Sex Differences in School Performance During High School: Puzzling Patterns and Possible Explanations

Abstract

While past explanations for sex differences in school performance are heavily geared toward explaining boys' small advantage on standardized math tests, we broaden the focus to include educational outcomes for which girls typically do well—standardized reading tests and math and English grades. Among adolescents in the National Education Longitudinal Study, girls enjoy better English and math grades and higher reading test scores than boys in eighth grade and these advantages all increase during high school. In contrast, boys earn slightly higher math test scores in eighth grade and this gap also increases slightly by the end of high school. This set of patterns leaves us with a puzzle—why do girls and boys excel at different components of schooling? We explore models that assess the degree to which these different trajectories can be explained by sex differences in classroom behavior and out-of-class activities. We conclude that a major reason for sex differences in grades is boys' poorer classroom behavior while sex differences in time spent outside of school should supplement previous explanations for test scores gaps.