The high school gender gap in 6 charts
Boys are way behind on GPA, not so much on SAT
Over at AIBM, Ben Smith and I just published a research brief on gender gaps in high school. We look at GPA using government data (HSLS), and conduct a new analysis of the SAT with data kindly provided to us by the College Board. Here’s the basic story in six charts:
1. Girls leave boys in the dust on GPA…
Boys account for only 1 in 3 of the top decile of students ranked by GPA, but 2 in 3 of those at the bottom:
2…In every subject area
The gender gap in GPA is remarkably consistent across subject areas. The female advantage is a little bit less in Math, where girls account for 61% of the top decile, than in English (69%). But in general the pattern holds across different subjects, even including CTE:
3. On the SAT, there are “males at the tails”
Our new decile analysis of the SAT data reveals an interesting pattern. Here boys are slightly overrepresented at both the top and the bottom of the distribution accounting for 57% of the top decile of scorers, and 56% of the lowest:
4. Boys do better on the math section of SAT…
The overall SAT score disguises some differences by gender on the different parts of the test. All of the male advantage on the overall test is explained by boys’ better performance on the math section, where they account for 61% of the top scorers. Note that even here, however, boys are also slightly overrepresented in the bottom decile (53%):
5….but not on the Verbal section
But on the verbal section, boys and girls are equally represented in the top decile, while there is again a higher share of boys (57%) in the bottom ten percent:
6. Boys are less likely to take AP exams
A different paper by April Bleske-Rechek, also recently published, breaks down AP exams by gender and race. She shows that girls are much more likely than boys to take AP exams:
She also shows that boys who do take AP exams often do slightly better on them. This could be a selection effect, but it suggests that it might be worth encouraging more boys to take these tests.
High schools are not boy-friendly enough
These gender gaps should be a cause for concern for policymakers at all levels. High schools are not serving our boys well enough. There are also implications for how colleges look at prospective students, too. As Ben and I conclude:
The reasons for these gaps are widely debated. Some scholars point to selection effects driving differences in SAT scores, while others highlight the role of ‘non-cognitive factors‘ or teacher bias in shaping GPA differences. It’s likely that these patterns result from a complex combination of biological, family, and school-related factors. Even if the exact causes remain uncertain, these differences matter.
They shed important light on the impact of different college admissions policies, for example: recent studies have found that moving to a test-optional approach increases female enrollment and reduces male enrollment. More broadly, academic performance shapes future opportunities, in terms of both college and career.
Do check out our brief, and the other related work over at AIBM. And if you want to make sure not to miss any of our research or commentary, be sure to sign up for our newsletter too!
You cannot understand the discrepancies in school outcomes between boys and girls until you understand the discrepancies in the ways they are treated. Boys are literally under siege in a school system that has been specifically tailored to meet the needs of girls. Worse still, the boys are called toxic and blamed for the ills of the world. How can expect anyone to excel under such conditions. Boys are under siege https://menaregood.substack.com/p/boys-under-siege
This research is vitally important for the future of academia as well as for the social implications inherent in gaining unwanted educational gaps at the upper and lower end of the scale. Due to gender differences it has always been the case that on the whole girls are better than boys at self expression, especially verbally. There has always been this predominance particularly in emotional self expression. Boys and girls do not respond identically to the same teaching methods. In what we call in Britain ‘Public Schools’, that are generally paid for by wealthy parents and are very far from public, the problem of under achieving males as compared to females does not seem to exist. Why, because most of these schools are single sex with the boys schools mostly employing male teachers and the girls female teachers. Why does this make a difference? Because of a naturally occurring method of teaching and requirements as to anticipated results. Not a conscious bias at all. Females want to see active participants in class and a good understanding of what is being taught, facilitated by the pupils. Girls answer verbal questions mostly readily, boys do not as a rule.
Male teachers tend to have to force or coax answers from their adolescent classes to teach them to respond so as to engage them more readily in future teaching. The methods of teaching are different. Boys are taught to be tough at these public schools and to participate in the sort of sports that most females don’t join into. They are also taught that participation is essential in all aspects of school life.
There are vast differences in the psychology that is useful in teaching male and female students and this should be addressed if any improvement in male rates of college attendance is to become equal in numbers to female attendees.
I have taught both male and female students together in a non academic setting. Boys don’t participate easily for two reasons. One. Usually a girl had her hand up first to answer anyhow and secondly, boys don’t want to look foolish if their answer is wrong. Again, different types of reactions in mixed sex classrooms amongst adolescent students. At the stage when it all seems to start going wrong.So, more male teachers would be a good start.