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The present paper concerns the gender gap in pursuing mathematics at high stakes matriculation exams in Poland. Results of the optional Extended Exam in Mathematics (EEM) serve as the main criterion in entering tertiary education in majority of technical and engineering majors and, therefore, the exam works as an important filter for future career paths. We investigate whether the wide, gross difference between men and women in the propensity to take EEM can be mostly explained by an underlying skill difference, school effects, or other non-cognitive factors. We also test a skill immunization hypothesis which predicts that the gender gap declines at higher levels of mathematical skill. For those purposes we use official data from the 2016 matriculation exams covering the complete cohort of a quarter of a million students in more than 5000 schools. The results show that with skill and school effects roughly held constant, women are still much less likely to take EEM and the gender gap does not narrow on the upper tail of performance in mathematics. Furthermore, higher verbal skill draws women away from pursuing mathematics more strongly than it draws away men. These combined results imply that non-cognitive factors play a key role in self-selection processes and that STEM majors are at higher risk of losing mathematically gifted women than mathematically gifted men. Keywords Mathematics. Exit exams. Skill. Gender gap. STEM. High school. Poland. School effect Although women constitute the majority of students in many countries, their presence in technology and engineering is relatively low (Cheryan 2012). Poland is not an exception. The share of women in universities in 2015 was 68% whereas in technical universities it was just 36%. The distribution between majors was even more unbalanced; for example, 87% of students in computer sciences were men. The critical filter for entering science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) majors is mathematics (Sells 1980; Watt et al. 2017). This implies that the gender gap in STEM is at least partly a derivative of the gender gap in pursuing mathematics. Many studies show that this gap has an attitudinal basis and cannot be entirely attributed to skill differences. Researchers link it particularly with a complex psychological syndrome consisting of lower mathematics self-esteem, worries about failure, mathematics anxiety and stereotype threat. It has been argued that those factors, at least to some extent, mediate women's avoidance of entering mathematics-oriented majors (

Abstract. The present research investigates gender gaps in the results of secondary school exit exams (Matura) in mathematics in Poland in 2015. The analysis shows that, in the basic level exam, males are highly overrepresented at the upper end of the score distribution. The same pattern did not exist in the extended-level Matura. Two explanations are offered here. The differences are driven by gender self-selection in high school programs. Students who decide on maths-related tracks have more maths lessons than other students. Secondly, a student who takes the extended Matura also has to take the basic Matura exam. As a result, the population of students taking the basic Matura is highly differentiated in terms of maths competence and motivation. Additionally, the analysis of differential item functioning (DIF) shows that only a few items were flagged as having DIF.Keywords: maths, gender, Poland, Matura, DIF, Mantel-Haenszel.School tests are expected to properly reflect the levels of skills of the students taking them. Students who have the same abilities should have the same chances to give the correct answers to test questions, regardless of sex, skin colour, or social background. However, in reality there are many factors which may potentially interfere with test results. Some of them concern the student, his/her mood, motivation, and pre-examination stress levels, as well as the construction of the test itself. This last includes the choice of questions, their format, or the the effect of teachers through different teachers making differing assessments of the same answers (Pokropek, Jakubowski 2009). The necessity to preserve the high quality of the didactic measurement is especially important in relation to high-stakes teststhat is, those which have a crucial impact on the next stage of education. In the Polish system of education, Matura is such an examination. Its results determine the chances of continuing an education in tertiary institutions, and indirectly influence the future professional career. It is obvious that this will be the case, based on the assumption that Matura results are a good

Educational decision makers willingly draw on solutions adopted in other countries. It was also the case in Polish educational reform started in late 90s. Since the introduction of the reform, Poland joined countries whose educational system is divided into three levels, each ending with an exit exams and core curriculum is set to teaching standards. The exams seem to be the most important element of the Polish reform. While the designers of educational policies are often inspired by the experiences of other countries during the planning phase, they are less willing to learn from them when it comes to predicting outcomes of the reform. A good case to analyze potential consequences of high-stakes testing is United States, where standardized tests have been administered since the beginning of the era of mass education. In this paper I will analyze the effects of the last, most controversial federal reform, commonly known as No Child Left Behind introduced in 2002. Findings of the study might be used to predict potential unintended effects of using the high stakes tests for accountability policy. The article addresses the problem of test scores inflation as well as the factors which may accelerate it.

WstępWiele wskaźników służących do opisu rozwoju gospodarczego, efektywności rynku pracy czy inwestycji infrastrukturalnych wskazuje na istnienie zróżnicowania między regionami Polski. W społecznej świado-mości wyraża się to podziałem na bogatszą Polskę A i biedniejszy wschód -Polskę B lub "ścianę wschodnią". Ta ostatnia kojarzona jest z większym tradycjonalizmem, mniejszą zaradnością mieszkańców, a czasem nawet zacofaniem. Jednocześnie istnieje grupa wskaźników, w których to właśnie wschodnia część kraju wypada lepiej. Dotyczą one przede wszystkim pozaekonomicznych wymiarów jakości życia: niższego poziomu przestępczości, długości trwania życia czy niższego odsetka rozwodów. Niektóre z tych podziałów ukształtowały się w ostatnich dekadach, inne natomiast stanowią kontynuację tradycji powstałych w okresie zaborów lub jeszcze wcześniej. Efektem długiego trwania wyjaśnia się na przykład przestrzenne zróżni-cowanie współczesnych zachowań i preferencji wyborczych [Zarycki 1996;Bartkowski 2003;Łukowski, Sadowski 2013], integracji społecznej czy zróżnicowanego poziomu przedsiębiorczości. Odniesieniami do tradycji historycznych wyjaśnia się również obserwowane współcześnie zróżnico-wanie poziomu wykształcenia Polaków [Dzięcioł-Kurczoba 2015;Herbst 2007]. Dotychczasowe badania konsekwentnie pokazują, że mieszkańcy województw wschodnich, jeśli wyrażać to odsetkiem osób z wykształce-niem wyższym, są słabiej wykształceni w porównaniu z mieszkańcami zachodniej części kraju [Herbst 2007]. Do odmiennych wniosków prowadzą natomiast analizy wyników egzaminów zewnętrznych. Wyniki testów przeprowadzanych pod koniec każdego progu szkolnego pozwalają stwierdzić,