Leaving Boys Behind: Gender Disparities in High Academic Achievement / Nicole M. Fortin, Philip Oreopoulos, Shelley Phipps.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fortin, Nicole M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Oreopoulos, Philip.

Phipps, Shelley.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19331.

NBER working paper series no. w19331

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Leaving Boys Behind

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

Using three decades of data from the "Monitoring the Future" cross-sectional surveys, this paper shows that, from the 1980s to the 2000s, the mode of girls' high school GPA distribution has shifted from "B" to "A", essentially "leaving boys behind" as the mode of boys' GPA distribution stayed at "B". In a reweighted Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of achievement at each GPA level, we find that gender differences in post-secondary expectations, controlling for school ability, and as early as 8th grade are the most important factor accounting for this trend. Increases in the growing proportion of girls who aim for a post-graduate degree are sufficient to account for the increase over time in the proportion of girls earning "A's". The larger relative share of boys obtaining "C" and C+" can be accounted for by a higher frequency of school misbehavior and a higher proportion of boys aiming for a two-year college degree.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2013.