The mythical ‘boy crisis’?

The popular press has put forth the idea that the US educational system is experiencing a “boy crisis,” where boys are losing ground to girls across multiple dimensions. Here, we analyze these claims in the context of math and reading achievement during early primary school. We reach two conclusions. First, white boys outperform white girls in math across virtually the entire distribution by the end of third grade; there is less evidence for other races. Second, boys lag behind girls in reading at the start of kindergarten and at the end of third grade across all races, but only the lowest-achieving boys lose ground over the first 4 years; boys gain ground between first and third grades.