As I continue to draft my notes for this newsletter on gender and math (pray for me), it is really amazing to see just how many depthful 2005-onward pieces were published by researchers in achievement refuting Larry Summers' statements of that year, and how little they've remained in popular consciousness vs his remarks
@grimalkina
Considering Larry Summers just got kicked out of the warmth for being very icky in some of the released Epstein emails, this seems like a very opportune moment to write about people who disproved his prejudices.
Though, the way these things go there's probably a backlash coming.
@tobychev that's what I thought too. Topic is evergreen but also very now. Mostly I feel a sense of responsibility to try to say what I think with the privilege of my degrees so those with less protection than I have can point to it
@grimalkina
Good luck with finishing the draft!
But don't feel too stressed about it, arguably all these people who made the work you are citing are further up the chain of responsibility :)
@grimalkina@mastodon.social Is this newsletter a thing that people can sign up for?
@mavnn should have linked it in the first post not the last I'm so bad at remembering to promote it, but absolutely!
In the 20 years since (wow), mountains of new work are available of course. But how interesting to go back. I have been poring over work from several timepoints:
-2005
-2011
-2025
Almost feels like, too narratively neat, but sometimes these things at scale really feel very patterned
2008: a truly impressive meta analysis came out using data from NCLB and more than seven *million* learners across ten states looked at gender and math. It was directly inspired, according to the lead author, to put Summers' argument to the scientific test with fresh empirical data.
Did you ever hear about it? Do you know that author's name?
You will at FFTH after I complete this research dive 🤓
