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!