Amongst the extensive research conducted about girls’ lack of interest in STEM subjects, an issue that is frequently examined is the learning of mathematics. This research investigates the gender gap in mathematics among Italian students based on performance levels, using standardised large-scale data from INVALSI tests. We performed a quantile regression to better understand the differences along the entire score distribution. A latent class model was then estimated to identify groups of students with similar performance levels, taking into account the gender covariate. The results indicate that boys are already ahead from primary education and that there is a general decrease in the performance as students progress through the education stages.

在有关女孩对STEM学科缺乏兴趣的广泛研究中，经常研究的一个问题是数学的学习。这项研究使用INVALSI测试的标准化大规模数据，根据成绩水平调查了意大利学生在数学上的性别差距。我们进行了分位数回归，以更好地理解整个分数分布的差异。然后，根据性别协变量，估计出一个潜在的班级模型来识别表现水平相似的学生群体。结果表明，男孩已经在小学教育方面领先，而且随着学生在整个教育阶段的进步，他们的表现普遍下降。