Over the past decade, there has been a growing concern that boys are falling behind in elementary school. But a recent study by Megan Kuhfeld of the Northwest Evaluation Association and Margaret Burchinal of the University of Virginia suggests a more complex picture: while girls maintain an advantage in reading, boys outperform girls in math.
The researchers constructed a dataset spanning approximately 10 million students and 22,000 schools across the 2016-17 to 2024-25 school years. They track nine cohorts of students from kindergarten to fifth grade and compare girls’ and boys’ average reading and math MAP Growth assessment scores.
The researchers highlight four main findings from this data. First, girls enter kindergarten ahead of boys in reading but perform similarly in math. Second, boys pull ahead in math by the end of kindergarten. Third, boys’ math advantage grows throughout elementary school while girls’ reading advantage remains stable. Fourth, boys’ higher math performance has been consistent over the past two decades.
This analysis, the researchers argue, challenges the narrative that the modern elementary schools are somehow ill-suited for young boys. Rather, boys’ math development appears to benefit more from the structure of schooling.
Still, the researchers caution against framing the issue around whether boys or girls face greater disadvantages in the classroom. Instead, Kuhfeld and Burchinal highlight the need to recognize that boys and girls face unique challenges across subjects. Achieving more equitable results will require targeted, gender-specific support, such as providing boys with more reading role models and countering the negative stereotypes that inhibit girls’ math achievement.