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The Impact of Tutor Gender Match on Girls’ STEM Interest, Engagement, and Performance

Principal Investigator

Carly Robinson – Brown University

Project Description

This RCT examined the impact of assigning high school students to same-gender math tutors on students’ STEM interest, tutoring session attendance, school absences, end-of-year tutoring administered Skills Assessment scores, and earning a math grade of C- or above. Across five high schools participating in a tutoring program for ninth grade students, a total of 422 students in tutoring blocks ranging from one to three students were randomly assigned to receive tutoring with a female or male tutor. Though intended to all be offered in-person, tutoring was offered virtually at three schools and in-person at two.

Research Questions

  • What is the impact of assigning high school students to same-gender math tutors on students’ STEM beliefs, attendance, and math performance?

Key Findings

The researchers found that same-gender tutoring has impacts on girl students’ STEM interest and math achievement, and has no impacts for boy students. In an intent-to-treat analysis, girls assigned to female tutors had higher interest in STEM (.73 SD) and math achievement (a 3.8 percentage point difference in receiving a C- or better) than girls assigned to male tutors, while a treatment-on-the-treated analysis found a .98 SD increase in STEM interest and 4.5 percentage point increase in earning a C- or better. The positive impact of female tutors was mostly driven by in-person tutoring, which may be a function of school-level factors, given that modality was not randomly assigned. There were no impacts on Skills Assessment scores or attendance for girls, and no impacts for any outcomes for boys.

Study Citation

Bleiberg, J., Robinson, C. D., Bennett, E., & Loeb, S. (2025). The impact of tutor gender match on girls’ STEM interest, engagement, and performance. EdWorkingPaper. Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://doi.org/10.26300/n6xz-cs89

The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.

Publication
Year

2025

Status

Completed

Study Type

RCT

Grantee

National Student Support Accelerator

Full Report
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