIMSS and PISA,” American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC, November 2005, www
27. J. S. Hyde and J. E. Mertz, “Gender, Culture, and Mathematics Performance,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 22 (2009): 8801–8807.
28. See, for example, L. Guiso, F. Monte, P. Sapienza, and L. Zingales, “Culture, Gender, and Math,” Science 320, no. 5880 (2008): 1164–1165.
29. According to the data in 2011, in eighth grade, Black girls and boys who attend a school in which more than 50 percent of the students are disadvantaged have an average math score of 454, while Hispanics have an average score of 472, Whites an average score of 512, and Asians an average score of 534. Altogether, disadvantaged Black students score 18 points lower than Hispanics, 66 points lower than Whites, and 80 points lower than Asians. In other words, Black boys and girls clearly have the lowest math scores.
30. For this group, there was a 24 percent increase in students scoring above 400, up from 10 percent to 34 percent.
31. G. Frempong, “Equity and Quality Mathematics Education within Schools: Findings from TIMSS Data for Ghana,” African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 14, no. 3 (2010): 50–62.
32. J. Seekings and N. Nattrass, Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).
33. S. F. Reardon, E. M. Fahle, D. Kalogrides, A. Podolsky, and R. C. Zarate, “Gender Achievement Gaps in US School Districts,” CEPA Working Paper No. 18-13, Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University, June 2018, https://
34. Miller, Yu, Chen, and Brody, “Self-Control Forecasts Better Psychosocial Outcomes.”
1. Plan International, “The State of Gender Equality for US Adolescents: Full Research Findings from a National Survey of Adolescents,” Perry Undem Research / Communication, September 12, 2018, https://
2. A. Onyeka-Crawford, K. Patrick, and N. Chaudhry, “Let Her Learn: Stopping School Pushout for Girls of Color,” National Women’s Law Center, 2017, https://
3. “Ghanaians Fume as Otiko Tells Girls Not to Attract Rapists with Short Skirts,” Citi 97.3 FM, Citi Newsroom, March 26, 2017, http://
4. Women’s March, “The March,” 2017, https://
5. According to Myra Ferree, a women’s movement has to do with the constituency that is organizing as an interest group but does not imply that the actions they are taking are connected to gender, thus “many mobilizations of women as women start out with a non-gender-directed goal, such as peace … and only later develop an interest in changing gender relations … Activism for the purpose of changing women’s subordination to men is what defines ‘feminism.’ ” See M. Ferree, “Globalization and Feminism,” Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights, ed. M. M. Ferree and A. M. Tripp. New York: NYU Press, 2006, quotation on p. 6.
6. A. M. Tripp, “Challenges in Transnational Feminist Mobilization,” in Ferree and Tripp, eds., Global Feminism.
7. M. V. Harris-Perry, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).
8. S. A. Nuamah, “Achievement Oriented: Developing Positive Academic Identities for Girl Students at an Urban School,” American Educational Research Journal, June 2018, doi: 0002831218782670.
9. S. A. Nuamah, “Closing the Gap, Widening the Net,” Chicago United, CID Talks, 2013, https://