Our daughters started in public schools but ended up in a private girls school. There, conventional wisdom held that the girls had to take tougher courses, earn higher grades and score higher on college admissions tests than the boys from the adjoining boys school to gain acceptance to the same college — all due to the impact of admissions preferences college quietly grant boys to keep gender imbalances from getting out of hand.

According to this British study, girls in private schools do in fact rule. Their dominance in public schools is well documented. The only exception I take in the article is the suggestion that this has been the case for centuries. I refer you to the graphic at the top of the chart.

A clue to the cause is found in this part of the story:

All sorts of explanations have been put forward, citing the emotional, psychological and even biological differences between the sexes. Recently, though, attention has focused on the style of exams.

“Give boys multiple-choice questions, to be answered at speed and they’ll do better than girls,” says Peter Tymms, director of the Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre at Durham University. “When it’s a longer, essay-style question, over which time can be taken and improvements made as part of the year’s coursework, girls will outscore boys.”

 That’s exactly it. The world has become more verbal; boys haven’t.

Tags: private schools

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