Education researchers and commenters have raised alarms about an “educational crisis for boys,” questioning whether today’s school structure and an increased focus on academics in the early grades are a mismatch for how boys learn and develop, especially with a shift away from play-based learning. With headlines like “The real way schools are failing boys” and “Why school isn’t working for many boys,” there appears to be a perception that boys in today’s environment are struggling more in elementary school than girls. But is this a fact or fiction?
Why we did our own research
The most recent national data of kindergarten test scores is from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Cohort of 2010-11, which shows only small gender differences in academics at the start of kindergarten, with girls only slightly ahead in reading and with boys slightly ahead in math. However, that dataset is now more than 15 years old. So, little is known about these gender gaps for current elementary students, whose earliest years were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To gain a better understanding of potential gaps and what happens to them across the elementary school years, I, along with Peg Burchinal, Ph.D., at the University of Virginia, examined national data for nine kindergarten cohorts for the past 10 years in a new paper titled, “Gender gaps in the early grades: Questioning the narrative that schools are poorly suited to young boys.” Specifically, we compared average Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth — a widely used interim assessment in the US — reading and math test scores for boys and girls from fall 2016 to spring 2025. We picked this time frame because it represents the latest years and spans the time before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In all, the sample includes 12 million students in approximately 22,000 US public schools.
What we found
The findings dispelled the notion that schools are disadvantaging boys in the early grades.
- Girls now enter kindergarten with a slight advantage but are even with boys in math. We looked at the size of the gender gap in math and reading when students first start school for the kindergarten class of 2016-17 through the kindergarten class of 2024-25. One highlight from the data is that prior to the pandemic, girls entered kindergarten with an advantage in both reading and math, but the advantage in math disappeared in the last nine years.
- Boys pull even or ahead in math by the end of their kindergarten year. We examined whether the initial gap widened or narrowed over the course of the kindergarten year. This digs into the perception that boys’ exposure to formal schooling increases these gaps, but we found limited evidence of this. After nine months of formal schooling, boys had already pulled even with or ahead of girls in math. For reading, the gaps in favor of girls were maintained or narrowed slightly, meaning that schooling did not exacerbate any disadvantages for boys.
- Boys continue to pull further ahead in math by the end of elementary school. Our data showed a growing advantage in math for boys as they progress through elementary school. Across all the years, boys went from roughly even with girls in math in the spring of kindergarten to being slightly ahead by the spring of first grade; by the end of fifth grade, boys were approximately one-fifth of an academic year ahead. Notably, the pandemic’s disruptions to learning did not impact this trend.
- Boys’ advantage in math is not new. Despite the recent concerns about shifts in school structure that could disadvantage boys, the trend of boys’ overtaking girls in math skills during elementary school has held for over two decades. But it’s worth highlighting that the advantage has shrunk in the last few years compared to 20 years ago.
What we can do
Together, these findings highlight that boys and girls face different academic challenges that require targeted support. To address this, district leaders and educators should consider:
- Strengthening early reading support for boys, including providing male reading role models, and engaging in developmentally appropriate literacy instruction.
- Addressing the gender bias in math by providing specific professional development for educators to recognize and counter the negative stereotypes that may be impacting girls’ confidence in mathematics and suppressing opportunities.
- Leveraging differentiated supports that reflect your district’s needs in reading and math rather than one-size-fits-all approaches that may be exacerbating gender gaps.
Most importantly, it’s critical that we continue to build awareness and recognize gaps rooted in evidence so we don’t inadvertently perpetuate a perspective that may not reflect reality. In this case, the narrative that current schooling structure puts boys at a disadvantage has limited evidence and highlights that more understanding and insights are needed moving forward to ensure we’re addressing the specific needs of students in today’s learning environment.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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