Reappraising the Apparent Underachievement of Boys at School

Abstract

This article challenges two widely-held beliefs about the differences in the performance of boys and girls at school. The 'gap' between the achievement of boys and girls is not growing, and may be shrinking. The gap is not predominantly a problem of low achievement, nor is it uniformly distributed across the range of attainments. The gap, in favour of girls, mainly appears at the higher levels in any assessment. The change in understanding of the nature of the gender gap described here comes from simple methodological advances in the analysis of gendered results in examination and statutory assessments. The implications for research and policy in this area are substantial, since unless the nature of the problem is well understood research may be directed at explicating, and policy directed at ameliorating, a gender gap of a form which simply does not exist. For example, while disaffection from the process of education may be a very real problem and certainly one that is worthy of research, there is little evidence here that it is primarily a gender-related problem.