Study: Boy Crisis in Schools Untrue

In what's being called the most comprehensive analysis to date of gender-based educational achievement, a recent new study says the so-called “boys crisis” in education is, well, bunk. When girls from fourth grade through the end of college make gains, says the report, so do boys.

“A rising tide lifts all boats,” says Linda Hallman, executive director of the AAUW, an organization that promotes equity in education. “When girls perform better in school, we see improvements across gender, race, and income lines.”

“Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education” analyzed data from all 50 states. In those states where girls do well on standardized tests, so do boys, the report found. Sadly, the opposite also was found to be true: where girls do poorly, so, again, do boys.

For both sexes, across the board, standardized test performance in elementary and secondary schools has improved or remained stable, the study also found. And both men and women are more likely to take college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT—and to graduate—than ever before.

Further, older and nontraditional female college students may outnumber male counterparts in earning college degrees, but this gender gap is almost absent among young people entering college directly from high school, the report says.

Income seems to be more influential than gender, the report finds. Those from the poorest families have the lowest average standardized test scores; and a rise in family income is associated with a rise in test scores.

Educational-achievement differences further vary according to race, ethnicity, and family income. Girls often outperform boys within racial or ethnic groups on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test, for example.